Centre records tumble

Despite the conditions not being ideal, there were some outstanding performances from Manawatū athletes last Saturday, with several Athletics Manawatū -Whanganui centre records bettered.

Those records are recorded by centre athletes at events held within the centre, as opposed the centre open records, which are the best performances by centre athletes anywhere in the world.

Chayille Collette was in good form in the elite races, winning the 100m in 11.74s, with the wind reading of 2.1m per second marginally over the allowable limit for record purposes.

She was second in the 200m in 24.27s, which is a centre record.

Sister Addira was third in the 100m in 11.97s and fourth in the 200m in 24.75s.

Juliet McKinlay was third in theB grade 100m in 13.44s.

In the 200m races Ellen Schaef, who is better known as a middle-distance runner, impressed finishing second in the A race, recording 26.93s, with Georgia Whiteman third in 28.41s. Schaef followed up with an equally impressive 59.39s in the elite 400m.

Aden Porritt would be pleased with his 49.82s for fourth in the elite grade 400m, while Brayden Grant ran a season-best 50.77s for third in the A grade race.

There was good representation in the mixed grade event, with Greg Austin third in 54.34s, just ahead of Hayden Robinson’s 55.04s. Emma Osborne was sixth in 59.74s.

Whanganui’s Jonathan Maples had a great night with two big personal bests.

He ran 10.87s in the 100m, but unfortunately the 2.6m-per-second following wind meant it was ineligible for ranking purposes.

He had better luck when he was able to claim the centre record for the 400m hurdles, running 54.33s, which bettered the old mark set in 1971.

The centre record was also bettered in the women’s race, with Maggie Jones running 62.81s, which will become the new record for the W18, W19 and W20 grades.

In the men’s 200m Forbes Kennedy finished second in 22.86s, with Sam Ridsdale recording a personal best 24.77s for sixth.

In the 800m races, victory went to Angela Jukes in 2m 20.51s, while in the men’s race Greg Austin was fifth in 2m 6.51s and Justin Cunningham sixth in 2m 08.37s.

In the women’s under-20 mile championship, Emma Ferguson ran a great race to finish second, running 4m 48.86s, with Courtney Fitzgibbon sixth in 5m 11.60s.

Both girls established centre records for their ages.

Noah Macdermid competed in the feature mile race, where the first four finishers added to the list of sub-4-minute miles completed on the track.

He finished 11th in 4m 11.09s.

In the field events, both high jumper Hamish Kerr and shot putter Tom Walsh delighted the crowd with great early-season performances, Kerr clearing 2.22m before narrowly missing clearing 2.29m.

Ridsdale once again enjoyed the chance to compete against one of the world’s best, but unfortunately could not reproduce his form from earlier in the week, being eliminated at the opening height.

Courtney Trow cleared 1.68m for fifth, while sister Amber had a 1.63 clearance for seventh.

Elle Hurley-Langston leapt 5.03m for fourth in the long jump and 10.20m for sixth in the triple jump.

Tayler Trow was sixth in the long jump with 4.51m, while McKinlay had a 9.95m best effort for seventh in the triple jump.