Hawke’s Bay athlete Briana Stephenson chasing heptathlon goals in Europe

Briana Stephenson lines up for one of the seven events in her heptathlon in Austria.

Hawke’s Bay athlete Briana Stephenson has got her new European campaign under way in good form as she targets the magic heptathlon of 6000 points this month and a possible world championships tilt later this year.

The big start at the weekend came at the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold event Hypomeeting Götzis in Austria.

While it was dominated by American star Anna Hall, with a world equal second-best 7032 points for the seven-event test, Stephenson’s 5945 points, for 17th, was just short of her personal best of 5985, and in sight of the national record of 6278 set 33 years ago.

She also ran 11.36s in the 100m hurdles, again in sight of a national women’s record of 13.1s set in 2009.

Next up are a 100m hurdles and high jump in Portugal on June 14 and the targeted Arona Heptathlon the following weekend in Spain, a key event in her goal of lifting her world points ranking from the current 62nd to about No 24, her best chance of selection for the world track and field championships in Tokyo in September.

She had earlier in the year, at the end of the southern hemisphere season but early in the season of most of the world’s heptathletes, been ranked in the top 50.

She is currently ranked one place behind fellow New Zealander Maddie Wilson, who was 20th at the weekend, as they bid to have two New Zealanders in the event in Tokyo.

Stephenson claimed four personal bests during her national title win in Auckland in March, including a 13.34s 100m hurdles, the fourth-best by a New Zealand woman.

“Hypomeeting Götzis showed that I am heading in the right direction with all of my events,” she told Hawke’s Bay Today. “My speed is there, my long jump is progressing, and my shot put has improved a lot.

“Over the next few weeks, I’ll continue to refine a few technical things and build back some more speed endurance, but otherwise it’s all there to score big with my coach in Spain, in three weeks,” she said.

“I will take this experience and confidence into the next one.”

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 52 years of journalism experience, 42 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.