Twins Joccoaa and Leonie Palmer took their battle down to the wire at the Caledonian Ground yesterday.
The 17-year-old sisters, of Taieri, needed the final event to split them in the women’s 18-19 age heptathlon at the Otago combined events championships. Joccoaa emerged on top, finishing with 3270 points to Leonie’s 3172. At the conclusion of day one Joccoaa held a 66-point lead, which was eaten up by a strong showing in the long jump from Leonie. Joccoaa hit back in the javelin throw, edging to a seven-point lead, before pulling away in the 800m.
Both saved their best performances for day one’s final event, the 200m. Joccoaa ran 27.13sec to claim 701 points and Leonie finished in 27.84sec to nab 643 points.
In the 15-17 age heptathlon, Taieri’s Hannah Ashton was the only competitor and scored 2910 points. In the 16-and-under grade, Tara McNally scored 3314 points to beat Sarah Langsbury, who finished second with 3240.
Taieri’s Felix McDonald won the men’s 15-19 decathlon title with 5893 points. The 19-year-old’s best performances were in the long jump (6.84m) and 400m (52.18sec). Hill City-University’s Cameron Miller (17) was second with 5320.
In the 14 and under octathlon, Hill City-University’s Cameron Moffitt scored 3872 to break the boys 13 Otago record by more than 200 points. Matthew Wong, the only competitor in the 15-17 octathlon, scored 2190 points.
