Connor Bell rings in new discus record in Hastings

A thumbs-up from Connor Bell after a 65m throw first up. Rain fell soon afterwards, and when it stopped, the record also fell, with a throw of 66.14m. Photo / Paul Taylor

Hawke’s Bay’s Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic athletics meeting has been given a huge boost with the smashing of a 21-year-old national men’s discuss record at a Pre-Potts Classic throws and jumps meeting in Hastings last night.

Defying the threat of rain, which had fallen heavily a short while before he entered the circle at the Mitre 10 Sports Park’s William Nelson Athletics Precinct, 21-year-old Auckland thrower Connor Bell hurled the discus out to 66.14 metres – 1.11m better than the previous record throw of 65.03m by Ian Winchester in Salinas, California, in May 2002.

It also put him in sight of the New Zealand all-comers record of 66.81m thrown by Lithuanian thrower and two-times former Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna at North Shore, Auckland, in 1999 – a bid for which could come as early as the Potts Class on Saturday.

Bell was primed for the record bid, having on New Year’s Day in Tauranga added 2cm to his PB with a 64.31m effort

He opened with a 65.00m throw – just 3cm shy of Winchester’s record, and a new rainfall then threatened to ruin the chance.

He followed with a foul in round two before registering 60.82m with his third effort. In round four he started to find his range again with a 63.92m throw before producing the dazzling 66.14m hurl, before fouling his final visit to the circle.

The distance would have been good enough for a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year in Birmingham, England, and seventh place at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Bell struck gold at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games but in late-2021 he broke an ankle which impacted him throughout 2022 last year, when he was crowned national and Oceania champion but was below his best at the Commonwealth Games, where he was eighth with a best of 60.23m.

While still to be ratified, Wednesday night’s throw is expected to go down as the seventh New Zealand national or all-comers athletics record set in Hastings since the start of 2019, four of them in field events.

One of the classiest fields in the history of the Potts Classic, first held 23 years ago, is gathering for this year’s meeting classic, starting at 5pm on Saturday, including sprinter Tiaan Whelpton, who last year ran one of New Zealand’s fastest-ever 100 metres on the track, albeit with wind-assistance outside the allowable limit, and Portia King, who at the national championships in Hastings last Match set a women’s 400m hurdles record.