Pritchard will take a breather

After nearly 18 months that included several Tasman and Athletics Nelson records and three New Zealand and three Oceania Games medals, Dale Pritchard is taking a well deserved rest.

‘‘I haven’t had a break in so long,’’ Pritchard said after winning the senior men’s shot put and discus at the final Athletics Nelson twilight series meet on Wednesday at the Saxton Field Athletics Track.

‘‘It will be good to have a couple of weeks off, although I feel I could throw further.’’

Pritchard won the discus with 46.12m, a throw he called ‘‘average’’, and then heaved a near personal best 16.19m in the shot put. He said he will be back in the weight room in two weeks and begin building for the 2015-16 season.

Kai Mason is not yet done with a season which brought medals and Tasman records in the discus and javelin last Sunday at the New Zealand track and field championships. Mason won the junior discus at twilight with 42.60m and shot put with 13.26m.

Joe Ford continued his improvement with M14 winning throws of 39.80m in the discus and 10.62 in the shot put.

Ryan Churchill went 11.15m in the triple jump while working on his steps for Wednesday’s Tasman secondary schools’ athletics championships.

Connor Bithell set a personal best of 23.7sec in winning the men’s 200m and earlier took the 100m victory from Mason and Tyler Walbran in 11.5sec.

Amber Sixtus won the women’s 100m in 13.1sec and 200m in 28.9sec.