Quality performances at world champs

It’s been a week of television watching for me with the IAAF world athletics championships in London being a must watch. It has produced plenty of upsets, with many of the favoured athletes upstaged.

The hopeful fairytale ending for Usain Bolt’s career didn’t happen, but he still went out a champion and I just hope he can be retained in the sport in some capacity.

There appeared to be mixed results for the New Zealand athletes, with the undoubted highlight the gold-medalwinning performance of Tom Walsh.

It was great to see two New Zealanders in this shot put final, with Jacko Gill finishing ninth and a little unlucky to miss out on getting the three additional throws which are awarded to the top eight competitors.

His best throw tied him for the eighth slot, but that wasn’t to be.

Pole vaulter Eliza Mccartney had an injury interrupted build up which saw her using a shorter runup and she had to be content with ninth place.

The bronze medal in this event went to an athlete with a 4.65m clearance, which was only one height higher than Mccartney’s 4.55m clearance, so not as disappointing as some people think.

Angie Petty was another to narrowly miss out on qualifying for the 800m semifinal.

Qualification was the first three plus the next four fastest from the six heats.

Petty finished fourth in her heat and as the last heat took the track, she headed the next four fastest list.

Unfortunately for Petty this last heat proved to be the fastest of the six heats, with the first seven athletes all having a better times than Petty, meaning she missed out on proceeding to the next round by three hundredths of a second.

With the automatic qualification mark being set beyond his personal best, it was always going to be a difficult ask for Ben Langton-burnell to proceed to the final of the javelin.

His best throw of 76.46m placed him 12th in his pool and 24th overall.

The chance to compete in a packed stadium against the world’s best was a great experience for Ben, who is now looking forward to his next competition at the World University Games.

The promotion of the championships was very slick with capacity crowds for all sessions.

Mascot Hero the Hedgehog was brilliant and his antics a crowd pleaser, especially his interaction with some of the stars.

I loved the little touches, like the time he took a young girl from the crowd down to the long jump pit with a bucket and spade and built sandcastles in the sand, or during one of the wet sessions he aquaplaned across the long jump covers.

With the world athletics championship nearing conclusion, the international focus will move to the World University Games, an event where two Palmerston North club athletes will represent New Zealand.

Fresh from his world championship experience, Langton-burnell with compete in the javelin, while Hamish Kerr will contest the high jump.

Both Ben and Hamish are amongst the country’s rising talents and have both been working very hard to be in good shape for this competition.

Julia Ratcliffe (hammer) and Joseph Millar (sprints) will both be wanting to put their learning experiences from the world championships to good use and should be among our medal hopes.

This Saturday the Wanganui Harrier Club will host the Athletics Manawatuwanganui road championships, with all races starting from the Wanganui East Club in Wakefield Street.

Racing will commence at 1pm with the 10km walk starting alongside races for the under-9, under-11 under-13 and under-15 grades.

At 1.30pm it is time for the 5km races to start, which will see titles decided for the junior girls under-18 and under-20 grades plus the masters’ women.

The highly contested mens under-18 race also starts at this time.

The final group of races will start at 2pm with senior women, senior and masters men, racing over 10km while the men’s under-20 grade will run 8km.

Hopefully their will be a good local turn out for this event and athletes are not turned off by it being a championship event.

What’s on. August 19: Athletics Manawatuwanganui road championships.

August 23-28: World University Games, Taipei.

August 26: Feilding Moa Turkey Trot, Timona Park, Feilding.

August 27: Ashhurst Athletic Club AGM, Ashhurst RSA.

September 2: NZ road championships, Christchurch.

September 10: Winter track and field series, Palmerston North.