Andrew Whyte continued his winning ways at the annual Auckland Track Classic on Thursday night.
The 22-year-old clocked his fastest 400m time (46.78sec) since 2014, and held off Cameron French, of Waikato-Bay of Plenty, who crossed the line just 0.10sec later.
It was just what the doctor ordered for Whyte, who has been looking for competition to push his times down.
He was also pushed by national champion Tama Toki, of Auckland, who was third in 47.15sec.
It was the first time Whyte, who has a personal-best of 46.25sec, has run a sub-47sec 400m since December, 2014.
Whyte won the national 400m title three years ago and is the favorite to win it back at this year's championships, which start in Dunedin on Friday.
He is chasing an Olympic qualifier, and needs to clock 45.80sec to reach his goal.
It does not appear the field in next week's 400m will provide him with the desired competition, but he plans to compete in Australia and Europe before the Rio Olympics in pursuit of qualification.
Otago's Cory Innes was also in action at the Auckland meeting. He finished fifth (11.17sec) in a fast 100m field.
Running into a 1.7m per-second wind, Joseph Millar, of Waikato-Bay of Plenty, won in 10.54sec.
Caversham runner Joshua Baan knocked 3.09sec off his personal best in the senior men's 1500m.
He finished eighth in 3min 52.41sec, but was up against a talent-laden field, which included three sub-4min milers in Hamish Carson, Eric Speakman and Australian Craig Huffer.
Carson won in 3min 40.39sec.
Christina Ashton, of Taieri, was also in action, and finished fifth in the women's 100m hurdles (14.97sec).
Jerram Huston (14.13m) and Rory McSweeney (53.92m) finished fifth and sixth in the men's shot put and javelin respectively.
Huston was up against national champion Tom Walsh, who set a New Zealand resident record with his third put (20.91m).
The meet also marked the return of double Olympic gold shot put medallist Valerie Adams.
She was far from her best, but her winning put (18.85m) was better than anything she had managed in the past 15 months.
● Athletics Otago has organised a quick-fire meet for athletes wanting a further hit out before next week's national championships.
It will start at the Caledonian Ground at the conclusion of the national masters track and field championships at 2pm tomorrow.
