John Walker Night of Miles, Mt Smart Stadium – 17 December 2011
Elizabeth Lamb
In her first competition of the season Elizabeth Lamb equalled her personal best clearing 1.86m in the high jump. The 2008 Commonwealth youth champion was over at 1.80m on her third attempt, 1.83m on her second try and the 1.86m on the third and final attempt. After missing her first go at 1.88m Lamb decided to call it a day.
“It was my first jump since I competed in Europe in July, so I didn’t know what to expect. I was still a little bit loaded in training this week.
“So I came in with no expectations and to equal a PB on the first jump of the season, I’m really happy,” she said.
Te Rina Keenan, who has been on an athletic scholarship at the University of Hawaii, won the field event double with 14.56m in the shot put and 48.74m in the discus throw.
Julian Oakley proved too strong for a crop of promising middle runners in winning the prestigious annual John Walker junior mile.
Oakley fresh from his 1500m victory at the New Zealand secondary schools championships in Wellington six days earlier took the lead with a lap to go and went on to win in 4m 13.39s. Ben Moynihan, third last year and second to Oakley at the schools championships was second in 4m 14.63s with John Schreuder third in 4m 17.18s.
Oakley said the pace was slow from the start.
“Michael (Vercoe-Curtis) then took off and we were struggling to get a good position. I caught him up after the first lap and then got stuck in,” said Oakley.
The 18 year old from Tauranga had instructions from his coach to go for it with 500m remaining.
“So I took the lead, picked it up at 300m and 150m out just gave it everything. The time is not too bad – it’s the first time I’ve raced a mile,” he said.
The junior mile was established in 1987 with the race record of 4m 05.01s set by Richard Potts in 1990.
Alex Parlane won the open mile in 4m 11.43s with Georgie Grgec taking out the women’s mile in 5m 02.64s.
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