Two national para records were broken at the weekend’s Otago athletics championships.
Holly Robinson and Caitlin Dore each broke their own records in their classes of the javelin throw at the Caledonian Ground yesterday. In the F46 class, Robinson threw 42.68m with her fourth attempt, breaking the old record of 41.22m, which she set at the Rio Paralympics. Meanwhile, nearly a year after throwing 22.30m, Caitlin Dore extended the F37 record to 22.48m.
The women’s senior javelin was keenly contested, with Taieri’s Tori Peeters showing her class to win with a throw of 54.66m. She broke 50m with each of her six attempts, twice going over 54m. Laura Overton, of Taieri, finished second with 45.54m and Robinson came in third.
Caversham’s Geoff Anderson broke an Otago masters record, running 10min 25.97sec to break the men’s 60-plus record of 10min 48.68sec.
Meanwhile, North Otago’s Schuyler Orr put on an impressive display to win both the under-20 and senior men’s 100m titles. The 18-year-old Waitaki Boys’ High School pupil ran a wind-assisted, although still rapid, 11.06sec in the under-20 race yesterday. He was happy with the race, in which he opened up a sizeable gap over Taieri’s Felix McDonald, who was second in 11.73sec. He also ran 11.25sec to win the senior men’s race.
"I’m pretty pleased with the time, but the wind speeds made it, so it’s not a legal personal best," Orr said.
"But they were still good races."
Orr, who drives south from Oamaru every week, ran 22.91sec to win the senior men’s 200m, although had to settle for third in the under-20 race. That was won by Felix McDonald in 23.09sec.
Aspiring’s Sammy Burke ran 10min 12.09sec to win the women’s under-20 3000m, nearly 17sec faster than Katrina Andrew, who won the senior women’s event. In the men’s 3000m, Winton’s Jack Beaumont dominated from start to finish with an impressive time of 8min 38.62sec. However, as the Otago champion must be from Otago, Hill City-University’s Oli Chignell took home the title in 8min 44.29sec, edging Caden Shields by nearly four seconds.
Hill City-University’s Fiona Centers ran 12.32sec to win the senior women’s 100m. She claimed the double when she made use of the tail wind to run a blistering 200m in 24.94sec.
Bryn McLeod-Jones beat brother Hugh by 8cm to win the senior men’s shot put with 12.41m.
Australian Luke Cann threw an impressive 69.82m in the men’s javelin and Winton’s Anton Schroeder finished second with 49.62m. McDonald took home the Otago title with 46.80m, while Paralympic medallist Rory McSweeney managed 46.37m, short of the 48.52m he threw in the weekend’s para competition.
Otautau’s Atipa Mabonga jumped 5.73m to finish first in the women’s senior long jump. Taieri’s Anna Grimaldi jumped 5.38m twice to finish second, after jumping 5.27m in the para competition. Cameron Miller was the best of the men’s jumpers with 6.08m.
