Athletics: Farquhar leads fine NZ performances in europe

1.00pm

Hamilton javelin thrower Stuart Farquhar enhanced his Olympic selection prospects with a second B qualifying mark when winning at the French Elite Championships overnight.

The New Zealand champion recorded 78.04 metres to edge out French rival David Brisseault's 77.88m.

Pole vaulter Melina Hamilton started off her Olympic preparations well, only six days after arriving in France.

In the championships at Sotteville, Rouen, she placed third with a pleasing 4.20m.

Rebecca Wardell easily won her 400m hurdles heat on Friday in a time of 58.10 seconds.

She was beaten into second place in the final by France's Sylvanie Mirandais, who clocked 57.06s to Wardell's 57.67s.

At the IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Madrid, Adrian Blincoe placed 13th in a world class 1500m field that included Noah Ngeny, the Sydney Olympic champion.

Jason Stewart, who ran a a very strong B entry standard in the 800m almost a month ago, showed he is almost back to that form after being hospitalised for dental surgery a fortnight ago.

He placed fourth in a time of 1min 47.83s.

Meanwhile Chantal Brunner, who has been attempting to qualify in the long jump, came close again at a Flanders Cup meeting at Oodergem in Belgium.

She jumped 6.45 metres, which follows up from her win in the Madeira meeting in Portugal last weekend, where she jumped a season best 6.48 metres.

At the same Flanders Cup meeting, the only New Zealand sprinter with a chance of Olympic selection, James Dolphin, again clocked 21.05s for the 200 metres into a headwind.

The New Zealand sprint relay team concentrated on their individual events with some success, as Donald MacDonald and Chris Donaldson both clocked very solid season's bests in the 100 metres.

Other athletes to run well were Gareth Hyett in the 800m for fourth place.

Paul Hamblyn, the national 1500m champion, clocked 3min 47.71secs over his specialty event to finish fourth.

- NZPA