Athletics: Faumuina gets the discus distance

Beatrice Faumuina showed that her training is progressing well for the Sydney Olympics with a top discus throw in Hamilton on Saturday.

Competing for her Auckland city club in the New Zealand athletic league, Faumuina was consistently out to the 60m mark with her best throw of 62.85m, just 1.77m short of her fifth place at the world championships in August in Seville. Earlier Faumuina had won the shot put with 14.48m.

Michelle Phillips further improved on her Auckland hammer record set last week, adding a further 1.86m with a throw of 55.88m.

Ian Winchester sent the discus out to one of his best early-season throws of 60.79m.

Rachel Penney led in one of the best women's 2000m steeplechase fields ever assembled in this country. She recorded 6m 59.02s with the next seven placings all making the national ranking list.

All sprint events were wind-assisted, but Gene Pateman still proved too swift for Gus Nketia over 200m, finishing well clear in 21.15s. Jane Arnott collected the women's 200m and 400m in 23.99s and 55.33s.

Glenn Howard, New Zealand high jump champion for the past five years, was back in action and gave a hint of better things to come with a clearance of 2.18m. Shelly Avery surprised herself by winning the women's high jump with 1.75m.

Chantal Brunner won the long jump with 6.24m, while Tony Pownall and Liam Whaley were unable to be separated in the 110m hurdles, recording 14.64s.

Counties Manukau won the third qualifying round of the Northern region national league, with Bays Cougars winning the series from Counties and Bay of Plenty.