Overseas athletes star

GET VERTICAL: Yuta Notoya clears the high jump during the decathlon on Saturday. PHOTOS/BEVAN CONLEY

IT WAS A long two days at Cooks Gardens for the 32 athletes who ran, threw, and leapt their way to success at the 2016 New Zealand Combined Events Championships.
Former Collegiate student Max Attwell did well to come fifth overall for the senior men, which won him the bronze medal in the national title points after the international entries were removed.
The 10-event decathlon for the men and seven-event heptathlon for the women started Saturday morning with high winds and finished in warm weather on Sunday afternoon.
"All the athletes appreciated they could run with a tail wind," said organiser Alec McNab.
The winds got up to 5.8m per second on Saturday, but because of the configuration of the track, either side of Cooks Gardens can be used so the grateful competitors had a tail wind
"They appreciated the close contact with the crowd, because we moved the bleachers in," said McNab.
Having the small crowd in close proximity for each event meant every gasp for a poor throw or loud cheer for clearing a high bar could be heard directly by the athletes, which is a factor the top contenders for berths at the Rio Olympics must prepare for.
As expected, it was the international guests who stood out as Asian Games gold medal winner Keisuke Ushiro of Japan, was the comfortable overall winner with 7613 points.
While below his 8308 personal best, Ushiro's trip to compete in Whanganui came out of season for him.
"The affable Japanese delighted the crowd, not only with his athleticism but his personality."
For the New Zealanders, the Tauranga-born Aucklander Brent Newdick came second overall and won the national title with 7113 points, with New Zealand University representative Jack Henry runnerup with 6868.
Newdick was 12th at the London Olympics and has a lot of work to do if he wants to improve that mark in Rio.
"He has been light in competition recently, but he's going to the Australian championships," said McNab.
Henry had been a strong contender until the seventh and eighth events, although he finished strong in the javelin and the 1500m run.
"Henry had a poor discus by his standards, and in the vault he was below what he got in Hamilton the week before," said McNab.
"If he nailed them, he could have won the New Zealand title."
The other Japanese entry Yuta Notoyo finished overall fourth, having been sitting second coming into the 1500m but then not having a good run and dropping 65 points behind Henry, while Attwell's fifth placing overall won him the national bronze.
For the women's heptathlon, Palmerston North original Veronica Torr retained her national title with 5774 points.
This was helped by Portia Bing, 16th at last year's World Championships, having a leg injury on the Saturday.
After being able to complete the shot put, Bing tried to run the 200m in the final race of the day, but pulled out just after the starter's gun when she could not extend herself.
Torr had been just 39 points ahead at the time.
In the Junior Men's event, Canterbury's Alex Mander was the winner with 6978 points, ahead of team mate Ben Collerton .
Phoebe Edwards of Wellington won the Junior Women with 4873 points.
The Youth Women's grade was one of the largest with 11 entries, and Australian Jasmine Standberg was the winner with 4549 points, while the national title went to Auckland's Alexandra Hyland with 4398.
Local athlete Lexi Maples entered her first ever heptathlon and finished eighth, setting three new personal bests along the way.
The men competed, in order, in 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m on Saturday, followed by 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500m on Sunday.
For the women, the schedule was 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200m on Saturday, then long jump, javelin, and 800m to complete the programme.
¦Alec McNab will have more details in his Athletics Insight column later this week.