Kiwi sprinters set to race

A who’s who of New Zealand sprinting will be running at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton tonight, once again making it one of the feature athletics meets on the national calendar.

The men’s and women’s 100m and 200m sprints are shaping up as the highlight of the Porritt Stadium-held event - generally recognised by athletes as the best of the three Black Singlet Series meets.

The men’s 100m will feature some of the country’s best sprinters while the women’s race sees the top four nationally race head to head.

Dunedin’s Chris Donaldson, who is the Porritt Classic 100m record holder with a time of 10.27s, is top seed but Counties-Manukau’s Craig Bearda, currently one of the fastest men in New Zealand, is expected to mount a strong challenge.

The New Zealand men’s 100m relay team of David Falealili, James Dolphin, James Mortimer and Carl Van Der Speck, all from Auckland, will contest the relays tonight although Dolphin and Mortimer will not race the 100m.

Auckland’s Anna Smythe, the fastest woman in the country, tops the women’s race. Tokoroa’s Monique Williams, who is racing the meet for North Harbour, is rated .01s faster than current New Zealand champion Chantal Brunner. Rounding out the top four is North Harbour’s April Brough. These four women make up New Zealand’s 4x100m squad and will race the national men’s team in tonight’s opening event.

The four women will also contest the 200m.

Dolphin will race the men’s 200m alongside Hamilton’s New Zealand secondary school champion Daniel Stevenson and cancer recoverer Jeffrey Thumath. Matt Brown is expected to vie with Dolphin for first place.

The 1500m fields tonight have blown out with 70 athletes expected to race.

Twenty-five will start the men’s race with Napier’s Jason Stewart expected to prevail.

The women’s 1500m has 14 in the field with Hamilton City Hawks’ Camille Buscomb looking to challenge close rival Kellie Palmer (Auckland).

The men’s and women’s secondary school 1500m feature 36 competitors.

One of the meet’s big attractions will be Beatrice Faumuina, who is hoping to advance her good form of late in the discus.

But as it is early in the season and with easterly winds forecast, Faumuina and Hamilton javelin thrower Stuart Farquhar aren’t expected to throw long distances.

There will be one Vili on show but it won’t be Commonwealth champion Valerie. Husband Bertrand, competing for New Caledonia, will appear in the discus. He has thrown more than 60m in France recently.

Jessica Penney, fifth in the world in junior long jump, Angela McKee, Commonwealth Games high jump bronze medalist, Keshia Grant, national women’s javelin champion, and Keri Tongalea, best men’s discus and shot putter in New Zealand, are among the other stars in a field of 165 athletes.

Meanwhile, Nick Kalivati was the standout performer at Saturday’s Waikato-Bay of Plenty athletics meet in Hamilton. Kalivati, a visitor from the Valley’s United Club in north Wellington, beat Hamilton’s Daniel Stevenson in both the 100m and 200m races.

Te Aroha’s Zoe Martin was the fastest in both the women’s 100m and 200m and threw 7.48m in the shot.

Meet was actually yesterday. full results

Wind no help for Beatrice Faumuina at Porritt Classic

Beatrice Faumuina had a consistent series of throws, in conditions far from ideal, in winning the discus event at the Porritt Classic meeting in Hamilton this evening.
Faumuina, with no help from the wind sweeping the ground, was out to 57.66m, over five metres better than Tereapii Tapoki of the Cook Islands.
The wind also drove down the main straight right into the face of the sprinters. Craig Bearda triumphed over Chris Donaldson in the 100m both timed at 10.9s.
James Dolphin opted for a relay practice and the 200m which he duly won ahead of Matt Brown in 21.0s.
Anna Smythe came from behind to pip Chantal Brunner in the 100m in 11.9s, while third placed Monique Williams went on to later win the 200m over Brunner in 23.8s.
Tony Sargisson was about 17 seconds slower than his time in Hastings on Saturday, with the fastest time of 12m 51.5s in the handicap 3000m walk.
Ben Ruthe outkicked Jason Stewart over the final 50 metres of the 1500m, to win in 3m 49.8s. Aunese Curreen snuck home for second ahead of Stewart in a fresh Samoan record of 3m 50.4s.
Jessica Ruthe won the earlier women’s 1500m in a personal best of 4m 19.6s, two seconds better than her national title performance a year ago in Christchurch.
Kellie Palmer was second with Camille Buscomb securing a second qualifying time, in just over a week, for selection to the world youth championships.

