Athletics: Donaldson uses pain to gain revenge

By MURRAY McKINNON

It was a relieved Chris Donaldson who came away with the sprint double at the Marley Games in Papakura last night.

Donaldson, who said he felt hurt at being beaten over 100m in Wanganui at the weekend, had a far better start this time in the 100m, finishing well to beat Gus Nketia in 10.35s.

Nketia, who won in Wanganui, was just 200ths of a second behind, with David Baxter of Australia again third but this time at a faster 10.47s.

"It did hurt to lose and taught me a lesson to take the positive out of it," said Donaldson, who was back in the action within 40 minutes.

This time he headed the Australians over 200m in 20.93s which is encouraging at this stage as he seeks an Olympic qualifying time of 20.70s. Baxter was second in 21.10s with Paul Pearce of Australia third in 21.29s.

But while Donaldson was enjoying the moment, there was disappointment for Toni Hodgkinson, who was badly checked after 200m in the highlight of the evening, the women's 800m.

The rabbit in the field who was there to set the early pace, Veronica Van Dijck, unfortunately cut in badly, checking first Tina Paulino of Mozambique and then Hodgkinson.

Left unscathed was the fleeting Tamsyn Lewis from Australia, who by this stage had received a magnificent break and it was just a matter of her going through the motions to win in 2m 1.67s. Paulino was second in 2m 2.68s with a perplexed Hodgkinson third in 2m 3.94s.

Hodgkinson said it was a real anticlimax and now she has to concentrate on two indoor races in the United States, followed by another attempt at the Olympic qualifying time next month.

"When you get checked you lose your rhythm. In fact, I stepped inside the track and it was difficult to get motivated again. By that stage we had lost Tamsyn and it was all over," she said.

Shaun Farrell used his superior kick to beat Kris McCarthy of Australia in the 800m, but his 1m 47.59s was over a second outside the Olympic time.

Jason Stewart of Napier in fifth place in 1m 48.73s, shaved over 2/10ths of a second off Ben Ruthe's recent New Zealand under-20 record.

Beatrice Faumuina was far happier with the crowd support in winning the women's discus in 62.41m which came in the final round.