So close, but no but no cigar this time for teenage shot putter Jacko Gill, as he fell short of national and world junior records at the NZ Track & Field Championships at Waitakere. Highlighting a very consistent series of throws, his 22.30m with the 6kg shot was a solitary centimeter shy of his own national best and down on the global standard of 22.73m, held by reigning senior world champion David Stohl of Germany. Whenever Gill (17) performs, theres an expectation hell threaten some kind of record and that hope was heightened when he eased a warm-up toss well past the NZ mark. But the occasion and his heavy training load seemed to get the better of him, and he could not produce the spark when it mattered. It was good to get a performance so close to my personal best without freshening up, he said. Its probably not as far as I hoped, but Im pretty happy under the circumstances. Like many of the top athletes at this meeting, Gill is in a heavy block of training right now, lifting weights to build strength towards a European campaign that will include the world junior championships at Barcelona and, hopefully, the London Olympics. Ive made a couple of changes to my technique and its good to seem them working well. Im concentrating on the world junior champs right now and Im pretty happy with where I am. The world junior titleholder has a couple more years to remove Stohls name from the record books. On the track, Cantabrian Angela Smit showed a clean pair of heels to her opposition in the womens 800m, clocking a useful 2m 04.50s in blustery conditions. Junior Brad Mathas stepped up a grade to claim the senior title in 1m 51.50s, more than two seconds clear of American Will Leer. And Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Andrea Miller continued her comeback from injury, recording a swift 13.49s over 100m hurdles to defeat defending champion Fiona Morrison. Jacko Gill
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