Joseph Millar (left) beats Cam French by .01 of a second in the 100m in the Tauranga twilight meet at the Tauranga Domain earlier this year.
Joseph Millar made a welcome return to the track on Saturday after nearly a year on the sidelines with a chronic herniated disc.
The three-time New Zealand title-holder in the 100m and 200m, and owner of the second-fastest all-time residents 100m time of 10.32 sec, had two convincing sprint victories
at the opening meeting of the season, held at Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium.
The 23-year-old, from Papamoa, won the 100m in a wind-assisted time of 10.56, which is a long way off the qualifying time of 10.16 for next year's Rio Olympics.
"I was hoping for a little bit quicker but obviously it's going to take me a couple of races to get my head around things and be able to really do what I'm capable of," Millar said. "Then hopefully (I'll) be able to add a bit of speed and stuff on to that and by the proper races in the season, I'll be able to really take a good crack at the Rio qualifications and other times I'm after.
"The end of November last year is when I last ran injury-free before now. I really had to think about what I wanted and the risks I would take by trying to take nationals out. So I decided not to compete but that was easier said than done, as it almost killed me to watch the race without being in there."
