Millar breaks 200m record
Joseph Millar has dug deep to break a 20-year-old national record.
He won the 200m in 20.37sec at the national track and field championships in Hamilton on Sunday, beating the old record of 20.42sec, which was set by Chris Donaldson in 1997, by .05sec.
He also eclipsed the old resident record – the fastest time by a New Zealander in New Zealand – of 20.61sec, set by Matthew Coad in 1996.
And to do it, he gave his all at Porritt Stadium, falling to the ground once he came to a halt, which is where he was when his time was announced to the masses.
‘‘To go that far under the resident record, and even more once they gave me the official time, I’m over the moon,’’ he said shortly afterwards. ‘‘I can’t believe I’ve done it.’’ The 200m win meant Millar completed the 100m-200m double, just as he had previously for three years from 2012 to 2014, before suffering a back injury that kept him out of action for most of 2015.
In the 100m on Friday night, he won in 10.18sec, a new personal best that was just .07sec shy of the New Zealand record, set by Augustine Nketia in 1991.
Millar has now met the ‘A’ qualifying standard for this year’s world championships in the 200m, which will likely mean a trip to London in August and to the Gold Coast next April for the Commonwealth Games.
At nationals, he was also a member of the Waikato-bay of Plenty team – he hails from Tauranga – that won the 4x100m relay on day two of the championships.
When he arrived at the track on Saturday for that event, he didn’t think he was going to have it in him to go on and do anything special in the 200m the next day.
‘‘I turned up and everything was hurting,’’ he said
‘‘Even my skin was hurting. Why, I don’t know, I just think the amount of emotion and adrenaline going through me. I literally ran out of my skin on Friday to get [the 100m] time, but [on Saturday] everything went well.
‘‘Then [on Sunday] when I woke up, I had a couple of niggles, but my coaches Paul Gamble and James Mortimer were able to flush everything out of my body, and in the warmup I was like, there’s something in my legs, let’s get it done.
‘‘But running that good? expecting to.’’
Millar was clearly emotional after the race, with his achievement yet to fully sink in.
‘‘It’s kind of like I’m looking back at a younger me, and just wondering what I’d say to myself back then,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m just really happy that through everything I stuck with it and did it for him.’’
The 24-year-old was embraced by his I wasn’t mother at the finish line and had plenty of other supporters present. ‘‘Almost everyone was here,’’ said Millar. ‘‘My only regret is that I couldn’t get it done a year earlier when my grandma was still with us, but I know she’s looking down, and I know she’s proud.’’
WALSH WINS EIGHTH STRAIGHT TITLE
Elsewhere at Porritt Stadium on Sunday, it was business as usual for a couple of New Zealand’s Rio Olympics stars.
Tom Walsh won his eight men’s shot put title in a row, with a best throw of 21.51m, while Eliza Mccartney went back to back in the women’s pole vault, but failed to clear 4.70m in any of her three attempts, finishing with a best effort of 4.55m. Jacko Gill withdrew from the shot put two days out with a thigh injury.
Cantabrian Angie Petty won the women’s 1500m in 4min 19.54sec, holding off Camille Buscomb and Katherine Camp in a tight finish to claim the 800m-1500m double, while Eric Speakman won the men’s 1500m in 3min 49.9sec.
Zoe Hobbs also completed the women’s sprint double, winning the 200m in 23.85sec to go with the 100m title she claimed on Friday, while Cameron French won the men’s 400m hurdles in a time of 51.58sec.