Livvy Wilson (left), Georgia Hulls, Brooke Somerfield, Zoe Hobbs and Rosie Elliot after smashing the New Zealand senior women's 4 x 100m relay record in Canberra. Photo / supplied
Livvy Wilson (left), Georgia Hulls, Brooke Somerfield, Zoe Hobbs and Rosie Elliot after smashing the New Zealand senior women's 4 x 100m relay record in Canberra. Photo / supplied
Hastings sprinter Georgia Hulls has added another milestone to her impressive resume when it comes to relays.
Hulls ran the tricky third leg as other fellow New Zealand team members of Livvy Wilson, Zoe Hobbs and Rosie Elliot — running in the other legs, respectively — not only beat theirAustralian counterparts but also smashed the Kiwi senior women's record in Canberra, Australia, on Thursday. Brooke Somerfield, of Tauranga, was the reserve.
In clocking 44.20s, they beat the quartet of Bree Masters, Nana Owusu, Riley Day and Celeste Mucci by .02s. The awesome Kiwi foursome eclipsed the 44.22s the NZ University relay team had established at the World University Games in Naples, Italy, in July last year.
Hull had that day run the third leg with Olivia Eaton, Hobbs and Natasha Eady in the mix as they went to break the 18-year-old New Zealand 4x100m record by more than 0.4s.
At the Woden Park Athletics Field track in the capital of Australia on Thursday, Hulls took the baton on a leg where transition requires a bit more focus due to the bend. She also gave Elliot, of Dunedin, the ideal edge to anchor the race for a time that may put them in the running for the World Relay Championship to be staged in Poland next year. The combination has made the 44.20s qualifying standard, a yardstick used for the previous world relay event in Yokohama, Japan.
The Aussies had made last year's world relay champs, which had put them in contention for the World Athletics Championship.
Wilson, Hobbs and Hulls are from the Auckland stable of mentor James Mortimer. The athletes are on their flight back to New Zealand before competing at the Porritt Classic in Hamilton this weekend.
Hulls is a former Havelock North High School student who is in her second-year accounting degree of a five-year tertiary stint through Massey University's Academy of Sport in Auckland.
With her latest acquisition, the 20-year-old Athletics Hastings member now has collectively been part of the senior, U20, U19 and U18 grade teams who have held national records.
