Athletics: Smith breaks her own record

Kimberley Smith carved more than two minutes off her New Zealand record in finishing second in the New Orleans half marathon yesterday in 1h 7m 55s.

Smith, seventh in last year's world half-marathon championship in Birmingham in 1h 9m 35s, went neck and neck with the eventual winner, Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, over the closing stages.

Adere ran the fastest time by a woman in the United States of 1h 7m 52s. Martin Lel of Kenya won the race in 1h 1m 7s.