Hawke's Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls, (pictured here in 2021) is off to the World Athletics Championships after winning her women's 200 metres at the Oceania Area Championships in Queensland. Photo NZME
Hawke's Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls, (pictured here in 2021) is off to the World Athletics Championships after winning her women's 200 metres at the Oceania Area Championships in Queensland. Photo NZME
Hawke's Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls is off to the World Athletics Championships after winning her women's 200 metres at the Oceania Area Championships in Queensland.
The 22-year-old's place in the team was dependent on a winning performance and a new world ranking at the Senior, Under-20s and Under-18s event inMackay, 953km from Brisbane on the North Queensland coast.
She suffered a hiccup in the morning heats yesterday when finishing a well-beaten second to Australian sprinter Bree Masters in the heats but delivered when it mattered most in the final.
Rounding the bend, the Havelock North athlete now based in Auckland held a clear lead and kicked clear to win in 23.45secs, more than four metres clear of runner-up and Australian champion Ella Connolly, whom she had also beaten at the Australian championships in Sydney in April.
"It was a classic heat," she told the media when asked about her progress. "I went in very relaxed and eased off at the end.
"I had to gee myself up for the final, try to stay in touch and run right through to the end. It feels good to beat those girls because they are such great runners."
Hulls is heading back to New Zealand for a few days before flying to France to train with New Zealand 400m hurdles record-holder Portia Bing, targeting the World championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 15-24.
Hawke's Bay sprinter Georgia Hulls (left) winning the national 200 metres title in Hastings in March, one of her many recent triumphs in a looming golden era for New Zealand athletics. Photo / NZME
Of her hopes there, she said: "I just want to enjoy it and take it all in. Performance-wise I haven't thought too much about it, I guess the aim would be to beat my ranking and make the semi-finals."
Her win capped a big opening two days for the New Zealand team of about 90 athletes at the June 7-11 Oceania event, headlined by women's 4x100m relay teammate Zoe Hobbs' lowering of the New Zealand women's 100 metres record to 11.09sec.
At an Oceania championships prelude on Saturday the team of Anna Percy, Hobbs, Hulls and Livvy Wilson continued their plundering of New Zealand sprint records over recent months by running 43.79sec, bettering the previous record of 44.95sec set by Wilson, Rosie Elliott, Hulls and Hobbs two months ago in Sydney – setting up a transtasman clash of quite epic proportions athletically-speaking today .
Five other Hawke's Bay athletes were also among the placings in the first two days, including Napier Boys High School students Rylan Noome and Ryan Shotter, fourth and sixth respectively in the men's Under 18 100m, Noome ran 10.91sec, Shotter 11.09sec, and winner and Australian speedster Toshi Butlin 10.53sec.
Noome was also third in the 200m final, running 22.45sec.
Holly Manning, of Napier, was third in the women's Senior 800m final, running 2min 6.35sec, more than two seconds shy of the personal best of 2min 3.76sec she ran in winning the New Zealand title in Hastings in March. The Mackay final was won by Australian runner Tess Kirsopp-Cole in 2min 4.63sec.
Hastings thrower Nick Palmer, who turns 22 this week, was third in the men's Senior shot putt, throwing 18.21 metres - this was 0.79m short of the personal best she recorded when third at the New Zealand championships three months ago. Lindisfarne College pupil Callum O'Keeffe was fifth in the men's Under-18s 800m, running 1min 56.27sec in an event won by New Zealand teammate James Ford in 1min 54.15sec.
North Harbour-based Matthew Taylor, a Lindisfarne pupil in 2007-2012, ran 3min 50.18sec for third in the men's Senior 1500m run by teammate and top international hope Sam Tanner in 3min 42.56sec.
