New Zealand athletes produced a mixture of results at the Melbourne Track Classic at Olympic Park last night.
Throwers Stuart Farquhar (2nd Javelin) and Valerie Vili (1st Shot) performed well on a warm night in Melbourne with Farquhar only narrowly losing to 2007 World Champion Tero Pitkamaki of Finland by 6cm and Vili again throwing over 20m and winning by over 4m.
In the running events Adrian Blincoe was the standout with a 13:26 in the 5000m, under the 13:30 standard for the Commonwealth Games and only six seconds behind British star Andy Baddeley with Anna Smythe running well in the 100m to post 11.62 for third. 

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Full Results - IAAF

200 Metres - Men Wind: -0.1 m/s 
1 Davies , Matt AUS 20.83 
2 Lawal , Bola Gee NGR 20.91 
3 Johnson , Patrick AUS 21.11
4 Martin , Rodney USA 21.27 
5 Sheehy , Keith AUS 21.36 
6 Martin , Daniel AUS 21.42 
7 Groth , Jacob AUS 21.44 
8 Thumath , Jeffery NZL 21.67

400 Metres - Men Race 2 
1 Boudrie , Andrew AUS 47.15 
2 Burke , David AUS 47.69 
3 Jordan , Alex NZL 47.70 
4 Bee , Joel AUS 47.72 
5 Beck , Alexander AUS 47.79 
6 Burch , Scott NZL 48.59 
7 Fitzpatrick , Simon AUS 48.86 
8 Wurm , Ollie AUS 50.36

Vili’s shot put competition is timed for 8.50pm.

Murray McKinnon

Communications Advisor

Athletics New Zealand

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Melbourne offers a smorgasbord of delights – PREVIEW – IAAF World Challenge

Melbourne, Australia – Such is the quality of the entry list it’s hard to forecast the likely highlight of Thursday night’s Melbourne Track Classic (4), which is as it should be for the opening meeting of theIAAF World Challenge series.

Steve Hooker, Dani Samuels and Valerie Vili come to Melbourne as reigning World champions (Hooker and Vili as Olympic champions, too) but face only token opposition in their events. Asbel Kiprop and Nick Willis, the Beijing Olympic gold and silver medallists at 1500 metres face each other for the first time since, and must also contend with a group of up-and-coming Australians.

David Rudisha, whose 1:42.01 in Rieti last year made him the fourth-fastest man ever over 800 metres, is predicting a 1:43 clocking in Melbourne, a prediction that has been lost somewhat in the hype surrounding the 1500.

Besides Vili and Samuels, the field also boasts a strong javelin contest between Finland’s 2007 World champion Tero Pitkämäki and Australia’s Beijing sixth placegetter Jarrod Bannister.

Speaking at the John Landy Lunch to launch the Melbourne meeting, Pitkämäki suggested he would be after a performance in the 85-90 metre range. Bannister, who was next in line to comment, added with a straight face that he would be shooting for something between 86 and 91.

And the forecast is for a warm day, which should favour the explosive events but cool off enough into the evening to please the middle-distance athletes, too.

Suffice to say, that whoever comes up with the outstanding performance of the Melbourne Track Classic will have to go some indeed.

By Len Johnson

Click here to read this article in full on IAAF.org

Sweet taste of McEvedy success

Beaming with pride, St Pat's Town athletics captain Yarride Rosario rated the McEvedy Shield win as his career highlight.

Rosario, 16, the top-ranked under-17 sprinter in the country, said his school's pumped-up victory yesterday, over bigger cross-town rival Wellington College in the prestigious schoolboys' athletics competition, was by far his sweetest moment.

And for Rosario there were significant comparisons to make. Lifting the historic shield on the Newtown Park track meant more than wearing the silver fern or winning a national secondary schools sprint title. "It's amazing. I wish I could live this moment every day of my life," said Rosario, after he was swamped by frenzied St Pat's Town boys at the finish of the senior 4x100m relay.

