Valerie Vili (20.86m) put a seasons best to win over arch rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk (20.18m). Vili collected US$30,000 for her efforts.
Adrian Blincoe (7:57) finished 6th in a tactical race, less than 3secs behind winner Bernard Lagat of USA. Blicnoe collected US$3000.
Nikki Hamblin (4:22) returned  to run a 1,500m after her 800m PB, the day before to finish 6th in another tactical race (1st Lap 79sec), also collecting US$3,000. HAd Hamlon run 0.19 quick, she would have earnde an additional US$4,000.
Stuart Farquhar (78.29m) finished 5th in the Javelin collecting US$5,000.

1	333	Valerie Adams	Asia-Pacific	NZL	20.86	(SB)	8
2	400	Nadzeya Ostapchuk	Europe	BLR	20.18	.	7
3	315	Lijiao Gong	Asia-Pacific	CHN	20.13	(SB)	6
4	210	Misleydis González	Americas	CUB	18.62	.	5
5	222	Jillian Camarena-Williams	Americas	USA	18.49	.	4
6	428	Olga Ivanova	Europe	RUS	18.24	.	3
7	128	Mariam Nnodu-Ibekwe	Africa	NGR	13.67	(SB)	2
8	116	Priscilla Isiao	Africa	KEN	13.04	.	1

1	629	Bernard Lagat	Americas	USA	7:54.75	.	8
2	544	Moses Ndiema Kipsiro	Africa	UGA	7:54.98	(SB)	7
3	613	Bayron Piedra	Americas	ECU	7:55.52	.	6
4	512	Tariku Bekele	Africa	ETH	7:55.79	.	5
5	523	Vincent Kipsegechi Yator	Africa	KEN	7:57.46	.	.
6	737	Adrian Blincoe	Asia-Pacific	NZL	7:57.67	.	4
7	829	Daniele Meucci	Europe	ITA	7:57.98	(SB)	3
8	715	Ben St.Lawrence	Asia-Pacific	AUS	7:58.55	.	2
9	834	Mateusz Demczyszak	Europe	POL	7:59.92	.	1
10	813	Noureddine Smaïl	Europe	FRA	8:11.66	.	.
11	618	Diego Alberto Borrego	Americas	MEX	8:12.92	(SB)

1	404	Hind Déhiba Chahyd	Europe	FRA	4:19.78	.	8
2	204	Nicole Edwards	Americas	CAN	4:21.34	.	7
3	236	Christin Wurth-Thomas	Americas	USA	4:21.46	.	6
4	312	Mimi Belete	Asia-Pacific	BRN	4:22.27	.	5
5	438	Asli Cakir	Europe	TUR	4:22.43	.	4
6	334	Nikki Hamblin	Asia-Pacific	NZL	4:22.45	.	3
7	107	Gelete Burka	Africa	ETH	4:23.76	.	2
8	117	Nancy Jebet Langat	Africa	KEN	4:23.93	.	1
9	305	Kaila McKnight	Asia-Pacific	AUS	4:27.40	.	.
.	121	Btissam Lakhouad	Africa	MAR	DNF

1	833	Andreas Thorkildsen	Europe	NOR	89.26	(CR)	8
2	536	Gerhardus Pienaar	Africa	RSA	83.17	(SB)	7
3	826	Matthias de Zordo	Europe	GER	82.89	.	6
4	701	Jarrod Bannister	Asia-Pacific	AUS	79.99	.	5
5	738	Stuart Farquhar	Asia-Pacific	NZL	78.29	.	4
6	508	Ihab Al Sayed Abdelrahman	Africa	EGY	74.11	.	3
7	607	Arley Ibargüen	Americas	COL	73.73	.	2
8	624	Mike Hazle	Americas	USA	73.18	.	1

4 Kiwis are slated to compete at the Continental Cup (Formerly known as the World Cup), of which Oceania was represented.

Blincoe - 3,000m
Farquhar - Javelin
Adams - Shot Put
Hamblin, 800m + 1,500m

Continental Cup Start Lists

Valerie Vili (19.83) again finished second to Ostapchuk (20.27) in the Shot as they continued their rivavlry at the top of the shot put world. After the competition Vili spoke of her ongoing focus towards the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi where she hopes to defend her title from 2006.

