Athletics New Zealand – Angie Smit going for four years in a row in Hastings

National women’s 800m champion Angie Smit of Christchurch will be going for four years in a row in the women’s 800m, the feature event at the Sylvia Potts Classic athletic meeting in Hastings tomorrow evening.

The hat trick of victories came up for Smit last year at the Regional Sports Park in 2m 6.97s, and she went on later last year to clock 2m 00.67s in Belgium in July.

The field tomorrow features the three age group national 800m champions from the New Zealand championships last March at Waitakere, Smit, Kerry White of Te Aroha W20 champion and Ariana Harper of Wellington Scottish W17 champion and also the W17 1500m champion. White is also the New Zealand secondary schools senior girls 800m champion. White has a best time of 2m 9.91s and Harper 2m 10.19s.

The next fastest in the field is Phillippa Trevella of Rangiora who ran 2m 11.43s for fourth place at the secondary schools championships last month. Alison Andrews-Paul from Masterton who ran 2m 12.53s to finish second in the junior girls 800m at the schools championships last month should improve again in this race.

The 100m should be electric with national sprint champion Joseph Millar of Tauranga up against national 400m champion Alex Jordan of Nelson and Isaac Tatoa of Auckland who was second to Millar in the national championships 100m final.

Canterbury’s Kelsey Berryman and Fiona Morrison and Portia Bing and Livvy Wilson both from North Harbour Bays provide a strong line-up in the women’s 100m and 100m hurdles. Bing will also compete in the long jump.

Ryan Tinkle of Wellington who won the 6kg hammer throw at the meeting last year with a throw of 66.08m is back again to compete with the 7.26kg hammer where his best is 58.01m.

The meeting starts at 5pm with the pole vault featuring Nicholas Southgate and Eliza McCartney and the first track event is the women’s 3000m steeplechase featuring Sarah McSweeney at 5.30pm.

Meanwhile national senior decathlon champion Nicholas Gerrard, Scott McLaren and Stephen Buckley will be in action in the decathlon at the Northern Regional combined events championships at the Tauranga Domain tomorrow and Sunday.

Murray McKinnon
Athletics Correspondent
Athletics New Zealand
0274 806086
murray@mckinnon.co.nz

Athletics New Zealand