USA
Swarthmore Last Chance Meeting, Pennsylvania – 14 May 2012
Hamish Carson ran a personal best of 3m 38.04s in finishing eighth in the Jim Tuppeny Invitational 1500m at Swarthmore College, Philadelphia. In a race paced by Nick Willis, Carson took 2.48 seconds off his previous best of 3m 40.52s in Sydney last year. The Olympic qualifying standard is 3m 35.50s.
The race was won by Kyle Merber of USA in 3m 35.59s. Will Leer who raced in New Zealand during the last summer was 13th in 3m 41.94s.
Oxy High Performance Meet, Bill Henry Track Occidental College, Los Angeles, California – 18 May 2012
Adrian Blincoe showed good form with a top performance of 13m 23.73s for fifth place in the 5000m. Blincoe has run a qualifying time for the London Olympics of 13m 18.27s in Barcelona last July. Zane Robertson and Hamish Carson clocked almost identical times in different races over 1500m. Seeking a time of 3m 35.50s to qualify for the Olympics, Robertson recorded 3m 39.13s and Carson 3m 39.22s.
Robertson said that he was not at his best going into the race.
“I’m coming back from a calf injury and I felt no power in my right leg. I missed four or five days of training,” he said.
Robertson will have another attempt at the New York Diamond League meeting on 9 June.
Fiona Crombie was sixth in the 3000m steeplechase in 10m 4.51s with Leonora Petrina 12th in 10m 25.35s. The standard for London is 9m 45s.
Meanwhile Nikki Hamblin did not start in a planned race over 1500m in Shanghai on Saturday, playing it cautiously with a troublesome bursa on the Achilles tendon.
“I had a flare up of the bursa and Achilles insertion a couple of days ago after it had been feeling a lot better. I think if I was able to run I would be able to run well enough to get selected for London but realistically there is just no way given how my heel feels this morning that I can start,” said Hamblin.
And Jake Robertson has returned to Kenya for further training and 5000m races.
Western Athletic Conference, Moscow Idaho – 10/11 May 2012
Te Rina Keenan shot to number three on the New Zealand all time list in the discus throw after winning the discus on 11 May with a throw of 54.60m at the Western Athletic Conference. Her series during the competition was 48.59m, 54.60m, 50.56m, F, 46.90m, 54.13m. Keenan now surpasses Val Young, Valerie Adams and Liz Ryan on the all time list. Her previous best was 53.81m at Stanford in April.
At the same meeting in Idaho on 10 May Keenan was second in the shot put with 15.18m.
CZECH REPUBLIC
VW Prague Marathon – 13 May 2012
Paul Martelletti finished 19th in 2h 19m 40s after passing the half way mark in 1h 8m 34s. Race won by Deressa Chimsa of Ethiopia in 2h 6m 25s.
HUNTLY
32nd Annual Solid Energy Huntly Half Marathon – 20 May 2012
Kenyan Kip Kemei blasted his way into the lead from the start of the Huntly half marathon yesterday and led a lonely path around the 21.1km winning by over a minute in 1h 5m 28s.
The 21 year old has now notched up his third half marathon victory since arriving in the country earlier this year to train. He won the Wellington and Rotorua half marathons by four minutes, but this time he had a super fit Sam Wreford of Timaru tracking him hard over the second half.
Wreford aiming for a fast marathon in Christchurch in two weeks time was second in 1h 6m 51s with winner for the last two years Aaron Pulford third in 1h 9m 23s.
Kemei who has a best of 64m 33s said that he set out to run 63 minutes and was disappointed in not achieving it.
“I want to run 63 minutes while here in New Zealand before returning to Kenya, but I found the undulating course was too hard.
“I will try again in two weeks on the flat Christchurch course,” said Kemei.
Wreford treated the race as a training outing.
“I’m more into high mileage at the moment, I’ve done 200km plus already this week so I’m certainly not fresh. In two weeks time is the one I want to be flying for,” said Wreford.
Pulford is back into training after being sidelined for six months with a stress fracture.
“I lost a heap of strength and it hurt a bit out there today, but hopefully I can get into a bit better shape for the Gold Coast half marathon in six weeks time,” he said.
Sally Gibbs of Katikati who turns 49 in two weeks time, showed a clean pair of heals to the rest of the women’s field winning in a personal best time of 1h 17m 46s. This time also cut 1m 19s off he own New Zealand masters age group record.
“I’m really happy with that time; I didn’t taper off for today. I felt as good as you feel for a half marathon and we had brilliant conditions – perfect, with a lot of guys there who were handy to pace off,” said Gibbs.
Her next goal is the Gold Coast full marathon on 1 July.
Maria Bentley, winner in 2010 in 1h 17m 56s, was second in 1h 20m 24s with Camille Buscomb, who has come off an outstanding track season, third in 1h 22m 54s.
The associated 10km races went to Steve O’Callaghan in 31m 59s from Michael Whitehead 32m 39s and Tim Stewart 32m 57s and Mikayla Nielsen in 36m 31s from Alice Mason 36m 44s and Olivia Ritchie 37m 25s.
AUCKLAND
Annual Open Pairs Races, One Tree Hill – 19 May 2012
Senior men: Waitakere 1, Glen Eden 2. Master men: Auckland City Athletic 1, University 2, Wesley 3. M19: Wesley 1. M16: Waitakere 1, ACA 2, Waitakere B 3.
