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Day one for Athletics

 

The New Zealand track and field team got off to a good start on day one of their competition, with all but two of the New Zealanders progressing through the heats.

Ten athletes from the 30-strong athletics team at the Games were in action during day one; with Kelsey Berryman (University of Canterbury) first up in the 100m heats. Berryman ran a personal best of 11.77 to claim third place in her heat.

Angie Petty and Cameron French both won their heats and progressed through to the semi-finals in their events. Petty took out her 800m heat in a time of 2:03.85, the fastest of the four heats, while fellow Kiwi Katherine Marshall recorded 2:04.74 which was fast enough to join Petty in the semi-finals.

French won his heat of the 400m hurdles in 51.46 to go through to semi-finals, where he will be looking to get close to his New Zealand record of 49.72 and qualify for the final.

Ben Langton-Burnell also produced a personal best in javelin, qualifying with a throw of 75.54 to finish third in group and sixth overall to qualify for the final.

Eliza McCartney cleared 3.85 and 4.05 on her first attempts to automatically qualify in pole vault and is ranked first equal. Her final is tomorrow.

Bailey Stewart ran 47.88 for third in his 400m heat and qualifies to go through to the next round, ranked 19th. 

Decathletes Jack Henry and Aaron Booth are well back in the decathlon after the first day's five events, despite both scoring one personal best each. Henry jumped 6.82 in the long jump and Booth was out to 13.21 in the shot put.

There were disappointments for the team though when two athletes did not qualify. Mariah Ririnui jumped 6.04 to finish just 0.02 outside the top 12 in long jump qualifying, while discus thrower Te Rina Keenen threw 48.98, over 11m short of her best in very wet conditions, and didnt qualify.

On Thursday, 13 of the Kiwi track and field team will be back in action with three in finals: McCartney in pole vault, Langton-Burnell in javelin, while Aaron Pulford starts in the 10,000m final.

 

Day five for Swimming

AUT student Daniel Hunter says he will be chasing down the New Zealand record in the 50m freestyle and aiming to make another final at the World University Games when he hits the pool tomorrow.

Hunter competed in the final in the 100m freestyle on Wednesday night, and posted his third fastest ever time.

While his swim in the final wasnt as fast as his swim in the semi-finals the night before, he clocked 50.05 which saw him ranked seventh.

``I wasnt able to do my best tonight but Ive got a lot to take away and work on in the upcoming season so thats good. It was the third fastest time Ive ever done so I cant complain about that.

Hunter said competing at the World University Games had given him invaluable racing experience and had been a massive step in the right direction for him towards an Olympic year next year, and learning what it was like to compete on the world stage.

On his 50m race on Thursday, Hunter said he was ``just going to smash it out and see what happens. Hopefully I can get another personal best and hopefully chase down the New Zealand record and hopefully make it through to the finals as well.

Auckland swimmer Georgia Marris was also chasing a place in the final on the fifth day of competition for the swimmers after qualifying for the 200m freestyle semi.

Marris, who is on scholarship at the University of Florida, produced a solid 2:03.01 effort in the heats and was 14th fastest to qualify for the semi-final, going three seconds faster than the personal best she had set at the New Zealand Open Championships in April. In her semi, she swam 2:02.15 to finish seventh.

``I tried to hold on; didnt quite get back to where I was at trials but I was close to it so I was pretty happy.

Earlier in the day, Shaun Burnett (North Shore, Massey University) was 27th in heats of the 100m butterfly in 55.44; Caroline Baddock (North Shore, Auburn University) was 20th in the 50m backstroke in a personal best 29.45; Alex Peach (United, Delta State University) was 35th in the 50m breaststroke in 29.14 and Michael Mincham (Waterhole, AUT) was 15th in the 1500m freestyle heats in 16:04.72.

The pool competition continues until Friday with the 10km open water swim competition at Lake Regatta, Jangseongho on Saturday.

Pictured; Kiwi team cheers on those competing.

 

Table Tennis

The individual events started on Wednesday with the mixed doubles getting underway in the morning.  Roger Rao and Natalie Paterson drew Sri Lanka and dispatched them with ruthless efficiency but ran into a brick wall in the second round when they met top seeds and home town favourites, Korea.

Jonathan Wang and Julia Wu drew Mongolia and got off to a flying start winning the first two games, however the Mongolians showed considerable fight and were able to pressure Julia's service return to such an extent that they won the match in five close games.

In the men's doubles Jonathan was paired with Zhiyang Cheng and they won their first match by default when their opponents failed to turn up.  In the second round they played Estonia, going down in four close games. Daniel Lowe partnered Roger to a first round win against Lebanon before coming up against Hong Kong China in the second round. New Zealand was up 5-1 in the first game only to lose 6-11 and then win the second relatively comfortably - the Kiwi combination seemed to lose confidence at critical times and lost in four games.

Natalie and Julia drew a strong Czech pairing in the first round and put in a good performance but couldnt cause an upset, losing 0-3.

On Thursday, group play starts for both the men's and women's singles with all the Kiwi players competing.

 

In Action on Thursday 9 July

8.36 - 50m breastroke heats (Natasha Lloyd)

9am-7pm - decathlon (Aaron Booth; Jackson Henry)

9am - 50m freestyle heats (Daniel Hunter; Sam Perry)

9.02am - 200m butterfly heats (Samantha Lee; Helena Gasson

9.20am - 50m freestyle heats (Laura Quilter)

9.28 - 4x200m freestyle relay

9.52 - 800m freestyle heats (Monique King)

10am - singles table tennis pool play

10am - pole vault qualification (Nick Southgate)

11.30 - 100m hurdle (Rochelle Coster; Fiona Morrison)

12.30 - men's singles pool play

14.50 - 400m hurdle semi-final (Cameron French)

16.35 - 100m semi-finals (Kelsey Berryman)

17.50 - 400m semi-finals (Bailey Stewart)

18.00 - pole vault (Eliza McCartney)

18.10 - 800m semi-finals (Katherin Camp; Angie Petty)

19.30 - 10,000 final (Aaron Pulford)

20.20 - 5000m 1st round (Camille Buscomb)


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