Women's Shot Put Results
Valerie Vili Interview Video

In the Men's 3000m Adrian Blincoe had only his second race back since a recent injury break and showed he too is on target for a good performance in October. Clocking 7:49 for the 3000m follows his 7:56 opener in Luzern last week. Commenting on Flotrack after the race Blincoe mentioned his lack of race sharpness but was positive about his build-up towards New Delhi where he is planning on competing in the 5000m and 1500m. Next up for Blincoe is a mile race in Finland.

Men's 3000m Results
Adrian Blincoe Interview Video

Nikki Hamblin again produced a fine run to finish second in the B heat of the 800m where she ran a season's best performance and showed she will be competitive in both the 800m and 1500m at the Commonwealth Games. Hamblin's recent NZ record in the 1500m aligns with her view that the 1500m is her best event leading into the games.

Women's B 800m Results
Nikki Hamblin Interview Video

The event’s star is undoubtedly Olympic 1500m silver medallist Nick Willis, who has publicly stated his goal in Delhi this year is to not only defend his Commonwealth 1500m crown, but to emulate the legendary Peter Snell and add the 800m crown as well.  [Snell won the imperial equivalents, the half-mile and mile, at the Empire Games in Perth in 1962].

Aiming to throw a spanner in the works at Willis’ home track meet will be top Australians Jeff Riseley and Jeremy Roff, who unexpectedly claimed the scalps of Willis and Kenya’s Olympic gold medallist Asbel Kiprop in the 1500m race at the Melbourne Grand Prix 10 days ago.  Willis said when he flew into Christchurch today “That was a bit of a shock – I’ll definitely be out for some revenge on Thursday”. With Irish 800-1500 champion David Campbell, 4-times Australian champion Nick Bromley, and Canadian Geoff Harris also in the field, there are six athletes with personal bests of 1min47sec or faster – the strongest field since Auckland 1990, when British middle distance legend Sebastian Coe, in the twilight of his career, finished 6^th in 1min47.24s. 

Meet Director Craig Motley said “This is a phenomenal field to come together for a meet of this scale, and we are expecting to see some pretty fast times”.  Willis and Riseley in particular should be very evenly matched – their personal bests are just 6/100ths of a second different from each other, and both are just over a second outside Peter Snell’s New Zealand record, set when he smashed the world record at Lancaster Park in 1962. 

Also competing in the discus event at the meet will be former world champion and twice Commonwealth champion Beatrice Faumuina, against the current world champion Dani Samuels.

Tickets are on sale at QEII Stadium now, and at the gate on the night. Adults are $12, children 12 & under $6, and under-5's are free.  Premium allocated Gold Seating is $20.  The international section of the programme starts at 6.30pm - go to www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz for more details.

When one has won everything possible - an Olympic and a Commonwealth gold, two world titles and a world indoor title - been honoured by the country and received the Halberg sportswoman of the year four times and the supreme award for the past three years, you might think it would be time to hang up one's sports shoes.

But not Valerie Vili. At Hamilton last Saturday, the Beijing shot-put gold medallist showed there is still plenty left in the tank for chasing further successes.

The world champion sent a clear message to the rest of the world that she is back in business and ready to dominate the shot-put again this year.

In her first competition of the season and in the opening round Vili sent the shot out to 20.25m, to equal her New Zealand allcomers and resident record set exactly a year ago at Waitakere.

By Murray McKinnon

Click HERE to read the full article on NZHerald.co.nz

September 23, 2007, mean much to you? A few fans with long memories might recall it was the day the All Blacks put Scotland to the sword with a crushing 40-0 pool success at Murrayfield in the Rugby World Cup.

Yet, perhaps a more significant moment for Kiwi sport happened that same day at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart. Need any clues? World Athletics Final. Women's shot put. Still not got it? Okay, this was the date of Valerie Vili's last defeat.

