A freezing evening at Newtown Park in Wellington put a dampener on the proceedings at the Capital Classic on Saturday (10), while a blusterly wind again affected performances.
Beatrice Faumuina threw the discus out to 58.92, but commented afterwards that it was bitterly cold, which affected her performance. She believes that here training is going well and she is still on track to produce a good result in Japan later this year.
Stu Farquhar was out to 76.84 in the Javelin, but is rueing a lack of competition with the 2nd placegetter more than 20m behind.
Craig Bearda produced another winning performance in the sprints, recording 21.41 into a head wind of 1.3, defeating ex-Wellingtonian David Falealili. The womens 200m was a closely contested result with Anna Smythe edging out Chantal Brunner (24.26 to 24.66).
Melina Hamilton was philosopical about her 4.00m result in the Pole Vault. “I soared over 4.00m by a considerable margin, maybe even 20-30cm. But unfortunately I couldn’t replicate that jump when the bar was at 4.20m”.
Gareth Hyett won the 800m in 1:48.93 being pushed hard by Annese Curreen of Samoa. Curreen recorded his second Samoan National record within the space of a week in recording 1:50.39. Third was Tim Hawkes outdipping Junior Carl McKenzie in 1min51. Kellie Palmer defeated National Junior Schools 800 Champion Ashley Aitken again over 800m in 2min10.
Ben Ruthe ran a sensible race to win the 3000m in 8min10, after Andrew Davidson surprised many with a strong surge two laps out to break up the large front pack. Rees Buck, after leading in the initial stages, moved through into second at the finish, with Davidson a brave third and a large personal best to go with it.
Murray Taylor for the IAAF
