Athletics: Walker Barrett books ticket to Helsinki

A second placing at the Australian championship in Melbourne yesterday qualified New Zealand walker Craig Barrett for the 50km walk at world championships in Helsinki in August.

Barrett, of Hamilton, clocked 3 hours 58 minutes 38 seconds, just under the A selection standard of four hours.

Nathan Deakes, of Victoria, won the race, which doubled as an Australian trial for the world championships, in 3hr 47min 50sec.

Barrett will be representing New Zealand for the seventh time at the world championships. His best placing was eighth at Seville in 1999.

He plans to continue his build-up by competing in the Huntly half-marathon on May 22 and in June, the Taranaki open, and the Lake Burley Griffin Classic in Canberra.

Meanwhile, in the United States, New Zealand runner Nick Willis has run a sub-4min mile in a relay.

Willis, originally of Wellington and competing for his American university team, Michigan, clocked 3min 56.2sec for his leg in the 4x1 mile relay at the Pennsylvania University relay meeting on Saturday.

The team set a US National Collegiate Athletic Association record record of 16min 4min 54sec in beating Arkansas by 15sec.

Last Friday, Willis ran in the distance medley relay, clocking 3min 55.1sec for 1600m and three hours after the mile relay, ran the 4x800m relay and recorded 1min 48.6sec for his leg.

Also at the Pennsylvania meeting was Canterbury's Fiona Crombie, competing for Providence, who was third in the 3000m steeplechase in 10min 35.63sec.

- NZPA