Golden opportunity slips in photo finish

Vicky Paine's two silver medals at the Oceania track and field championships in Saipan last weekend may have surprised even herself but with an ounce of luck she could have turned one of them into gold.
Paine, 17, from Masterton was narrowly edged out of first placing in the women's 18ys and under 400m final by star Fijian sprinter Pauline Korowaqa behind whom she had earlier placed second in the 200m final as well.
Going into the 400m decider Paine, who had the fastest qualifying time in the heats, knew Korowaqu was the one to beat, and she also knew that to do so would mean making up considerable ground over the latter stages.
"She (Korowaqu) is very fast and she was always going to have a big lead early on," Paine said yesterday.
"I just had to hope she would slow up enough towards the end to give me a chance of catching her."
Well, catch her Paine didn't, but she did make up as much ground as 30m in the last 100m to force a photo finish which showed that Korowaqu had just lasted.
"It was so close, so very close," Paine said.
"I almost got her but not quite."
The disappointment of missing a gold medal by such a slender margin couldn't, however, dampen Paine's excitement at coming away from her first international meet in New Zealand colours with silver medals in both her events.
"Honestly, I went there without any idea of how I would go," she said.
"I just wanted to run as fast as I could, that's all I was thinking about."
Paine's performances in Saipan also caught her Masterton-based coach Mark Harris by surprise. With training conditions here anything but ideal at this time of the year he had envisaged her registering a 27secs 200m and a 58.05secs 400m and was "blown away" by her actual efforts of 26.41secs and 57.83secs respectively.
"To run the times she did with the preparation she had & just imagine what she might have done with the right conditions to train under," he said.