Hamish Kerr should relish the opportunity to jump at his home ground, Nga Puna Wai Sports Hub in Christchurch when he competes at the International Track Meet on Saturday – a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze meet.
The Tokyo Olympian went within a centimetre of his New Zealand record clearing 2.30m in the high jump at the Sir Graeme Douglas International presented by Harcourts Cooper & Co in Auckland on Sunday.
He will be aiming for a height of 2.34m which will earn an Athletics NZ performance standard for the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade next month and July’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon
Kerr says that what usually happens in that if you miss a height in the last competition, you get often it in the next one.
“I’m just enjoying competing at the moment. We’ve made some changes in the technique and it is still really early days for me, I’ve got a big international season planned, so I’m just going out there to try to put in play what we’ve been working on in training. It is starting to pay off and it could happen on Saturday,” said Kerr.
The six times New Zealand champion should also improve on his meeting record of 2.20m set last year.
The 200 metres is the feature sprint event at the meeting this year. Anna Percy, Rosie Elliott and national champion Georgia Hulls are in the women’s race at 4.55pm. Tiaan Whelpton who clocked his best 200m to date of 21.28 at last year’s meeting should, given favourable conditions, improve on this time.
Hammer throwers will be in action for the first time at this meeting, Anthony Nobilo, Todd Bates and Lauren Bruce are competing. Bruce has been consistently over 70 metres at the Yvette Williams, Potts Classic and the Cooks Classic meetings this season and will be aiming to extend her personal best which is 74.61m.
Tapenisa Havea who set a career best of 15.92m in the shot put at the Capital Classic will line up with Natalia Rankin-Chi Tar and Bruce in the shot. These three will also compete in the discus throw. At last weekend’s Canterbury Championships Havea set a best of 53.16m in the discus. Caitlin Dore F37 and Holly Robinson F46 will compete in the Para shot put. Kieran Fowler and Jared Neighbours are the leading contenders in the discus throw.
Amy Robertson will also have the opportunity of setting an inaugural record in the 100m hurdles where she will be up against Christina Ryan, Julia Burnham and Maggie Jones. Five times national champion Joshua Hawkins is down for the 110m hurdles.
The men’s mile has drawn a strong field and with the right pace a further sub-four-minute miler could emerge joining recent additions to the sub-four club of Matthew Taylor and Isaiah Priddey. Hayden Wilde has shown good form this season pacing the 1500m and winning the 5000m on Sunday and is chasing a fast mile, as will Chanel Muir with a best of 4:03.87 and Sam Petty, who went close to a sub-four in Whanganui in 2019. Penelope Salmon and Tillie Hollyer should battle out the women’s mile.
Tom Walsh, Ryan Ballantyne and Nick Palmer are back in action in the shot put. World record-holder and double Olympic champion Ryan Crouser graced the 2017 meeting setting a meet record of 22.05m. Walsh has chalked up over eight appearances at the International Track Meet and the Big Shot. Heading the triple jump competitions are Scott and Anna Thomson.
The meeting will round out with the 800m races. A close race is expected in the women’s 800m with Katherine Camp, Kara Macdermid, Kiera Hall and Rose Twyford entered.
The cream of New Zealand two-lap runners will take part in the men’s 800m. National champion James Preston following his personal best 400m of 47.87 on Sunday will have his eye on a Commonwealth Games B standard of 1:45.80. Having his first outing this season will be Sam Tanner who has a best of 1:48.63 in Seattle last year. James Harding, the national under-17 record-holder and the in-form Dominic Devlin make for an interesting race.
For full start lists of the 2022 ITM go here
Watch the livestream of the meet on Saturday from 2.30pm here
Words: Murray McKinnon