print


Another athletics competition was held this weekend in Melbourne, with 34 New Zealand athletes competing at the Australian Track & Field Championships. This was the last event of the summer season for many of the competing athletes, as some will head to Europe for further Olympic qualifying attempts. Brent Newdick, Commonwealth Games Decathlon medallist (6th Polevault and 1st Decathlon in Melbourne), as well Monique Williams, New Zealand sprint champion were amongst the big group of athletes going to Melbourne. Williams, however, was not in luck on the weekend and did not finish her 200m Womens Final and was disqualified from the 100m Womens Final. Also in action was Nicholas Southgate in the Pole Vault (ranked 4th on the weekend). Joseph Millar had a breakthrough over 100 metres at the New Zealand Championships, rising to No. 4 on the NZ all-time list with 10.36 seconds. He had hoped for an improvement to reach the 10.21 seconds required for Olympic qualification, however, he finished with 10.49 at 3rd place. Brent Newdick won the decathlon with a total of 8057, seven points better than the performance standard set for the London Olympic Games. Newdick set personal bests in two of the ten events, 7.56m in the long jump and 48.25m in the discus throw. The 27 year old has a best score of 8114 points set in Austria in May last year. His performances in Melbourne were: 100m 11.02s (-0.7) 856, long jump 7.56m (+1.6) 950, shot put 14.48m 758, high jump 1.95m 758, 400m 49.22s 851, 110m hurdles 14.55s (0.0) 905, discus throw 48.25m 834, pole vault 4.70m 819, javelin throw 56.43m 684, 1500m 4m 46.21s 642, total 8057. The results for the Championships for the New Zealand athletes were: Women: 3rd - Kristie Baillie - 400m Women's Final 3rd - Camille Buscomb - 1500m Women's Final 4th - Fiona Morrison - 100m Women's Hurdles Final 5th - Tracey Hale - 400m Women's Hurdles Final 6th - Mackenzie Keenan - 400m Women's Hurdles Final 8th - Mariah Ririnui - Women's Long Jump 3rd - Nneka Okpala - Women's Triple Jump 7th - Nicole Bradley - Women's Hammer DQ - Monique Williams - 100m Women's Final DNF - Monique Williams - 200m Women's Final Men: 3rd - Joseph Millar - Men's 100m Final (10.49) 4th - Carl Van der Speck - Men's 100m Final (10.65) 3rd - Tama Toki - Men's 200m Final 3rd - Cameron French - Men's 400m Hurdles Final 4th - Nicholas Southgate - Men's Polevault 6th - Brent Newdick - Men's Polevault 1st - Brent Newdick (8057 points) - Men's Decathlon
Tweet Share