Olympic Games still in sights: Sprinter Georgia Hulls makes dash for Paris

Hawke’s Bay sprinter and Olympic Games hopeful Georgia Hulls will have her second Australian race in five days when she lines up in a women’s 200 metres in Melbourne on Thursday night.

With a personal best of 22.84s when second to rival and friend Rosie Elliott as both broke the national record in Christchurch almost a year ago, she and Elliott are targeting the Paris Olympics qualifying time of 22.57s and another match-up in Christchurch is likely on February 24.

The first run of the year produced a 23.43s sprint for second to teenaged Australian sensation Torrie Lewis, who clocked 23.05s when they met in Adelaide last Saturday. Hulls also ran a 100m on the night.

Last month Lewis set an Australian women’s 100 metres record of 11.1s and her clash with New Zealand record-holder Zoe Hobbs is a feature of the meet in Melbourne.

Hulls, a former Havelock North High School pupil, said her race time in Adelaide “wasn’t anything spectacular” but she is happy with her progress.

“The plans are unchanged, I’m racing a 200m at Melbourne on Thursday night. It looks like a good field so far as well.”

Based in Auckland for training, she won’t be the only athlete from Hawke’s Bay on the programme, with national women’s 1500m and 5000m champion Laura Nagel, a former Taradale High School pupil, set to run the 5000m.

At 32, Nagel recently ran a 1500m personal best of 4m 9.92s.

The Olympic Games are in Paris from July 26 to August 11, with Hawke’s Bay already expected to have at least one representative in the track and field programme in steeplechaser George Beamish.