Night of Miles
John Walker Night of Miles, Yvette Williams Track, Lloyd Elsmore Park Pakuranga – 15 December 2012
Ben Moynihan followed up his secondary schools 1500m victory in Dunedin last week with a convincing win in the annual John Walker junior mile.
Moynihan stayed in contact with the top field of 12 to the three quarter mark before putting his superior speed to effective use with a blistering last lap to win in 4m 12.93s. Seton Hill out kicked early pace maker Matt Baxter for second in 4m 16.33s, Baxter recording 4m 16.69s.
Moynihan said that the confidence gained in Dunedin gave him the winning edge once again.
“I was confident with my finish so I sat with the leaders and tried to keep sheltered from the wind, and with 400 metres to go I sort of went again same as the secondary schools, so it all went to plan,” he said.
The junior mile was established in 1987 and the race record is 4m 5.01s set by Richard Potts in 1990.
Alex Parlane won the senior mile in 4m 16.08s and Georgia Grgec won the women’s mile in 5m 00.61s.
Te Rina Keenan, back in Auckland after completing an athletic scholarship at the University of Hawaii, was in top form with the discus, throwing the second best effort ever by a New Zealand woman of 56.45m. It was nearly a two metre improvement on her previous best set in the States in May. Siositina Hakeai who is third on the all time rankings with 56.27m was second with a throw of 53.77m. Beatrice Faumuina heads the all time national rankings with 68.52m.
Three times national champion Marshall Hall of Dunedin was also in action in the discus winning the senior men’s competition with a throw of 49.47m.
Sam Ulufonua and Kyle Van der Merwe had a close contest in the M18 throwing events, Van der Merwe winning the shot put with 17.20m and second in the discus with 55.39m. Ulufonua had the shot out to 16.84m and recorded another world youth championships qualifying throw of 58.15m.
Isaac Tatoa recorded 11.12s (-3.8) over the 100m into a steady head wind and Mike Morresey won the mile walk in 7m 16.81s.
In the Auckland junior 1500m championships a top performance came from Isaiah Priddey of Hamilton who won the boys’ 12 race in 4m 26.92s.
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