Double hammer time

Emma Kruszona and Alex Fafeita did Wairarapa proud at the Hammer Throw Festival held in Auckland over the weekend.

Along with Carterton-based coach John Quinn they were invited to attend a meet which attracted the top hammer throwers from not only New Zealand but also Australia and New Caledonia.

The results achieved by the two Wairarapa College pupils in such esteemed company were very impressive.

Kruszona, 14, is coached by Quinn and can still be classified as a rookie at hammer throwing, having only been seriously involved in that discipline for a few months.

The Auckland meet was not the usual type of competition, with male and female throwers mainly competing against each other in divisions organised by distances previously thrown, rather than age groups.

Contesting the 38m to 45m class, Kruszona grabbed the major spoils when she threw the 3kg hammer 43.82m, a personal best for her by 2m. She also took the opportunity to compete in the open women's event where she threw the 4kg hammer 36.47m, 10m further than ever before.

Fafeita, a national age group representative, contested events in which the hammer weighed in at 5kg, 6kg and 7kg.

He won the 45m to 50m division (7kg) with a distance of 49.42m and was sixth in the elite grade (6kg) with 55.85m.

Perhaps his most notable performance though came with the 5kg implement where Fafeita's throw of 65.20m placed him second, behind top-ranked Australian Tim Dreissen and was less than 2m away from the national record for the 17yrs age group.