Bernice Cullen and Shay Veitch have got Otago off to a flying start at the New Zealand track and field championships.
Cullen set the pace, winning the women’s under-20 long jump with her jump of 5.40m in Wellington yesterday morning.
Then in the afternoon, Veitch flew to gold, with his jump of 7.65m in the men’s senior long jump. Otago’s Felix McDonald (7.47m) claimed silver.
Their results were just a couple of the swag of medals Otago picked up during the championships’ opening two days.
Otago made a clean sweep of the top three in the women’s under-20 5000m on Thursday.
Hannah Prosser took home gold and set a new personal best in the process, with her time of 16min 51.76sec. She was followed by Catherine Lund (16min 51.94) in second and Zara Geddes won bronze with her personal best of 17min 47.41sec.
Sprinter Jorja Gibbons was out of the blocks quickly in the women’s under-18 100m final.
She set the pace and was edged out in the last few strides, finishing in 12.18sec to claim silver. She also won bronze in the women’s under-18 long jump.
Emelia Adamson (1.68m) picked up silver in the women’s under-16 high jump, Sarah Evans (32.85m) secured silver in the women’s under-16 javelin and Keira McNeill (1.53m) claimed bronze in the women’s under-20 high jump.
Luke Moffitt stormed home for silver in the men’s under-20 400m hurdles, in a time of 56.08sec.
Soon after, Cameron Moffitt also took silver in the men’s 400m, with his time of 56.08sec.
Sebastian Ferro (11.06sec) snuck in for bronze in a tight men’s under-20 100m race.
New Zealand Olympian Zoe Hobbs broke her national 100m record during her heat and again during the final.
She clocked 11.07sec during the heat and blew the finals race away with her time of 10.89sec to be crowned the national champion.
Her times set the national and Oceania records and gained her automatic entry to the world championships.
The national championships finish tomorrow.
