Athletics: Mountain queen shows out on the track

Kate McIlroy during last night's 3000m steeplechase. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Kate McIlroy again showed she is poised to carry the ability which took her to the top of as the world mountain running champion to the track with another encouraging effort in the first women's 3000m steeplechase.

In a race dominated in the latter stages by world champion Dorcus Inzikuru, McIlroy faded only in the last couple of laps to finish fifth.

Displaying greatly improved hurdling technique and with some superb work on clearing the water jump, McIlroy matched strides in the leading group and held third with two of the 7 laps to run.

The pressure went on as Inzikuru was challenged by Australian Melissa Rollinson over the penultimate lap.

They were locked together at the bell with 30m back to Donna MacFarlane. The third Australian Victoria Mitchell edged to a 20m lead over McIlroy.

Inzikuru applied the pressure in the back straight to win in 9m 19.51s.

Rollinson held second ahead of the fast-finishing MacFarlane.

McIlroy improved her previous best by 4.5s in recording 9m 35.70.

McIlroy, confined to bed last weekend as she battled flu, refused to blame that saying she did not feel it had affected her performance.

"I didn't realise it was a personal best until I looked at the screen," she said. "I hurdled well but I have to try and maintain my momentum once over the hurdles.

"The pace picked up a bit after the first two laps which hurt a bit but hopefully with a bit more training I will soon be able to keep up with these girls."

New Zealand's Rebecca Forlong trailed the field home in 10m 36.08s - well outside the time she had run to book a Games ticket.

Sprinter James Dolphin had a good day. He ran strong bends in his first and second round 200m heats to comfortably qualify for today's semifinals.

Not pressed in either run, Dolphin got through to the last 16 with a solid run down the straight in an unpressured 20.80s. Another similar effort today should see him through to the final.

Rebecca Wardell unleashed the biggest javelin throw of the heptathlon, her 48.48m effort worth 831 points.

Followed by a 2m 15.80s heat-winning run in the 1st of the two 800m heats to complete the testing two-day event, Wardell improved a place to finish seventh with a personal best 5845 points.

Team-mate Sarah Cowley had a javelin disaster failing to produce one legitimate throw which relegated her to 11th place in the 12-strong field.

England's Kelly Sotherton, who was second-best in the first five events before being the worst-performed of all throwers to score points in the javelin, was fourth fastest over 800m to hold on and head Australian Kylie Wheeler by 98 points.

Auckland's Jason Stewart ran himself into tonight's 800m final with a gutsy run in the first of three heats last night. Stewart clocked 1m 47.74s in finishing a close-up third. He missed automatic qualification as one of the first two but won through as the fifth-fastest qualifier, claiming his spot as one of the two fastest losers.