Women's 100 metres record broken in Hastings again

Zoe Hobbs(centre), with national athletics president Karen Gillum-Green (left) and runner-up Livvy Wilson (right), awaits confirmation of a national record. Photo / Mark Roberts

Champion sprinter Zoe Hobbs' dream of returning to Hastings to qualify for the major international athletics meetings this year was rewarded on Saturday with a women's national record of 11.15sec in the 100 metres.

In the unlikely settings of the Hawke's Bay Gisborne championships at the Mitre 10 Sports Park's William Nelson Athletics Precinct, it sliced 0.6 seconds from the 11.21 seconds record the 24-year-old from Stratford ran in a Potts Classic heat in Hastings on January 22.

It also broke the all-comers record of 11.19sec, run by Australian Kerry Johnson at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, a record she would also have broken in the Potts classic final but for the following wind ruling-out the eligibility of her winning time of 11.14sec.

Thus it was pay-day for Hobbs on Saturday with the 11.15sec matching the qualifying standard World indoor championships 60 metres in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 18-20, and the 100 metres at the World track and field world outdoor championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 15-24 and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, on July 28-August 8.

It went close to not happening, but the rain stopped late morning, and opening the window for an 11.31sec in the heats at about 12.30pm and the record run about 90 minutes later.

Hobbs has started making the Hastings track her own when it comes to high-performance in New Zealand athletics.

Champion sprinter Zoe Hobbs after running a national women's record 100 metres in Hastings on Saturday. Photo / Mark Roberts

At the Potts Classic in 2019 she an 11.37sec, lowering the resident record from the 11.42sec she'd run in Wellington less than a fortnight earlier, and on the same track at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Hastings last March equalled the Michelle Seymour's national record of 11.32sec, run in Melbourne, Australia, in 1993.

Hobbs broke the national record for the first time with a new mark of 11.27sec on December 18 in Auckland.

There could be more to come in Hastings, although Hobbs' plans to chase another national 100m at the New Zealand Track and Field Championships on March 2-5 depend on travel and quarantine possibilities if she is to compete in Serbia just over a fortnight later.

Athletics New Zealand reported Saturday's conditions were "perfect", with the following wind at 1.4 metres per second, just under the allowable two metres per second.

"That's epic, I'm so stoked," said Hobbs on hearing that she also had the all-comers record. "Three weeks ago when I was here for the Potts Classic I said that I'd love to come back."

Potts Classic promoter Richard Potts, the Hastings Athletics Club and Athletics New Zealand had been working almost ever since to make the attempt possible, and appropriately-graded officials had to be flown in to meet requirements for the recognition of records and qualifying standards.

They included A-grade official and new Athletics New Zealand president Karen Gillum-Green, from Taranaki, and a starter from Christchurch.

In black and white, the official result from Zoe Hobbs' national women's record 100 metres in Hastings on Saturday. Photo / Supplied

There was also some difficulty lining up the top-line opposition, which opened the door to Hobbs' North Harbour Bays clubmate, Livvy Wilson, to run a personal best of 11.6sec for second place and climb to No 3 on the season's national rankings.

It was perhaps an even bigger moment for rising Havelock North High School star Amponsaa Tabi-Amponsah, just turned 15 and taking third place and being the first home-centre runner home, in the absence of Hastings clubmate Georgia Hulls.

Tabi-Amponsah ran 12.83sec, making her debut in the Senior provincial ranks just five weeks ago after a triumphant final North Island Colgate Games, which is for athletes aged 7-14.