A massive five metre personal best handed former Wanganui school boy Max Attwell the major prize in the javelin handicap event at the Cooks Classic on Tuesday night.
Attwell is a former Wanganui Collegiate School boarder now studying in Christchurch who has progressed from track running to the decathlon ranks.
On Tuesday The Grand Hotel-sponsored Javelin Handicap included rising star Ben Langton-Burnell who has taken over the mantle of Kiwi Olympian and 12-time New Zealand National Javelin Champion Stuart Farquhar. In April 2012 Farquhar recorded a new personal best of 86.31 metres.
While Langton-Burnell was obviously the best in the field with a personal best of 79.80, the handicap conditions of the event gave almost the entire field a crack at the winner-take-all $400 prize.
Attwell said he wasn't expecting to win the event after rating the javelin his weakest decathlon discipline, but when he threw 49.71m - a personal best by 5m - he knew he was in with a show.