A trio of Otago athletes nabbed four golds and two national records at the national track and field championships at the weekend.
Otago Girls’ High School long distance runner Catherine Lund starred on the track winning double gold in the 3000m and 4000m events in Christchurch.
In the field, Columba College thrower Alexa Duff won gold in the senior javelin and Dunstan High School para athlete Mac Denniston won shot put gold and set two New Zealand records in the discus and javelin.
Lund won the senior girls 3000m on Friday, finishing in 9min 53.10sec. Zara Geddes (St Hilda’s Collegiate) finished eighth in the same event.
Lund backed up her performance yesterday, winning the senior girls 4000m road race, battling through the wet conditions to win in 13min 44.91sec.
She then came fourth in the senior girls 2000m steeplechase.
Duff won the senior girls javelin with her throw of 44.58m, nearly 6m ahead of second place Leela Willman’s (Kings College) throw of 38.71m.
Duff placed sixth in the senior girls discus on Saturday and then battled through the rain to finish sixth in the senior girls shot put yesterday. St Hilda’s athlete Renee Willis also finished fifth in the shot put.
Denniston won gold in the para senior boys shot put (multi class) with his throw of 6.86m.
The 17-year-old F34 classified athlete also secured silver and set national records in the para senior boys discus (multi class) with his throw of 16.75m and the para senior boys javelin (multi class) with his throw of 13.53m.
Jorja Gibbons (Queen’s High School) stormed home to win silver in the senior girls 100m with her time of 12.08sec.
Van Couch (Taieri College) won silver in the junior boys 100m hurdles, finishing in 14.43sec and fellow Taieri athlete Blake Dalton won bronze in the senior boys 200m, finishing in 22.15sec.
In the field, Lisa Lokman (Otago Girls’) won bronze in the senior girls high jump with her leap of 1.63m and Sarah Evans (Taieri) picked up a bronze in the junior girls javelin with her throw of 35.82m.
