Auckland student Eliza McCartney has won New Zealands second medal of the World University Games, silver in the womens pole vault.
She cleared 4.40, just 5cm short of her personal best, to finish behind Li Ling of China on 4.45. The bronze medal went to Chloe Henry of Belgium.
Athletics
Aaron Pulford competed in the 10,000m final, finishing eleventh in very humid conditions.
Decathlete Aaron Booth finished thirteenth in his draining 10-event contest, scoring 6905 points, 78 points shy of his personal best score. Jack Henry withdrew from the event after failing to clear a height in the eighth event, the pole vault.
Angie Petty, Cameron French, Nick Southgate and Camille Buscomb all performed outstandingly to qualify for finals.
Coach Criss Strange said French had produced gusty performance because ``of the high humidity which he doesnt find easy.
``He knows he will have to be his very best to have a chance at a medal tomorrow but he relishes the chance to compete against the worlds best.
Petty stamped her authority in the second 800m semi-final leading all the way to win in 2:00.74, less than a second outside her best ever and the fastest qualifier by over a second, and looking like a potential medallist for Friday's final. Katherine Marshall finished eighth in 2:05.00 in the same race.
French finished 3rd in his 400m hurdles semi-final in 50.31, the sixth fastest time from the three semi-final races to progress to Friday's final, while Nick Southgate cleared 5.20m to qualify for the pole vault final on Saturday.
Buscomb won her 5000m semi-final in in 16:33.77 and will contest the final on Saturday evening.
Sprinter Kelsey Berryman and hurdlers Rochelle Coster went very close to making finals, Berryman running a personal best 11.64 PB to finish 3rd in her semi-final and finish as ninth fastest.
Rochelle Coster (13.69) and Fiona Morrison (13.78) finished third and fourth in their respective semi-finals in the 100m hurdles for ninth and tenth fastest times.
Bailey Stewart 47.57 for 7th in 400m semi-final not quick enough to make the final.
Sixteen Kiwis will be in action on day three of the track and field action in Gwangju.
Swimming
Three New Zealand swimmers won through to the semi-finals on the sixth day of World University Games in Korea.
Counties Manukau swimmer Daniel Hunter followed up his strong form in the 100m freestyle from Wednesday by qualifying for the semi-finals in the 50m freestyle. He swam 22.63s to finish sixth in his semi and 12th overall.
Both Helena Gasson (Waikato) and Samantha Lee (Wellington) also progressed to the semifinals in the womens 200m butterfly.
Gasson, from the Fairfield club and attending Waikato University, swam 2:12.83 to finish fifth in her semi and ranked ninth overall.
Lee, from the Capital club and studying at Massey University, claimed the 16th ranking with a time of 2:16.22.
North Canterburys Natasha Lloyd took half a second off her previous best to clock 32.32 in heats of the 50m breaststroke to be 18th fastest, missing out on a place in the semi-finals by just 7/100ths of a second.
In other swims Laura Quilter (North Shore) went 26.54s to be 25th fastest in the heats of the 50m freestyle while Monique King just missed out on advancing in the womens 800m freestyle, 10th fastest in 8:51/11, taking a significant 3.5 seconds off her previous best.
Table Tennis
The singles events kicked off at the table tennis on Thursday with all of the New Zealand athletes, except men's number one Roger Rao, in action. The day started with the women's groups, there are 12 groups mostly of four players with two to qualify for the main draw. Natalie Paterson played Klaudia Kusinska of Poland while Julia Wu was up against and Zheng Sichang of China, with both of the Kiwis losing. Hweiching Lims game against highly regarded Czech, Tamara Tomanova ended 11-9.
The top seed in her group, Russian Elizaveta Khlyzova, proved too good for Julia in her second group match. Hweiching had an easy win in her second match against Pem Chodden of Bhutan and faces Sri Lankan Samarage Jayasundara in her final group match on Friday to decide the second qualifier for the main draw.
In the men, there are 45 groups of mostly three players with one from each group qualifying for the main draw. Jonathan Wang won his first match against Kalid Al Siyadi of Oman, Daniel Lowe was beaten in straight games by Edwin Hung of Hong Kong while Zhiyang Cheng went down in a massive battle to Brian Chen of the USA.
All players will be involved in group play on Friday with Hweiching, Natalie, Jonathan and Roger all having excellent chances of progressing to the main draw.
In action Friday 10 July
9:00 - Javelin (Victoria Peeters)
9:06 Heptathlon, day 1 (Veronica Torr)
9:48 - 4100m Medley relay heats (men & women)
10:00 - 800m heats (Brad Mathas)
10:00 - Triple Jump qualification (Nneka Okpala)
11:00 Table tennis singles, pool play (all men & women)
11:00 - 1500m heats (Nikki Hamblin)
19:00 - 400m Hurdle final (Cameron French)
19:10 - 800m final (Angie Petty)
19:15 - Javelin final (Ben Langton Burnell)
20:35 - 3000m Steeplechase final (Rosa Flanagan)
21:40 - 5000m heats (Daniel Balchin)
Tweet Share