Athletics: Henwood close to Games qualifying

John Henwood was the closest of three well-performed New Zealand athletes over the weekend to qualifying for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Henwood finished 13th in the New York City marathon this morning (NZ time) in two hours 15 minutes five seconds, just missing the selection standard by 5sec. He finished 5-1/2min behind the winner Paul Tergat of Kenya.

At the new Waitakere Stadium track on Saturday evening Wellington's Kate McIlroy, in only her third 5000m, won easily in 16min 00.35sec.

The elements and a lack of competition were against the world mountain running champion, in her bid to secure the Commonwealth Games selection time of 15min 25sec. She took 48sec off her personal best.

McIlroy has another 5000m in Melbourne in two weeks.

"It will be a more competitive race and hopefully better conditions, it was really windy out there," she said.

"You need two or three other runners up there with you to keep the pace honest, I realised it was not realistic tonight and decided just to aim for a personal best."

Brent Newdick of Counties Manukau went close to qualifying for the Games decathlon with his total score of 7344 points at Hastings.

Newdick scored three personal bests over the two days of competition at Nelson Park. He was out to 7.33m in the long jump, over the high jump at 1.92m and reached 4.60m in the pole vault.

Unfortunately Newdick was down in the discus throw, only managing 35.89m, which saw him fall short of the Games standard 7500 points.

Meanwhile, Wellington's Sarah Christie made up for her disappointment in missing the start of last week's Auckland half marathon by winning the annual Round-the-Bridges 12km road race in Hamilton yesterday.

Christie covered the roads alongside the Waikato River in 42min 34sec to beat Papakura's Nyla Carroll by 11sec.

Robbie Johnston of North Harbour won the race in 38min 15sec, heading off the Macdonald twins, Iain and Kyle from Mt Maunganui.

National 100m and 200m champion James Dolphin of North Harbour was in sharp form at the Auckland Centre meeting, clocking an impressive wind assisted 100m of 10.34sec. He later came back to win the 200m in a legal 21.05sec.

Chantal Brunner of Counties Manukau beat Jane Arnott over 100m in 11.70sec, with Arnott reversing the placings in the 200m, winning in 24.05sec.

- NZPA