The Kiwi shot put ace has since swept to 28 successive victories in finals stretching over more than two-and-a-half years. It is the longest unbeaten streak in athletics. Even Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt was defeated by Asafa Powell in Stockholm over 100m ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.

On that September day in Stuttgart, Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus pipped Vili by 0.05m. Since then the Auckland-based athlete has held a vice-like grip on the event, landing the Olympic title in Beijing, defending her world outdoor title in Berlin, and the world indoor crown in Valencia.

In the early hours of tomorrow, Vili's unbeaten record comes under arguably its stiffest examination yet in the shape of the aforementioned Ostapchuk.

Click here to read the full article on NZHerald.co.nz

 

 2010 International Track Meet

 

 

Track and Field at its best in New Zealand.

2010 Promo video compiled from Sky TV coverage highlights from the inaugural 2009 ITM where Monique Williams claimed the NZ Resident Women's 200m record, David Ambler eclipsed Jamacian Don Quarrie's Men's 100m stadium record set at the 1974 Commonwealth Games and lowered his U/19 NZ record while Australian Ryan Gregson reclaimed his Australian U/19 3000m record.

Make sure you are there on the 18th March 2010.

www.internationaltrackmeet.co.nz

Where there's a Willis there's a way to hold a meet

 

NEW ZEALAND'S biggest track meeting in more than a decade is back on the calendar for 2010, with Olympic bronze medallist Nick Willis again involved in attracting world-class overseas athletes to compete in this country.

Christchurch's International Track Meet last March drew more than 3000 spectators to QEII Stadium - the best turnout for an athletics event in New Zealand in nearly 20 years.
Willis was pivotal in securing several top Americans and while he withdrew, injured, days before the event, he still fronted to sign autographs.
The meet broke even, prompting organiser Leyton Tremain to confirm yesterday that it would be held again in 2010 at the same venue on Thursday, March 18-10 days before the national athletics championships, also at QEII Stadium.
Last year, 23 athletes from five countries came here, including several top Australians and leading British middle- distance runner Andy Baddeley, and Tremain expects an increased overseas field next year, based on feedback from top Melbourne-based Kiwi 10km specialist Jason Woolhouse.

"Rumours and word of mouth is that there is a lot of interest," says Tremain, who will begin approaching athletes this week.
"People have been asking what our plans are . . . and we hope that the meeting will be bigger and better. Some of those Australian guys who didn't travel and were reserving judgement in year one are now keen to come over."

Tremain says several athletes used last year's meet as a springboard to more success. Jeff Riseley, who ran a personal best at the meet, went on to run a 3min 51sec mile in Europe while Collis Birmingham, second in the mile, later broke the Australian 10km record.
But Tremain says the purpose of the meet is to create strong fields for emerging Kiwi athletes to test themselves against and he plans to tailor- make races to suit runners such as Kiwi 200m runner Monique Williams. He says he won't expand the programme but is targeting much deeper fields.

"We've proven New Zealand can be competitive with the rest of the world," he says.
"Maybe people thought the world had moved on and we could no longer compete, but we have proven we can and we will target those events where we are competitive."

But he knows the crowd will be attracted by New Zealand's elite athletes - Willis, Valerie Vili and Kimberley Smith. Tremain says he has already talked to Vili's coach, Kirsten Hellier, and she is keen to compete but will have been involved in the world indoor championships a week earlier.
Willis is also unconfirmed. He will be returning to Wellington over the holiday season to help his brother Stephen launch a running tours venture, but the wedding of his best friend, top Canadian runner Nate Brannen, may clash with the Christchurch event.
Even if he doesn't compete, Willis will have a role.

"Nick is very passionate about the meet, and he understands the importance of it for the sport," says Tremain. "He doesn't look at it as a race for himself but as an instrumental development tool for Kiwi athletes."

Meanwhile, the New Zealand xterra (off-road triathlon) championships are in Rotorua next Saturday, with Steven O'Callaghan and Kyle MacDonald and Ady Ngawati and Lara Phillips in the women's, both pros and age-group athletes qualify for the world trail running championships in Hawaii in December.

Steve Kilgallon - Sunday Star-Times