Otago athletes are locked and loaded for the 2025 season.
Athletes battled through strong winds on the track and in the field to return some favourable results at the Lovelock Classic in Timaru at the weekend.
Otago sprinter John Gerber was impressive yet again on the track.
He raced home to win the men’s 100m in a personal best of 10.38sec to just pip North Otago’s Schuyler Orr, who also ran a personal best of 10.39sec to finish second.
Gerber was also runner-up in the men’s 200m with his time of 21.50sec, while Wanaka runner Jackson Rogers won the title, clocking in at 21.30sec.
Kevin Syriak (University of Otago) finished third in 22.50sec.
Cameron Moffitt (Hill City-University) came second in the men’s 110m hurdles in 15.60sec.
He edged club-mate Toby Martin, who claimed bronze in 16.00sec.
Nicolas Alvarez Rey-Virag (Hill City-University) finished third in the men’s 800m in 1min 58.6sec
Jorja Gibbons, who raced in a New Zealand singlet after making the national secondary schools team, was a standout on the track.
She won the women’s 100m in 11.80sec and the women’s 200m in 25.30sec.
Sadye Kawau (Hill City-University), originally from North Otago, finished third in the 200m with 26.50sec. She came first in the women’s under-15 100m in 12.84sec.
Wanaka runner Phoebe Laker continued her purple patch of form to win the women’s 400m in 56.20sec.
National champion Felix McDonald (Taieri) won the men’s long jump with his leap of 7.18m, the only athlete to jump past the 7m barrier on the day.
Taieri thrower Kieran Fowler was unstoppable in the field.
He won the men’s shot put with a throw of 13.99m and the men’s discus with his throw of 49.48m, nearly 13m further than the runner-up.
Moffitt finished second in the men’s shot put with his heave of 13.62m and was third in the men’s discus with a throw of 36.35m.
Another Taieri thrower, Zharna Beattie, won the women’s discus with her throw of 43.37sec.
Cromwell’s Jessica Lake finished third in the women’s javelin with her throw of 32.25m and Rebecca Peterson (University of Otago) finished third in the women’s long jump with her distance of 5.28m.
Otago’s junior athletes head away to the South Island Colgate Games in Christchurch later this week.
Senior athletes will return for an Otago-Southland interclub meeting next weekend, while some will head away to the Cooks Classic in Whanganui.
