Mixed performances by Olympic stars at Classic
After the high of the Halberg Awards, Olympic bronze medallists Eliza McCartney and Tom Walsh returned to the field yesterday and left Hamilton’s Porritt Classic a little disappointed.
Both New Zealand athletes were competing in their first tournament of note in 2017, as another big season gets under way with London’s world championships in August the main event of the calendar year.
Walsh can be pleased enough after securing his place in London with throws exceeding the world championship qualifying distance of 20.50m, but McCartney struggled to reach the heights she was after.
The 20-year-old competed in the mixed pole vault and failed in five attempts to jump over 4.40m, which is 40cm short of the height she reached to win her bronze medal in Rio last August. That achievement saw her win favourite sporting moment at Thursday night’s Halberg Awards.
Conditions weren’t ideal and two of her attempts were scrubbed out – one because the wind blew down the poll and the other because a small object was in the vault box.
But McCartney knows she can do better, and she’ll have enough opportunities with events like the Vertical Pursuit, the Auckland Track Classic, nationals back at Porritt Stadium next month, and then Australian nationals to come.
‘‘I can’t say I’m not disappointed with that, but I think I was unlucky today,’’ McCartney said.
‘‘When you go to awards [nights] in the off-season, it feels funny because you haven’t done much recently. So it’s good to get out and start competing and it’s going to get busy soon. I’ll get another crack at it, I’m sure.’’
Germany’s Vincent Hobbie won the mixed pole vault by reaching 4.90m, with McCartney finishing fifth from six competitors.
Last year was her biggest to date after success at the Rio Olympics and she’s confident of improving further on that in 2017.
‘‘There’s no reason I can’t give it a shot and it will come down to how world champs goes.’’
Timaru shot put ace Walsh won his event in Hamilton (throwing the 7.26kg weight) as he booked his spot in London with throws comfortably exceeding the required 20.50m qualifying distance. His best was 20.70m, which is well short of his personal best of 22m.
The 24-year-old, who was a finalist for Sportsman of the Year at the Halberg Awards, said his performance was scratchy at best, as he prepares for next weekend’s Big Shot event in Christchurch that features American Olympic gold medallist Ryan Crouser.
Hamilton’s Cameron French won his favoured 400m hurdles event with a time of 51.21sec. But the hometown hero was also victorious in the men’s 100m final, which he won by a whisker with his time of 10.57s just 0.04s faster than Tauranga’s Kodi Harman.
Paralympian Holly Robinson competed in the women’s javelin but could only finish fifth – more than 9m behind North Harbour’s Madeline Chapman, who won with 49.18m.