Athletics: Bing fifth at world junior champs

Portia Bing continued her fine performance in the heptathlon at the world junior championships in Barcelona, finishing the seven-discipline event in fifth place. Photo / Paul Taylor.

Auckland's Portia Bing continued her fine performance in the heptathlon at the world junior championships in Barcelona, finishing the seven-discipline event in fifth place.

Bing started day two by leaping a personal best of 5.91 metres in the long jump, then threw the javelin 36.88m and finished off with another personal best of 2:20.42 in the 800m.

Her final score of 5653 topped her previous highest total by almost 400 points, and the event saw her record six personal bests in the seven events.

Also at the championships, Auckland throwers Siositina Hakeai and Merewarahi Vaka both qualified for the final of the woman's discus.

The pair finished in fourth and eleventh position, respectively, with the top 12 throwing in Sunday's final. Hakeai needed only one throw to surpass the automatic qualifying distance of 53m, while Vaka spun the discus out to 49.59m.

Hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe also had a good day, qualifying in fourth position for the final. Her second round throw of 63.22 was less than a metre short of the new national record she set two weeks ago in France.

There was no joy for the team's middle distance runners. Brad Mathas came closest to progressing to the next round, finishing fourth in the first 800m heat and ending the event as the fourth fastest outside the automatic qualifiers. But, with only three qualifiers by time, Mathas missed making the semifinals by 0.18 seconds.

Julian Oakley finished well back in his 800m heat in a time, while Rebekah Greene finished five places outside the 1500m final after earlier placing seventh in the 3000m.

The other New Zealand athlete in action was sprinter Kodi Harman in the 200m. He finished seventh in his heat after recording 21.98s, leaving him 0.64s outside the time needed to make the final.