Burne well clear in winning in Rotorua
Former Palmerston North Athletic and Harrier Club runner Olivia Burne won the women’s half marathon in Rotorua on the weekend.
Burne finished nine minutes ahead of the next women finisher and was fifth overall.
After finishing runner-up last year, Chris Sanson was hoping that this could be his year in the marathon.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and despite running almost one minute faster than his previous personalbest, he again be satisfied with the runner up position.
Japan’s Saeki Makino won the race in 2h.21m:58s, the fastest winning time since 2001. Sanson finished in 2h.27m.11s.
Fourth-placed Matt Parsonage was a former Palmerston North Athletic and Harrier Club member. He competed for the club while he was studying at Massey for his veterinary degree.
Manawatu Striders’ David Jones was second in the men’s marathon walk, just missing beating the fivehour barrier by 50 seconds.
Unfortunately the official results do not identify the competitor’s home towns so I have been unable to cover all local competitors.
The Feilding Moas have sent details of their members’ achievements.
In the marathon, Rob Henderson was 10th in the M65 grade, Debra Arnold 6th in the W55 grade and Pat Stichbury 10 th in the W55 grade.
In the half marathon, AJ Cornwall was second in the M40, Rob Petch was seventh in the M45, Peter Turner third in the M55 and Jo Speary second in the W55.
There has been a change of plans in the events that Matt Field will compete in at Malaga.
He has decided to concentrate on the athletic events adding the 400m and high jump to the 100m, 200m and long jump that we listed last week.
With competitors limited to five events, Field decided to drop the tennis singles from his list.
High Jump is a new event for Field, but he was asked to consider it as it seems to be an event that is seen as difficult for transplant athletes.
We are fortunate that in the Manawatu we have Anne Thomson, one of the country’s more successful jump coaches, and I’m certain that the along with other members of the coaching team, she will ensure that he receives all the assistance and support to meet this challenge.
I cannot emphasise enough how great it is to see the tremendous support club members give to one another
It’s great to see the Diamond League back on our television screens and see the emergence of some new names.
The highlight of the first meeting in Doha must have been the 93.90m javelin throw by Thomas Rohlar, the second longest ever.
The question that throws of that magnitude raise is whether, for safety reasons, it becomes necessary to reconfigure the javelins.
It was necessary in the early 1980s when the world record increased to more than 100m and posed significant safety risks with the possibility of the javelin overshooting the stadium and landing in the crowd.
It was interesting looking at the official results for the laned races. It not only recorded each athlete’s time, but also their reaction time.
In sprint events where a Start Information System is in place, an athlete is disqualified if they start within 0.1s of the gun being fired.
The men’s 100m saw South African Akani Simbine upset the more favoured Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin running 9.99s into a headwind.
The fastest reaction time was Andre de Grasse at 0.126s and he finished fifth. Simbine having a reaction time of 0.140s.