Athletics: Hamblin claims middle distance double

Nikki Hamblin. Photo / Getty Images

Commonwealth double silver medallist Nikki Hamblin completed the middle distance double at the national track and field championship in Dunedin today by winning the women's 1500m title.

The 22-year-old landed the 800m title at the Caledonian Stadium on Saturday and backed that up with a tight win over the longer distance today.

The Auckland athlete won in 4 minutes 29.76 seconds, heading home Canterbury's Kellie Palmer by .30secs.

In the men's 1500m Wellington's Hamish Carson edged out Canterbury's Hayden McLaren by .19secs to defend his national title. Carson is to train with Olympic 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis in the United States next month in preparation for a tilt at qualifying for the world championships in South Korea later in the year.

His winning time in Dunedin of 3min 53.59secs was well outside the 3min 38secs he needs to run to meet the `B' qualifying standard for Daegu.

In other results on Sunday Delhi silver medallist Stuart Farquhar threw 75.47m to land the men's javelin title for the ninth time.

Tasman's Alex Jordan won the men's 200m while Andrea Koenen won the women's 200m and in the high jump William Crayford cleared 2.01m to land the men's title.

- NZPA