Athletics: Rivals put on master class

The 400m hurdles, 1500m and javelin championships were held at the Athletics Tauranga Club Night on Tuesday night.

The best race was the contest for the men's 1500m title.

Lucas Fairweather (M19 grade) set the pace and led for most of the race, to be the first across the line. The real drama was occurring behind him, however, with Russell Lake and John Caie fighting it out for the masters' crown.

Lake started slowly and was well off the pace at the end of the first lap, whereas Caie was well ahead in second place. Lake made up a lot of ground to be up with his rival by halfway and challenged to pass but Caie fought him off. Lake was relentless, though, and moved ahead before the bell. Caie held on to a small gap, hoping for a sprint finish, but Lake's determined pace eventually burned him off. Lake won the title with a margin of about 4 seconds.

Other performances of note in the 1500m were Arleah Tippins (W14), Millie Tisch (W10) and Harrison Tisch (M10), who all won their grade titles. The other good competition was in the masters' javelin, which was won by Bruce Solomon with a throw of 31.46m to Brendon Magill's 28.33m.

Highly regarded sprinter Amy Robinson again revealed her all-round athletic talent by winning the W18 javelin crown with 25.71m.

It was good to see multi-New Zealand record holder Sally Gibbs back on the track and running smoothly after injury at the start of her comeback.