Zoe Hobbs has smashed the 11-second barrier for the 100m, running 10.89s in winning today’s final at the New Zealand Championships in Wellington.
The 25-year-old ran with a 3.4m/s tailwind — above the permissable 2m/s to count as a record — but was stunned with her time in her firstcompetition of the season.
”I can’t believe it — what the heck,” Hobbs said. “I was not expecting that, to have just come back from injury. I just wanted to be in one piece on the finish line. To open my season like that is incredible.”
Hobbs blitzed the field at Newtown Park, finishing five metres ahead of second-placed Rosie Elliott in 11.36s.
She earlier broke the national 100m record for the sixth time in 15 months when she ran 11.07s in the morning’s heats.
That time, which qualified her for the world championships in Budapest in August, was also an Oceania record and both a New Zealand resident and all-comers record.
Hobbs took 0.01s off the Oceania and national records set when she clocked 11.08s finishing 14th at the world championships in Eugene last July.
Tiann Whelpton won the men’s 100m national final in 10.13s today.
