Wairarapa athletes shine on Gold Coast

Wairarapa athletes made a bold showing at the annual Down Under track and field meet held on Australia's Gold Coast at the weekend, both on and off the competitive stage.

Wearing the navy and red colours of the newly-formed Athletics Wairarapa club for the first time the 11-strong squad returned home with several medals and personal best performances.

And being the only New Zealand team contesting the meet they also had the honour of performing the haka at the opening ceremony.

Carterton coach John Quinn labelled the Wairarapa results as "fantastic" considering the formidable opposition provided by athletes from the US, Pacific Islands and Australia.

The US had 190 athletes in their team, all of whom had placed in the top five at their state championships, while a couple of events were specially programmed to allow Australian athletes to try and better London Olympic qualifying marks.

The forthcoming Olympics did mean the fields for the open men's and women's sections were probably not as strong in quality or quantity as they have been in the past but the 16-19 age groups saw very large fields line up in most competitions.

A standout performer for Wairarapa was field eventer Tim Girling-McLean. He was second in the men's 18-19 year shot put where he threw the 6kg to a pb distance of 14.55m while against his own 16-17 age group he placed third with a put of 15.59m.

Tom Quinn placed fourth in both the 16-17 year hammer throw (38.50m) and javelin (41.42m), fifth in the 18-19 year javelin (42.01m) and also fifth in the 16-17 year 800m.

Alex Howden picked up a bronze medal in the 100m with a time of 11.48s and narrowly missed qualifying for the final of the 200m.

Simone Small won the open women's 100m in a pb of 12.59s and was third in the 200m in 26.33s.

Sian Chapman was runner-up in the open women's 100m in 13.02s and made the B final of the 16-17 year 200m where she placed third.

Jerry Peseta finished third in the open men's hammer throw and fourth in the discus.

Emma Kruszona was fifth in the 14-15 year hammer throw (38.46m) and the discus (30.75m) and seventh in the 17-18 year hammer throw (37.51m).

Katie Smith was third-equal in the 16-17 year shot put with a pb of 13.85m but dropped back to fourth on countback. She was 11th in the discus.

Grace Quinn was sixth in the 14-15 year hammer throw (28.41m) and seventh in the shot put.

Dennis Peseta was part of the competitive 18-19 year men's discus field and a back injury stopped Dhruv Raman from showing his best form in 200m and 400m events.