Athletics: Hawke’s Bay pair in strong NZ World Athletics Champs bid

Georgia Hulls (centre) winning the Potts Classic women's 100-metre race in Hastings in January. Representing New Zealand in 200m racing, she will be one of two Hawke's Bay competitors at the world championships later this month.

Overseas-based Hawke’s Bay runner George Beamish will run the 3000-metre steeplechase at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Hungary later this month.

The plan was confirmed in Athletics New Zealand’s official naming today of a team of 19, including six ranked in the top 10 for their events in current world lists and Hawke’s Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls.

Beamish, who placed 12th in the 5000m event at last year’s World Championships in the US and sixth at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games at the same distance four weeks later, rocketed into 3000m steeplechase contention in Monaco on July 21 when he broke the New Zealand record that had stood for 39 years.

Hulls will run the 200m, hoping to break the New Zealand record of 22.81 seconds, having sprinted 22.84 seconds for second place when the record was broken in Christchurch in February by Rosie Elliott, who will run the 400m at the championships being held in Budapest on August 19-27.

She also competed at last year’s world championships.

The team is one of the strongest across the range of athletics disciplines ever assembled by New Zealand. There are strong medal hopes among them in shot putting duo Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill and pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, a possibility with Commonwealth Games high jump champion Hamish Kerr, and particular anticipation amid the continuing ascent of national women’s 100m record-holder Zoe Hobbs.

The New Zealand team selected to compete at the 2023 World Athletics Championships is:

Women: 100m, Zoe Hobbs; 200m, Georgia Hulls; 400m, Rosie Elliott; 400m hurdles, Portia Bing; pole vault, Eliza McCartney, Olivia McTaggart and Imogen Ayris; shot put, Maddi Wesche; hammer throw, Lauren Bruce; javelin, Tori Peeters.

Men: 100m, Tiaan Whelpton; 800m, James Preston and Brad Mathas; 1500m, Sam Tanner; 3000m steeplechase, George Beamish; high jump, Hamish Kerr; shot put, Jacko Gill and Tom Walsh; discus, Connor Bell.