Attwell and Blackwood claim NZ Combined Event titles

Max Attwell and Ariana Blackwood won their first New Zealand senior titles at the New Zealand Combined Events Championships in Dunedin over the weekend.

Attwell, from Christchurch, won the men's decathlon with a personal best total of 6662 points while Blackwood, from Palmerston North took out the women's heptathlon also in a new best of 4431 points.

While Attwell, the only competitor in the senior contest, had a free ride to the title, he had company from the under 20, under 18 and masters decathletes who pushed him to a very respectable individual results and a handy total.

His best individual events came with a 1.98m high jump, a smart 49.70 400m, a 4.00m pole vault and a solo 4:30.15 1500m, the final event.

Blackwood, on the other hand hand tough company in runner-up Natalie Booth (Auckland), bronze medallist Stacey Gunn (Otago), and fourth placed Maddy Garbett-Ovens who had led for much of the contest.

Blackwood (23) didn't reach the lead until after the penultimate event, the javelin where she threw 37.92, the longest in that event, then followed up with a totally dominant performance to win the 800m in 2:20.42 by a big margin to secure the title, gathering a number of personal bests along the way.

The under 20 championship titles went to Otago's Felix McDonald (decathlon) on 6062 points and Aucklands Alexandra Hyland (heptathlon) 4535 points. Hyland won the 100m hurdles, high jump, 200m, long jump and 800m events to finish ahead of Lexi Maples (Wanganui) and Andrea McDowell (Southland).

Kayla Goodwin (Waikato BoP) won the first six of the seven heptathlon events in the under 18 grade to build up a large lead and ran a solid final event the 800m to win with 4752 points well clear of Aucklanders Hayley Marx and Cara Lonergan.

Cameron Miller provided Otago with another home winner in the under 18 decathlon, scoring 5691 points, ahead of Matthew Aucamp (Auckland) and Jared Neighbours (Canterbury).

Masters titles went to Paul Davies (Otago) in the 50-54 decathlon, Warren Green (Southland) 60-64 decathlon, Alison Newall (Otago) 55-59 heptathlon and Claire Giles (Otago) 60-64 heptathlon.

Sarah Langsbury from Otago took out the non-championship U16 heptathlon with Shaun Wood (Southland) was winner of the non-championship U16 Octathlon.

- This story has been automatically published using a media release from Athletics New Zealand