"Especially winning that last race. That was indescribable."

St Pat's Town beat Wellington College by 185 points to 172, with St Pat's Silverstream and Rongotai well off the pace. Rosario said the margin was too close to call until the last of the four relays.

After claiming the senior sprint double earlier in the day, he anchored the St Pat's senior 4x100m team in 43.47sec to seal the satisfying victory.

"Before the relays it was touch and go. I didn't want to believe we had it until the last race," he said.

By Penny Miles
Click here to read this article in full on Stuff.co.nz

St Pats take McEvedy Shield

St Patrick's College athletes have sprinted away with the coveted McEvedy Shield, snatching the prestigious schoolboys' athletics competition late in the day from defender Wellington College.

"For a school our size it's an incredible feat really," St Pat's coach Leigh Lidstone said yesterday. "We've taken on a school twice our size and won."

For most of the day, the shield was within the grasp of both schools. Defending champions Wellington, with 1500 pupils, were strong in the field while St Pat's Town, with 700, dominated on the track through sprint ace and senior captain Yarride Rosario.

But as the haka and chants rang out around Wellington's Newtown Park yesterday afternoon, St Pat's grabbed the victory by 15 points in the final relays. Wellington's challenge fell flat with disqualification in two races because of baton blunders.

Lidstone said St Pat's had set the tone for the Catholic boys' 17th win with a mass in the school chapel before the competition. They were also motivated by a close loss last year, and believed they could do it after lifting the shield in 2008.

While the boys dedicated long hours in training, Lidstone said the support staff's roles were all- consuming too. "For someone like me it's all lunchtimes, Saturday mornings and two times after school each week, so it's very satisfying."

Rosario, St Pat's athletics captain and seventh-form pupil, expected to celebrate into the night.

By Penny Miles
Click here to read this article in full on Stuff.co.nz

Kim Smith set a new New Zealand record of 1:07:55 at the Mardi Gras Half Marathon in New Orleans, Louisiana. She lead almost the entire race as she attempted to break away from eventual winner Ethiopian Berhane Adere (1:07:52). After a fast start the leaders passed the 5km and 10km splits in 15:48 and 31:47, faster than any other Kiwi Woman over those distances in more than a year.
Next up for Smith is the London Marathon on the 25th of April 2010.

Thirteen Kiwi athletes competed in events at the Sydney leg of the Australian GP series on the 27th of February.
Valerie Vili again showed great early season form with a dominant win in the Women's Shot with a Put of 20.57m. Vili improved on her winning performance from the same meet last year but will be up against stiff competition when she meets Ostapchuk (21.70m Indoors in 2010) at the World Indoor Champs in March.
Other athletes to perform well include Carl van der Speck (10.60) in the 100m, James Dol,phin (20.83) in the 200m, Adrian Blincoe (3:38) in the 1500m and Stuart Farquhar (79.80m) in the Javelin.

Full Results

From the IAAF:

Vili, perhaps the most dominant female athlete in any event today, was colossal in blasting the iron orb 20.57m which improved her own meet record of 20.09m set only last year. Even without the stimulation of any serious opponents, Vili’s mark approached the Australian All-Comers Record of 20.69m set by Natalya Lisovskaya at the IAAF World Cup in Canberra in 1985.

“I’m pretty happy. It’s my second throw for the season. There is nobody to chase here but you want to put on a good show for the crowd so I’m pretty happy,” Vili said. But she knows the tension will rise when she gets to Doha to face Nadzeya Ostapchuk, the Belorussian who leads the world with her put of 21.70m indoors earlier in February.

Click here to read the full article on IAAF.org

Athletics NZ has released the selection policies for the two major IAAF World Championships to be held in 2011.
The World XC selection policy for the Championships to be held in Spain on the 20th of March 2011 appears relatively unchanged from the 2010 policy and shows a commitment to the Trial system re-introduced in 2010 and to the underlying philosophy of 'team selection'. Unfortunately the policy still fails to allow for qualifying performances to be achieved during the US or European Outdoor seasons which significantly impacts on those athletes who are not based in NZ and who are unable to travel to the Southern Hemishpere during the NZ Summer. This remains a self-funded event.
 