Master women: ACA 1, Papakura 2. W19: Pukekohe 1, ACA 2, Pakuranga 3. W16: ACA 1, ACA B 2, Wesley 3.
Junior boys: Pakuranga 1, ACA 2, University 3. Junior girls: Pukekohe 1, ACA 2, Pakuranga 3.
O’Hagan’s Viaduct 5km, 15 May: Andrew Walker 16m 29s, James Brent 16m 51s. Florence Reynolds 18m 23s.
Rat Race 5km, Takapuna, 16 May: James Rimmer 17m 48s, Shaun Cooper 18m 30s. Julie Reeve 21m 40s.
WELLINGTON
University Relays, QEII Park Paekakariki – 12 May 2012
Winning teams were:
Open Men: Wellington (Julian Oakley, Tim Cornish, Hussain Roble, Ryan McAlister). Fastest 3.5km lap Edwin Kitane (Scott) 11m 57s.
Open Women: Scottish (Nicole Mitchell, Caroline Mellsop, Tina Harris, Demelza Murrihy) Fastest Sarah Drought (Wgtn) 14m 45s.
Masters Men: Scottish (Grant Mclean, Warren Maguren, Nick Vaughan, Michael Wray) Fastest Grant McLean (Scott) 13m 21s.
Masters Women: Scottish (Tricia Sloan, Jo Badham, Mandy Simpson, Stephanie MacKenzie) Fastest Stephanie Mackenzie (Scott) 15m 19s.
Junior Men: Wellington (Kieron McDonald, James Fletcher, Nick Pointon, Marcus Karamanolis) Fastest Tim Robertson (HV) 13m 9s.
Junior Women: Olympic (Jess Kerr, Phoebe Anderson, Amelia Harris, Madeline Wilson) Fastest Ariana Harper (Scott) 15m 26s.
89th Annual Vosseler Shield Cross Country, Mt Victoria – 19 May 2012
Martin Van Barneveld won the senior 10km in 40m 15s, from Tim Hodge 41m 12s and James Richardson 41m 24s. Grant McLean led in the M40’s in 43m 29s.
Sarah Drought won the women’s 5km in 22m 23s, from master Stephanie Mackenzie 22m 50s and senior Marjolein Ros 22m 57s. The M19 5km went to Tim Robertson 19m 52s from Kieron McDonald 20m 11s. Marcus Karamanolis headed in the M16 3.7km in 12m 31s from James Fletcher 12m 52s. Jean Kozyniak won the W16 3.7km in 14m 18s from Kelsey Forman 14m 30s. Victoria Taylor was the best of the W19 runners with 16m 5s in the same race as the W16.
CHRISTCHURCH
Jane Paterson Cross Country, Rawhiti Domain – 19 May 2012
Daniel Balchin won the senior 9km race in 30m 56s beating Nick Rennie 31m 16s and Tane Cambridge 31m 28s. Hannah Newbould won the women’s 6km in 22m 5s from Angie Smit 22m 44s and Reubyn Bisschops 22m 51s. Fastest in the masters over 9km was Axel Reiser 32m 48s and Martin Lukes 33m 28s. Fiona Gilroy was the best of the master women over 6km in 25m 25s with Karen Muller clocking 25m 34s.
Ben Musson won the M19 6km in 20m 39s from Jack Moody 21m 9s. Rosa Flanagan won the W16 4.5km in 16m 21s faster than the W19 4.5km Laura Steffens 17m 50s and Margot Gibson 18m 3s. Sean Eustace won the M16 6km in 20m 55s.
GORE
Gore Half Marathon – 20 May 2012
Mike Wakelin of Hill City Dunedin won the Gore half Marathon in 1h 12m 21s beating local Ricky Gutsell by 4m 34s. This repeated last year’s placings although the pair ran faster this year. Scott Underhay was third in 1h 18m 34s. Gutsell took the masters men 35-49 title and James Park won the masters 50 in 1h 29m 28s and Don McKay the over 60 in 1h 51m 12s. Tamsyn Hayes was first women in 1h 24m 35s followed by Emily Wallis with 1h 28m 25s. Sue Cuthbert won the masters women 35-49 (1h 28m 31s) and Debbie Telfer the masters women 50 plus in 1h 32m 48s. Gutsell and Telfer, as the first Southland registered runners, took the Southland Half Marathon Championship titles. Race was run in calm, but very cold conditions.
DUNEDIN
32nd Annual Leith Cross Country Relays, Ponydales – 19 May 2012
Caversham made it four years in a row in the 4 x 2730 event. Their team of Ben Anderson, Shaun Burgess, Lyndon Marfell and Bevan Stevens recorded 37m 3s, 55 seconds ahead of Hill City-University. Bevan Stevens ran the fastest lap of 8m 57s with Andrew Davidson clocking in at 9m 4s and Ben Anderson at 9m 13s.
Hill City-University team of Rachael Kingsford, Shauna Pali, Christina Taylor and Kirsty O’Sullivan won the women’s 4 x 2000m in 30m 58s beating Ariki by 1m 42s. Rachael Kingsford was the fastest with 7m 34s, Kirsty O’Sullivan ran 7m 43s and Shauna Pali 7m 50s.
Hill City-University won the master men’s relay, Mike Wakelin running his 2000m leg in 6m 45s. Leith won the master women’s relay, Louisa Andrew fastest with 8m 20s.
Murray McKinnon
Communications Advisor
Athletics New Zealand
0274 806086
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