Athletics: Title perfect way to mark 40th birthday

By Murray McKinnon

WELLINGTON - Christine Pfitzinger had the perfect 40th birthday present in winning the women's 1500m at the inaugural national athletics super provincial competition in Wellington yesterday.

The 1988 Seoul Olympian showed she has lost none of her speed which carried her to previous national sprint titles in outkicking Anne Hare in the straight to win in 4m 24.61s. Pftizinger first won the 1500m national title in 1986.

Pfitzinger was surprised Hare had gone out so fast.

"I wanted to try and be there with a lap to go but Anne had such a lead," she said. "With 250m to go I thought I had a chance and it went through my head that I could outkick her."

Pfitzinger, who has a best of 4m 6.47s back in 1987, said that she has had two kids in the meantime.

"In fact, I am still breastfeeding my 13-month-old Katrina," she said.
Counties-Waikato came out on top in the first of three meetings, scoring 249 points to beat Northern Heat by 8 points with Central Raiders third on 214, beating Southern Unity by one point.

Nicola Kidd was one of Counties' top performers and this time had a full set of hurdles out on the track in the 400m hurdles.

She had the measure of the field throughout and ran a personal best of 57.82s, narrowly missing the New Zealand record of 57.39s.

Kidd said she had had pressure all week following the unfortunate incident in Wanganui to run well at the Newtown track.

"I felt the wind over the first four flights and unfortunately hit the wrong leg but I came right over the second half and given good conditions next Sunday it could be on again."

The most valuable athlete of the meeting was Shelly Avery from Northern, who won the triple jump with 12.51m and was second in the high jump with 1.70m.

The tight programme and limited events produced some thrilling finishes with Robbie Johnston just holding out a determined Hamish Christensen over 3000m, both recording 8m 2.3s.

Phil Costley, who represented New Zealand in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games last year showed what a versatile athlete he is in winning the 3000m steeple-chase in 8m 56.94s.

Earlier in the day he won the Wellington half-marathon in a race record of 65m 30s.

The women's 100m produced a blanket finish with the photo finish having to decide and separate the Southern pair of Caro Hunt and Anna Smythe, who both recorded 11.86s. Hunt got the decision.

Donald McDonald showed his rapid improvement in the sprints has been no fluke, with an impressive 10.64s to edge out Mathew Coad in the 100m.

Demelza Murrihy, the 14-year-old pocket rocket from Taumarunui, won the women's 800m in 2m 9.61s, outclassing the field over the final 200m.