Morison leaves it late for series win
Wairarapa’s Jonty Morison came from third to win the winter series in the fourth and final round on the weekend.
Going into the final round Vanessa Story held a very slight lead over Lea Meutzel with Morison in third place.
After the final day’s competition, even though Morison finished fourth in the 200m, his time of 22.94sec earned him enough to win with 343.03 points.
Lea Meutzel scored 343.30 points to take second place with Vanessa Story’s 342.32 leaving her third.
In a competition such as this with points being awarded for the best performance in each of the four meetings, any athlete who missed a meeting effectively ruled themselves out of the title.
Zac Topping was the best illustration of this, after missing the first meeting.
He was one of the top pointsscorers in the three remaining meetings totalling 267.29 to finish 14th.
With an average score of 89-points-per-meeting, he would have only needed a score of 78 in the first meeting to have been the series winner.
Topping dominated the sprints taking out the 60m in 7.16s and the 200m in 22.15s. Quin Hartley finishing second in both events.
Pavinee Watson won the women’s 60m from Lydia Bamford and Vanessa Story.
Story took out the 200m in 27.78s ahead of Georgia Whiteman.
Watson also won the long jump with her best leap of 5.08m off the wrong foot. An interesting aspect of her competition was that three of her six attempts were identical measurements of 4.99m.
The men’s competition went to Jordan Peters whose best effort was 6.60m.
One of the best performances came in the men’s high jump with Jacob Aomere-poole clearing 1.88m, which places him as the sixth best high jumper on our all-times rankings. Mark Seumanu cleared 1.80m for second. Lea Meutzel cleared 1.60m to take out the women’s event.
The 3000m race saw both Theo Purdy (9m 43.99s) and Sian Cass (12m 32.68s) run personal bests in a race comfortably won by David Lovelock in 8m 49.17s.
Nick Palmer took out both the hammer and shot put with throws of 54.89m and 16.23m respectively. The discus went to Jack Beatson with 39.37m. Ariana Blackwood won the women’s shot with 9.92m.
Montaya Wharehanga won the women’s hammer with 48.70m. In the throwing competitions, athletes use the weighted implement for their age grade, so in many cases the top performers may be throwing a lighter implement than some other competitors.
Peter Blackwood sent me a report from the Red Stag Relay held in the forest near Rotorua last Saturday.
The Feilding Moa Harrier Club were represented by four teams mainly consisting of their younger members.
Tessa Webb continues to be their star performer establishing a new lap record for the under-19 girls, cutting out the 3.2km lap in 10m 36s, 26 seconds better than the previous best time. Her time was the fourth fastest time of all competitors.
She was joined by Kate Wasley, Anika Hamilton and Skye Burema in the team that were seventh in the youth grade. A fantastic effort for a team with an average age of 12 competing in an under-19 competition.
The male youth team of Jed Kelton, Brody Morgan, Cooper Hamilton and Merrick Manning also finished seventhwith the second team finishing 18th.
The best placing went to the open men’s team who were fifth.
It has been great to see that there has already been a good spinoff from Eliza Mccartney’s pole vault achievement with a number of Whanganui athletes travelling to Palmerston North to have a taste of pole vaulting under the tuition of Callum Mcconachy.
Many have indicated their keenness to return again next Sunday.
I have sat in awe of the performances of athletes at the Paralympics. I especially enjoyed seeing the success of Anna Grimaldi in the long jump.
One of the big pluses of officiating in athletics is that you often get to rub shoulders with many top athletes.
I had the opportunity at last year’s nationals in Dunedin in my role as starter’s assistant.
I recall there was a delay before Anna’s 200m race, so I had them under my control while we waited for the start.
I remember thinking what a lovely person. To see her winning Gold in Rio had that special touch for me.
A reminder to Palmerston North Athletic Club members, the club’s annual meeting is on September 20.