Otago's Felix McDonald clears the high jump bar at the 2018 New Zealand Combined Events Championships on Saturday.
Otago's Felix McDonald clears the high jump bar at the 2018 New Zealand Combined Events Championships on Saturday.
Auckland's Brent Newdick used Whanganui's Cooks Gardens to make a strong return to the decathlon scene with his eighth New Zealand senior title in the discipline and his 20th national crown overall at the weekend.
Cooks Gardens hosted 39 elite athletes in 10 various divisions for the 2018 New ZealandCombined Events Championships on Saturday and Sunday.
The men did the decathlon of the full ten track and field events, while the women's competition's were for the heptathlon of seven events.
When all the final totals were tallied on Sunday, Newdick had beaten Canterbury's defending champion and former Wanganui Collegiate pupil Max Attwell by 266 points.
The overall competiton was won by two-time Japanese Olympian Keisuke Ushiro, who was not eligible for the New Zealand title, but gave Newdick a good battle as the New Zealand Olympian looks to become a late qualifier for the Commonwealth Games.
Ushiro's 7487 points was down on his personal best of 8300, but enough to see off Newdick's 6997.
Whanganui's athletics guru Alec McNab said the athletes had to deal with breezey conditions in the latter stages of the championships on Sunday afternoon.
While it was good to see Newdick back in action, Attwell had been found to have a couple of gaps in his ability across the various disciplines, which cost him, McNab added.
The senior women's heptathlon came down to the final event – the 800m.
Christina Ryan (Canterbury) went into the last race with a big lead, but Natalie Booth (Auckland) and Manawatu/Wanganui Athletics' defending champion Ariana Blackwood were determined to catch her.
Although Ryan finished the 800m around 33 seconds adrift, thinking she had been caught, after the overall points were calculated, the Timaru-based athlete had done just enough to hold on by 11 points from Booth.
The Under 20 women's heptathlon went to Auckland's Hayley Marx, from Alessandra Macdonald (Waikato/Bay of Plenty) and Otago's Joccoaa Palmer.
Whanganui's own Lexi Maples had been a strong Under 20's contender going into Saturday, however she had injured her hamstring in training during the week.
Maples kept the injury quiet, having been in buildup for months for this event, but it was clear after being in pain during the hurdles that she could not continue.
"Hard luck locally for Lexi, because she could have won that one," said McNab.
The Under 20 men's decathlon was won by Auckland's Matthew Aucamp, ahead of Canterbury's Jared Neighbours.
Kayla Goodwin (Waikato/Bay of Plenty) was totally dominant in the Under 18 women's heptathlon, providing the performance of the championships.
She repeated her 2017 victory and set a new national Under 17 record of 5007 points, surpassing Portia Bing's 2010 record of 4947.