Results:
Men.-
100m: Craig Bearda (CM) 10.9s 1, Chris Donaldson (Hill City) 10.9s 2, David Falealili (BC) 11.0s 3.
200m: James Dolphin (BC) 21.0s 1, Matt Brown (BC) 21.1s 2, Andrew Moore (Hill City) 21.5s 3.
400m: Sam Rapson (ACA) 48.4s 1, Scott McLaren (CM) 49.4s 2, Kieran Cocks (BC) 49.7s 3.
1500m: Ben Ruthe (Tga) 3m 49.8s 1, Aunese Curreen (Samoa) 3m 50.4s 2, Jason Stewart (Napier) 3m 50.6s 3.
1500m Boys: Steven Langdon (TRGB) 4m 15.1s 1, Mohamed Ali (FAIC) 4m 16.3s 2, Josh Van Dalen (WNCS) 4m 16.9s 3.
5000m: Abdullahi Guled (VU) 14m 56.9s 1, Stephen Smith (Taum) 15m 8.8s 2.
3000m walk: Tony Sargisson (BC) 12m 51.5s 1, Hamish Fowlie (Frank) 15m 6.8s 2, David Sim (BC) 16m 32.5s 3.
110m hurdles: James Mortimer (BC) 14.2s 1, Brent Newdick (CM) 15.2s 2, McLaren 15.4s 3.
Shot put: Keri Tongalea (Wait) 14.72m 1, Newdick 13.30m 2, Tom Ingram (Egmont) 12.42m 3.
Discus: Bertrand Vili (N/Cal) 58.11m 1, Tongalea 51.67m 2, Newdick 41.94m 3.
Hammer: Ingram 45.30m 1, Navin Rajes (Ham) 25.40m 2.
Javelin: Stuart Farquhar (Ham) 72.28m 1, Cliff Weston (BC) 62.59m 2, Mathieu Roulet (N/Cal) 57.26m 3.
Long jump: Jeffrey Thumath (ACA) 7.10m 1, Hayden Booker (Ham) 6.83m 2, Joseph Millar (Papamoa) 5.13m 3.
High jump: Rajan Prasad (Fiji) 2.00m 1, Booker 1.95m 2, Matt Nicholls (Ham) 1.90m 3.
4 x 100m relay: New Zealand (Carl van der Speck, James Dolphin, Matt Brown, David Falealili) 1.
Women.-
100m: Anna Smythe (Hill City) 11.9s 1, Chantal Brunner (CM) 11.9s 2, Monique Williams (BC) 12.0s 3.
200m: Williams 23.8s 1, Brunner 24.1s 2, Joelene Hardy (BC) 26.0s 3.
400m: Charlotte Osborne (Ham) 56.8s 1, Bianca Lawrie (BC) 57.4s 2, Jessica Sloan (Ham) 60.0s 3.
1500m: Jess Ruthe (BC) 4m 19.6s 1, Kellie Palmer (Hill City) 4m 28.9s 2, Camille Buscomb (Ham) 4m 32.1s 3.
1500m Girls: Melissa Murrihy (Taum) 4m 42.0s 1, Christina Taylor (Spah) 4m 50.8s 2, Laura Sinclair (TeAw) 4m 53.5s 3.
3000m walk: Kelly Mabbett (Ham) 17m 10.7s 1, Shirley Barber (ACA) 19m 12.5s 2, Kate Newitt (Port Hills) 16m 25.5s 3.
100m hurdles: Sarah Cowley (BC) 14.3s 1, Veronica Torr (BC) 15.0s 2, Tracey Hale (Tga) 15.7s 3.
Shot put: Ana Po’uhila (Tonga) 15.79m 1, Tereapii Tapoki (Cook Is) 14.45m 2, Cowley 12.58m 3.
Discus: Beatrice Faumuina (Wait) 57.56m 1, Tapoki 52.25m 2, Po’uhila 43.93m 3.
Hammer: Jessica Charlesworth (BC) 44.27m 1, Millie McNie (Pal/Nth) 39.39m 2, Elizabeth Gray (Ham) 39.21m 3.
Javelin: Keshia Grant (Ham) 40.16m 1, Stephanie Wrathall (BC) 38.33m 2, Megan Aikenhead (Tasman) 37.12m 3.
Long jump: Marissa Pritchard (VU) 5.39m 1, Amanda Martens (Ham) 5.24m 2, Hale 5.08m 3.
High jump: Sarah Saddleton (CM) 1.73m 1, Pritchard 1.70m 2, Tamara Anstis (CM) 1.60m 3.
4 x 100m relay: New Zealand (Monique Williams, Chantal Brunner, April Brough, Andrea Miller) 1.

assumedly all hand timed from a look at the results.

Would have been ET but there was a bit of wind :rolleyes: looks like it was up and down though
100m women -5.3
200m women -0.8
100 men -4.9
200 men -2.1

get them down to Natal. you get fast times there :rolleyes:

If they were ET, all were exactly to the tenth- no hundredths.

believe it or not it was hand start ET finish and then the times rounded up to the nearest tenth. Crazy…