Booth scores bronze at World University Champs

Aaron Booth won New Zealands first medal of the 2017 World University Games in Taipei, securing bronze in the mens decathlon competition.

In doing so he set a new personal best total of 7523 points, to finish behind Kyle Cranston of Australia on 7687 and Juuso Hassi of Finland on 7566 points.

A second-time World University Games representative, Booth knew that he could build on his previous personal best total of 7246 points achieved at the Australian Championships earlier this year.

Personal bests in four of the 10 disciplines set up 20 year old Booth for a good score and the last two events, the Javelin and the 1500m listed him from fifth place into the medals.

At the last University Games, two years previously, booth finished 13th with a score of 6905 points.

I wasnt expecting to medal. I just wanted to go out there and put my last three months of preparation and training into a performance I could be proud of, he said.

Athletics New Zealand team manager Craig Motley said that the Athletics community is immensely proud of Aarons achievement in a truly world class field.

New Zealand Chef de Mission Evelyn Williamson was full of praise for Booths performance in challenging conditions.

"Medals at this level are rare and hard to come by, but tonight Aaron demonstrated what perseverance, preparation and hard work can achieve. To come into this competition ranked 16th and walk away with a bronze medal is inspiring. Two years ago at the last Universiade in Gwangju, South Korea Aaron went home injured and disappointed and tonight he showed that sport is about getting back up and believing that you can," said Williamson.

Joseph Millar ran a very good series of four 200m races over two days to place sixth in the final in 21.04. The final was run into a strong headwind and the Tauranga athlete finished just 0.05 behind the bronze medallist and 0.11 away from the winner.

The race capped a big year for 24 year old Millar, who ran the 100m and 200m double at both the 2017 London World Championships and the 2017 World University Games after setting a national 200m record and a 100m resident record at the New Zealand Championships.

Zoe Hobbs was the victim of an unfortunate seeding in the 200m heats and while finishing fourth in her heat with the 18th fastest time overall, some very slow runners in later heats finished in automatic qualifying positions and Hobbs did not make the top ranked 24 runners for the semifinals.

Javelin thrower Ben Langton Burnell finished eighth with 75.93m to improve two places on his result at the 2015 University Games.

Julia Ratcliffe could not match her bronze medal from the 2015 championships and finished 11th with a best of 61.39, well down on her best for 2017.

Pole vaulter Nick Southgate cleared 5.10m to take ninth in the pole vault final after qualifying with a height of 5.30m.

Joshua Hawkins ran 14.49 for fourth place in his heat of the 110m hurdles to finish with a ranking of 19th overall and Hannah Miller was 15th in the 5000m in 16:26.74.

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