2011 World XC Selection Policy

The World Athletics selection policy for the Championships to be held in Korea in August and September 2011 also appears relatively unchanged from recent similar policies. The focus is still clearly aimed at selecting only those athletes who have demonstrated the ability to finish in the Top 16 places, except in cases where the athlete is considered to have the potential to develop into a Top 16 athlete in future Championships. Unfortunately this policy still includes the exclusion section which allows the selection panel to deny selection to an athlete who has past poor performances, but outlines no criteria by which these athletes will be informed of these poor performance assessments at the time of the performances. If this section remains in future policies it needs to be seriously revised to close the loop-holes which were identified by the Sports Tribunal in 2008. This is a self-funded event, although it would be expected that those athletes who meet qualifying standards would have access to funding through their individual athlete agreements with the HP department.

2011 World Outdoor Champs Selection Policy

NZRun.com

Kim Smith, 28 , New Zealand: The former Providence College Friar holds the Kiwi records for 3000m (8:35.31) , 5000m (14:39.98i), 10,000m (30:35.54) and the half-marathon 1:09:35). While at Providence Smith won four NCAA championships: one in cross country, two in indoor track and one in outdoor track. No stranger to international level racing, Smith finished 7th at the 2009 world half marathon championships, and had top-10 finishes at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 world championships over 10,000m. Smith looked to debut in the marathon last fall in New York but did not finish. She will make her return to the 26.2 mile distance in London this April.

RunNow.com will provide wall-to-wall coverage of  the 2010 Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon and Half Marathon beginning Monday of race week.

Click here to read the full article on RunNow.com

Maria Hassan of Christchurch has been appointed the Athletics New Zealand National Event Coach for Middle Distance. Craig Motley (also Christchurch) will be the Event Manager for Endurance and will also act as the assistant Middle Distance Coach.

Terry Lomax, Athletics New Zealand’s Rio2016 Performance Project Manager said that he saw both of these coaches as being  able to work together to contribute to the improvement in standard of performance from athletes and coaches in the development programme.

This completes the appointment of coaches to support the Rio2016 Project. The increase in development opportunities brought about by the SPARC contribution to this programme is already showing benefits. At the recent Trans Tasman Under 21 Test Match against Australia,  athletes in the Rio2016 Squad produced one National record, six World Junior Championships ‘A’ qualifiers and one  ‘B’ qualifying performance.

Terry Lomax

Rio 2016 Performance Project Manager

Athletics New Zealand

Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis will return to competition in Australia for the first time since the 2006 Commonwealth Games when he races at the Melbourne Track Classic on 4 March. 

Willis, who was celebrated in his native New Zealand as continuing the nation's proud miling history when he won gold in the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a night in 2006 remembered by most Australians forCraig Mottram's fall with 700m remaining, is looking forward to continuing the Trans-Tasman rivalry.

"I haven't raced in Australia for nearly four years, so it will be great to come back and try and let the Aussies know that their Trans-Tasman neighbor can still show them a thing or two on the track," said Willis.

"It would be great to run a fast time somewhere in the 3:33 to 3:36 range, but most importantly for me will be to try to win the race.”

The time is certainly not out of question for Willis is in good form, having overcome a year of injuries to recently win the mile at the Boston Indoor Games in 3:55.27 and then setting a New Zealand indoor record of 3:35.80 in Birmingham, UK on the weekend. The 1500m in Melbourne will serve as preparation for a personal best attempt in the 800m, which Willis hopes to double in later in the year at the Commonwealth Games, in March at the International Track Meet in Christchurch.

"I'm gearing up for a fast 800m in New Zealand on March 18th," he said.

By Tim McGrath

Click here to read the full article on InsideAthletics.com.au