Athletics: Langley out on her own to smash best

Graeme Jones, of Hawke's Bay, also won a gold medal in the senior men's 20km road walk race.

Walker Laura Langley smashed her personal best by a country mile at the national championships in Wellington at the weekend, despite her only opponent being bad weather.

Langley was the sole competitor in the junior 3000m walk on Friday, but still set a time of 17:39.07 - 46 seconds better than she had raced before.

Hawke's Bay-Gisborne team manager Sharee Jones said it was an outstanding result given the conditions Langley had to race in around Newtown Park.

"She had to contend with a torrential downpour during the race, but coped admirably and that's a huge pb for her," Jones said.

Langley was also the only entrant in Sunday's 10,000m walk, recording a time of 1:06.13 in her debut at the distance.

Langley's gold was one of two for the team on the opening day of the games, with Georgia Hulls taking the tape first, as expected, in the youth 100m, although she was chased hard by Symone Tafuna'i of Auckland. Hulls has already set the standard in the event for the World Youth Championships this year, and went under it twice again at the weekend, clocking 11.89 in the heat and the final.

Hulls also took out the 200m title, in another world youth qualifying time of 24.14, after posting the fastest time (24.63) in the heats.

On a busy weekend, she was also part of the Hastings quartet that won the youth 4x100m relay, alongside Briana Stephenson, Ruby Hansen, and Florence de Bievre.

Stephenson came agonisingly close to taking first place in the long jump, her 5.52m effort being eclipsed by one of the stars of the meet, Wellington all-rounder Phoebe Edwards, with the penultimate jump of the day.

Another expected gold came from star junior Holly Manning on Saturday. She won her 800m race in a time of 2:09.76. Manning broke from the field at about 350m, and easily led till the tape. She followed this up by finishing third in the 1500m, beating her pb by two seconds.

Shannon Gearey was second in the junior 400m final on Saturday, being pipped by Aucklander Megan Kikuchi.

"Shannon was happy with her time and the 58.50 she did in the heat, considering she has had a quite a slow start to the season so far," said Jones.

"For a little team, we have done extraordinarily well this weekend. We won far more medals than last year and it's still a very young team."

There was also a win for Geordie Beamish, the Hawke's Bay middle-distance runner, representing Manawatu-Wanganui. He retained his 1500m junior title, going five seconds faster. His older brother Hugo was fourth in the 5000m in a race won by Jake Robertson.

Graeme Jones, of Hawke's Bay, also won a gold medal in the senior men's 20km road walk race.