Lucy Sheat breaks 44-year-old 100m record at NZ Schools Athletics Championships

Lucy Sheat. Photo / Getty Images

Lucy Sheat of Marlborough bowed out of her secondary school days in fine style breaking a 44 year old record in retaining her senior girls 100m title in 11.59.

With the following wind at 1.6mps, Sheat erased Kim Robertson's 1973 record of 11.66, one of the two oldest records in the books.

Sheat also improved on her personal best of 11.68 from the 2016 Potts Classic on the same Hawke's Bay track. The national junior women's sprint champion was back in action later in the day with a slashing dash in the 200m winning by over a second in 23.42.

This was again under the schools record of 23.91 set by April Brough in 2002 but unfortunately the following wind had freshened to 3.3mps, preventing Sheat from claiming this record as well.

Nick Smith easily retained his senior boys sprint double, clocking 10.61 in the 100m and 21.65 in the 200m.

Isaiah Priddey's tactical running paid dividends claiming the coveted 1500m/3000m double. His 3000m win came on Friday in 8:40.12, four seconds ahead of Joseph Clark and on Sunday he had too much speed over the final 300m to withstand any late challenges, to win in 4:03.89 over Sam Tanner and Nick Moulai who threw himself at the finish line to shut Theo Quax out of a medal.

Clark later went within three seconds of Geoff Shaw's 1975 record in the 2000m steeplechase with his winning time of 5:56.36. Dylan Forde of Southland was a surprised winner of the 800m in a PB 1:54.57.

Maddison Wesche outstanding record at the championships in the shot put continued improving her senior record to 17.02m. As well as making it three years in a row in the senior shot she also won the junior title in 2013 and 2014. Mellata Tatola won the hammer throw with 53.92m as well as finishing third in the shot put and discus.

Connor Bell not only bettered Chris Mene's 1990 school's record of 61.76m in the senior discus throw, he also improved on his New Zealand under 17 and under 18 records with his massive effort of 65.63m. Nick Palmer won the senior shot put with 20.35m. Another to improve on an Athletic New Zealand record was Tanya Murray who added to her under 17 record and broke Laura Overton's senior javelin record with her throw of 48.95m.

Caitlin Bonne was also better than Overton's previous mark taking the silver with 47.97m.

In the discus Bonne was second won by Tatiana Kaumoana with a PB 47.65m.

Anthony Nobilo was in a class of his own in the senior hammer throw, sending the ball of steel out to 75.55m, just over a metre short of Matthew Bloxham's record.

Oliver Miller made it three years in a row in the 300m hurdles in 37.49 and he also retained his 400m title in 48.68. Olly Parkinson had no trouble mastering the 110m hurdles winning in 14.15.

Cam Robinson was impressive in the javelin throwing 69.68m as was Andrew Allan who was out to 14.00m in the triple jump.

As expected Alex Brown and Alice Ritchie took out the race walks.

The Otago Boys' High School relay team were slick in the 4 x 100m clocking a fast 42.98 for the title.
Tessa Hunt took out the senior girls middle distance titles, running 2:13.08 in the 800m and 4:40.67 in the 1500m. Liliana Braun also came away with a double, the 3000m in 10:01.49 and the 2000m steeplechase in 6:59.55. Olivia McTaggart retained the pole vault title extending record by 20cm to 4.30m.

Dominic Overend showed all class winning the junior boys 100m in 10.83. The following wind of 3.3mps prevented him from laying claim to one of Mark Keddell's junior sprint records, the 100m which stands at 10.88.

Tyron Hilton second to Overend in the 100m went on to win the 200m in 22.18. Cameron Moffitt went close to the record in the 100m hurdles, timed at 13.48, while Zane Powell clipped a couple of seconds off the junior boys 2000m steeplechase record with his time of 6:15.61. He also won the year 9 3km road race in 9:07. Zion Trigger-Faitele excelled in the field events winning the junior boys shot put and discus. Sam Colyer was the horizontal jumps champion winning the long with 6.28m and adding a centimetre to the junior boys triple jump record clearing 13.58m. Joshua Bull also claimed a junior record with his winning vault of 3.00m in the pole vault.

Kings High School set a record of 44.54 in the 4 x 100m relay.

There was great rivalry in the junior girls sprints between Genna Maples and Maia Broughton, Maples winning the 100m over Broughton and Broughton coming from behind to snatch victory in the 200m. Maples won the long jump with 5.42m and was the anchor leg of two outstanding Wanganui Collegiate relay teams that set junior girls records. In the 4 x 100m they posted a fresh record of 49.45 and in the 4 x 400m cut two seconds off the record with 4:02.74.

Charli Miller who holds the junior girls 2000m steeplechase record of 6:57.00 set last year retained her title in 7:15.06. She had also earlier won the 3000m in 10:24.24 and the junior girls 4km road race in 14:44.

Twelve new championship records were set over the three days of competition and two athletes, Lucy Sheat and Olivia McTaggart surpassed qualifying standards for World Junior Championships.