Canterbury's Hayden McLaren achieved an important milestone when he ran a sub-4min mile in Boston last weekend.
He was the 32nd New Zealand athlete to achieve the feat. McLaren, who has an athletics scholarship in the United States, is the second-youngest New Zealand runner to break the mark. He was aged 20 years 168 days when he won the race at the Terrier Invitation meeting.
Commonwealth Games 1500m champion Nick Willis, aged 19 years 200 days when he broke the barrier, is the youngest New Zealander to achieve the feat.
Another highlight for New Zealand athletics at the weekend was the win by the New Zealand men's team of Craig Bearda, Jeffrey Thumath, Matt Brown and James Dolphin in the 4 x 100m relay in Canberra. New Zealand recorded 39.6sec to beat Australia in in 39.64sec.
Dunedin sprinter Chris Donaldson finished sixth in the 100m final in 10.68sec but was replaced in the relay team by Thumath after suffering a slight hamstring
problem.
The New Zealand relay team must finish in the top 16 in the world to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games. The 16th country at the moment has a time of 39.13sec. The New Zealand record is 38.99sec.
It is the start of a busy racing month for Donaldson that includes events in Wellington, Hamilton, grands prix in Sydney and Melbourne and the Australian championships in Brisbane.
The New Zealand women's team of April Brough, Anna Smythe, Monique Williams and Andrea Miller was second in the 4 x 100m relay in 45.04sec, behind Australia in 44.26s. The New Zealand record for the women's 4 x 100m relay is 44.60sec. Smythe and Miller are both from Otago.
Christchurch athlete Phil Costley's win in the New Zealand 10,000m title at Inglewood on Saturday gave him a clean sweep of every national senior men's title from the 3000m to the marathon. It includes the crosscountry and road titles.
He won his 30th national title in 29min 56.51sec from Ben Ruthe in 29 min 56.51sec with Otago's Luke Hurring (Otago) third in a personal-best track time of 30min 10.27sec.
Jessica Ruthe won the women's title in 33min 50.37sec, with Caden Shields (Otago) retaining the junior title in 31min 25.30sec.
Shields won by nearly 400m but was not fast enough to gain a qualifying time for the World Student Games cross-country.
