As a decathlete, Olympic prospect Brent Newdick is used to competing against himself. But three gold medals in quick succession on Day Two of the NZ Track & Field Championships at Waitakere showed hes more than capable of going head-to-head with the very best the country has to offer in his best individual events. After easily retaining his 110m hurdles crown, Newdick (26) had to share honours after a lengthy jump-off with junior Nicholas Southgate in the pole vault and snuck through to claim the long jump title by one centimetre (7.17m) in terrible conditions on his final attempt. Mix in a 44.17m fifth placing in the discus and a useful 49.59s 400m heat the previous night, and the Commonwealth Games silver medalist can feel well pleased with his efforts this weekend, despite dashing from one end of the stadium to the other to juggle disciplines. Its actually slightly easier in a decathlon, he chuckled. They give us half an hour between events, instead of all on top of each other. Performance-wise, I did a personal best in the pole vault. I had been training really well, so it was good to get that result out. And in the long jump, it was good to practice competing and lifting your game. Decathlon is all about points at the end of the day, but sometimes its nice to get caught up in a competition and things just happen. While his hurdles victory was totally expected, Newdick had his hands full with Southgate both cleared 4.85m on their final attempts and failed three times at 5.00m. No amount of raising or lowering the bar could break the tie, so eventually the pair shook hands and declared it a tie. After completing the discus, Newdicks physical and mental conditioning was tested as the weather closed in and his fresh rivals stole a march in the long jump. They could not hold him off when the pressure went on. Newdick, entered for the shot and javelin on Sunday, has already qualified a New Zealand spot for the London Olympics with 8114 points at Gotzis, Austria, last May and believes he is well on track to better that this year. My first decathlon is Aussie champs in two-and-a-half weeks, and got to Europe for all of May for two decathlons there, before coming home for 6-8 weeks preparation. Im well ahead of my performances in every event and today alone, I was probably a couple of hundred points up. Elsewhere, Tasmans Alex Jordan successfully held off his challengers to defend his mens 400m title in 46.83s as five others dipped under 48 seconds, while Kristie Baillie of Waikato carved a second off her previous best to take the womens lap in 53.71s. But perhaps the most impressive 400m performance came from junior Andrew Whyte, who clocked 47.68s to finish almost six seconds ahead of his nearest rival and further confirm his world championship aspirations.
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