Alexa Duff smashed the women’s 15 javelin standard in competition at the Caledonian Ground on Saturday.
Duff, a year 11 pupil at Columba College who competes under the Hill City-University banner, made short work of the 36.10m mark, established at the beginning of the 2011 season, making it her own in just the third round of competition with a throw of 36.22m.
She then bettered the new mark in the fifth round with a distance of 38.48m to firmly entrench herself in the Otago record book.
The record came a year to the day since she set a record in the girl’s 14 grade of 31.94m. But a year on and with an improvement of 6.54m, Duff is casting an eye towards the women’s 16 Otago standard of 40m, set at the beginning of the 2011 season, as the first step in achieving the full set of age-group javelin records.
"It’s good to get an old record just before my birthday," Duff said of turning 16 early next month.
"I’m only 2m off that one now," she said.
There was nothing to dampen the enthusiasm on a wet track for good times in the open 1500m events.
Dylan Forde (Christchurch Old Boys) took advantage of a trip south to drop in at the Caledonian Ground and turn up the pace in the senior men’s 1500m on Saturday.
"I haven’t run a lot of races this season so far, so it was to try to push through that 4min mark," the 23-year-old said.
"But given the conditions it was pretty respectable," he said of his time of 4min 4.84sec.
Forde was full of praise for second-placed George Hamilton (Hill City-University), who set a solid pace to lead the field until Forde overtook him 250m out.
"He ran a bloody good race. It’s a shame I couldn’t take a lap off him and help him out a bit.".
The race proved a good indicator for Hamilton, who emphatically announced his return to middle-distance running after illness and injury had curtailed his development in the past two years.
The 17 year-old took to the front from the start pacing the field through the first 300m in 47sec before taking the bell lap at 3min flat, to finish second behind Forde in 4min 6.32sec, to better his personal best by 8sec.
Zara Geddes (Hill City-University) took ownership of the open women’s 1500m from the start to win in 4min 43.11sec from Becky de la Harpe (Caversham) in 5min 10.05sec. Lila Rhodes (Hill City-University) was third in 5min 12.85sec.
Geddes fronted up in the women’s open 400m soon afterwards, finishing second in 65.23sec to Jordan Evans-Tobata (Caversham), who clocked 59.55sec.
