Sheat and Smith dominate sprints at Schools Championships

Lucy Sheat ran a stunning senior girls 100m final at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Track & Field Championships, setting a new record of 11.59, erasing the oldest record in the books, Kim Robertsons 11.66, set at the inaugural NZ schools championships in 1973.

It moves Sheat, from Marlborough Girls to seventh place on the NZ all-time womens list and is a qualifying standard for the world junior championships.

Second in the race was Georgia Hulls in 11.93 with Anna Hayward third in 12.07 while Genna Maples won the junior girls race in 12.07.

Sheat also ran an excellent 200m in 23.42 well under the existing record but the wind was too strong for a record to be approved. The victory meant Sheat retained her senior sprint double from last year. Anna Hayward ran 24.67 for second with Leah Belfield third in 25.01.

Maia Broughton beat Maples in the junior 200m in 24.52 to 24.58.

Nick Smith blasted down the 100m straight to take out the senior boys 100m in a quick 10.61, just 0.01 outside the championship record.

TJ Paea came home second in 10.90 with Alex Dawson third in 11.03.

Dominic Overend ran an excellent 10.83 to claim the junior boys 100m final.

Smith went on to win the 200m final in 21.65 from Sam King and Mattheus Pio, while Tyron Hilton was impressive collecting the junior boys 200m in 22.18.

Smith, from Hutt Valley High School was the defending champion in both the 100m and 200m events.

The senior boys 800m was an exciting race with surprise winner Dylan Forde from Central Southland College outsprinting the pack to take the title in a personal best 1:54.18, with Flynn Palmer 1:55.10 second and Joshua Nairne third with 1:55.12.

Tessa Hunt from Wellington East Girls won the senior girls 800m in 2:13.08 after a good fight with Lily Trotter (2:13.66) and Sophie Atkinson 2:15.51.

Hunt went on to win the senior girls 1500m in 4:40.67.

Isaiah Priddey from Hamilton Boys grabbed victory in the senior boys 1500m to claim a double for the meeting. After a slow start, Priddey sat in behind the early leaders and got boxed in when the pace went on after two laps. He fought his way out to sit in second place behind eventual runner-up Sam Tanner with one lap to go.

Priddey unleashed his sprint over the last 300m and went to win in 4:03.89, almost a second ahead of Tanner with defending champion Nick oulai having to settle for third after diving past Theo Quax on the line.

Olly Parkinson (Auckland Grammar) took out the senior boys 110m hurdles in 14.15 while Oliver Miller (St Peters Auckland) was victorious in the 300m hurdles recording 37.49.

Miller was also a clear winner in the senior boys 400m recording 48.68.

The senior girls 100m hurdles went to Cara Lonergan in 14.55 and Ruby Hansen took out he 300m hurdles in 44.39.

Nick Palmer from Karamu High School was totally dominant in the senior boys shot put contest tossing the 5kg implement out to a personal best 20.35m, almost 5m clear of Sean Howe in second with 15.44 and Hamish Mears 15.11m.

The senior boys discus throw was won by Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist Connor Bell with a massive throw of 65.63m to add almost 4 metres to the 1990 record of Chris Mene, while Zion Trigger-Faitele won the junior discus to add to his shot put title won earlier in the championships.

Mellata Tatola was the winner in the senior girls hammer with 53.92 and Maria Naime won the junior girls hammer comfortably with 46.75m.

Nine new championship records were set over the three days of competition and two athletes, Lucy Sheat and Olivia McTaggart surpassed qualifying standards for World Junior Championships.

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