A New Zealand W16 record and seven World Junior Championships performance standards propelled New Zealand to a rare victory over Australia at the Trans Tasman 21 test Match on Saturday 18 February.
Kelly O’Hagan bettered Angela Pule’s W16 high jump record of 1.80m after joining Australian Zoe Timmers and Elizabeth Lamb in clearing 1.82m. Performance A standards for the world junior championships in Canada in July were achieved by O’Hagan and Lamb, Hannah Newbould and Rebekah Greene in the 1500m, Laura Nagel in the 3000m, Tom Walsh in the shot put and Leesa Lealaisalanoa in the discus.
Newbould (18) won the 1500m in 4m 21.73s after a close race with Greene, the only two competitors in the race. Greene (16) recorded 4m 21.98s, just eight tenths of a second outside Sue Bruce’s 1981 national W16 record. Nagel won the 3000m in 9m 27.63s.
Tom Walsh was outstanding for New Zealand in the shot put. Competing with the senior weighted shot of 7.26kg, Walsh won with a put of 17.57m, to better the World Junior Championships A performance standard of 16.50m.
Beatrice Faumuina was again out over 60 metres in the discus with a winning throw of 60.87m which came in the opening round. Her next best was 59.25m. Leesa Lealaisalanoa (16) sent the discus out to 50.73m and qualified for the World Junior Championships where the A standard is 48.20m.
Andrea Koenen won the women’s sprint double recording 12.13s (-2.7) over 100m and 24.20s (-2.0) for 200m, both into steady head winds. Carl Van der Speck also faced a stiff head wind in winning the 100m in 10.80s (-2.8). Jeffrey Thumath won the 200m in 21.88s (-0.4) and the long jump clearing a wind assisted 7.26m (+2.8). New Zealand scored 122 points to beat Australia by eight points.
- thanks to Athletics New Zealand's Media Release.
