“With 400m to go my mouth was just watering, ready to let it rip. It felt pretty smooth, the strength is definitely showing.”
Rebekah Greene obliterated her nine-year-old PB and lowered the New Zealand resident record to take out the New Zealand women’s mile title with a top-quality display. The 29-year-old Hill City University athlete had to concede defeat to the slick Aussie duo Georgia Griffith and Sarah Billings, who secured the first two places in a high-class race in which the top three all ran under the stadium record of Laura Nagel (4m 35.23s).
As Griffith crossed the line in 4m 30.26s, Billings managed to repel the challenge of Greene to stop the clock in 4m 32.30s - 0.62s clear of the gutsy Kiwi.
Greene, however, will be elated with her performance as it lowers her previous mile best of 4m 38.03s, elevates her to seventh on the all-time New Zealand women’s mile lists and betters the 40-year-old New Zealand resident record of Anne Audain.
Holly Manning plugged on gamely to claim the New Zealand mile silver medal in fourth (4m 39.96)s. Tillie Hollyer (Whippets), who ran an 800m PB at Potts Classic last weekend, revealed her excellent current shape to finish strongly and clinch bronze in a PB of 4m 43.42s.
Tom Walsh opened his season in style with a 21.09m distance earning him a comprehensive victory in the men’s shot put. The 30-year-old Cantabrian finished just 2cm shy of the meet record of Jacko Gill and was very satisfied with his performance in his first competition of the calendar year.
A delighted Walsh said: “For the first comp of the season, throwing low 21s in that kind of weather, I’ll take that.”
Rosie Elliott defied the wet, miserable conditions to smash her personal best and win a high-quality women’s 400m in a time of 52.16s. The Christchurch Old Boys United athlete hunted down Portia Bing and Australia’s Ellie Beer for the first 250m before storming to the front and powering down the home straight to scalp 0.43s from her lifetime best on the way to a memorable win. Bing hung on to take second in 53.50s - 0.19s clear of Beer who finished third.
“Time-wise the goal is to get that 400m time down to the 51s and today was a huge step towards that, I’m feeling very excited,” Elliott said.
Earlier, Bing, the Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles finalist, executed a solid piece of sprinting to win the women’s 200m in 24.14s - 0.13s clear of emerging sprint star Chayille Collette, who was representing New Zealand Secondary Schools. The 17-year-old sprinter had earlier clinched victory in the women’s 100m, running a rapid 11.74s to suggest her lifetime best is vulnerable in the weeks to come.
Hamish Kerr added 1cm to his season’s best mark as he soared clear at 2.22m to claim a sixth successive men’s high jump victory at the Cooks Classic. After clearing 2.21m in his season opener at Jumps to Music on Wednesday, he leapt comfortably clear of his opening heights at 2.05m and 2.12m before the 26-year-old negotiated 2.22m with his second attempt. He then raised the bar to 2.29m - a height which would have bettered his stadium record by 1cm - but despite three solid efforts, the World Indoor bronze medallist had to settle for a best of 2.22m.
“I’m stoked with tonight,” said Kerr. “We sat down and reviewed what happened at Hāwera (at Jumps to Music) and there were a couple of technical things I picked up in terms of my consistency, which I put in place today.”
Fergus McLeay enjoyed a memorable day by completing a stylish 100m and 400m double. The Hill City University athlete opened his day at Cooks Gardens by claiming the scalp of five-time New Zealand 100m champion Joseph Millar by one-tenth of a second in 10.73s. The 21-year-old sprinter then returned to take out the one-lap race in a PB of 48.42s from Oceania decathlon champion Max Attwell (Christchurch Old Boys United).
Elsewhere in the field, Oceania record-holder Lauren Bruce claimed a comfortable victory in the women’s hammer with a best of 65.98m.
Hannah Sandilands maintained her domestic superiority this season in the women’s long jump with a best of 5.82m earning the Christchurch Old Boys United athlete her third win in a week following her breakout win at Potts Classic and triumph at the Jumps to Music meet in Hāwera.
Local athlete Jonathan Maples enjoyed a day to remember as he scalped more than a second from his lifetime best to record a swift 54.33s to win the men’s 400m hurdles. The reigning national champion from Athletics Whanganui finished 1.15s clear of Cameron Moffitt (Hill City), the national U20 champion, who was also rewarded with a sizeable PB.
The podium finishers in the women’s 400m hurdles also all shattered their PBs as the fast-finishing Grace Wisnewski (1m 02.49s) edged the long-time leader Sophie Hancock by 0.17s. Maggie Jones also ran the fastest 400m hurdles race of her career, registering 1m 02.81s for bronze.
