Strong performances at blustery interclub meet
ATHLETICS
STRONG tail winds made for fast times at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
Nearly every entrant across the four 100m races ran faster than their seed time — although the winds were, at their strongest, almost four times the legal limit to count as personal bests.
Ariki’s Shay Veitch was the fastest across those four races, clocking a lightning 10.62sec.
It was a time seen very rarely at the Caledonian Ground, particularly at a standard interclub meet.
He was followed in by Taieri’s Felix McDonald in 11.01sec.
Aspiring’s Abby Fisher was similarly impressive in running 12.18sec, the 16yearold running well under her personal best to be the fastest woman.
Fisher was to the fore in the 200m as well, clocking 25.44sec — Hill CityUniversity’s Sophie McCormack was the only woman to get within a second of her, in 25.89sec.
Meanwhile, in the 800m HCU’s Josh Hou won a tight battle.
He finished in 2min 00.33sec to edge University of Canterbury’s William Scharpf by 0.28sec, while HCU’s Jedidiah ThompsonFawcett came in one second back.
In the field, Luke Moffitt and Isabella Henderson were the best of the triple jumpers, with distances of 12.01m and 10.05m respectively.
Veitch’s 6.84m was nearly 1m further than his nearest competitor in the long jump, while
Taieri’s Joccoaa Palmer delivered 5.10m to win the women’s competition.
Taieri Paralympian Holly Robinson threw 39.01m in the javelin, while Anton Schroeder and Ethan Walker put out 55.35m and 52.66m respectively.
In the hammer, Riverton’s Tegan Ashley threw 44.30m in the under20 grade, while
HCU’s Nirvana HepiBreen’s 42.95m was the best of the under18s.