News & Updates

Kerry White took out the senior women’s title at the 2021 New Zealand Cross Country Championships (Photo: Allison Images)

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Results

JAPAN
XXXII Olympic Games, National Stadium, Tokyo – Athletics 30 July/8 August 2021
Tuesday 3 August
Nick Willis qualified for the semi-final of the 1500m after finishing seventh in heat three in 3:36.88 as one of the next six fastest from the three heats.

Sam Tanner was run out of contention after a physical race on Olympic debut, crossing the line in 3:43.22 and 9th position. As the heat was slowest of the three, his time was not enough for a place in the semi-final.

Tom Walsh survived an almighty scare to qualify for the Olympic shot put final, by leading group A with 21.49m. The 29-year-old Rio bronze medallist looked set for a premature departure from the competition, after red flags were raised on all three of his qualifying attempts. However, having already had a foul on his below par 20.38m second attempt overturned, he was eventually given the all-clear on his 21.49m effort, but only after an agonising wait while officials canvassed replays of his third attempt, and with the assistance of Canterbury official Trevor Spittle.

Jacko Gill qualified for the final of the shot put with 20.96m for sixth place in group B.

Julia Ratcliffe just missed going through for a final three round in the hammer throw finishing ninth with 72.69m.

While she was at one time fourth in the standings, she needed to find another 18cm to crack the top eight and earn three more throws in the event won by Pole Anita Wlodarczyk, who unleashed a 78.48m bomb to make it three straight Olympic gold medals.

“I didn’t want to be watching those last three throws from the stand, but to be at the Olympics, I’m so proud of myself, and I’m so proud to be out there wearing the silver fern, so you can’t really complain too much about it, can you?” Ratcliffe said.

“Obviously, it’s been a 16-year journey with my dad….that’s been really special. He’s the reason I’m here, and he’s in the stand and I know he’s so proud. I wish I could have thrown a bit further today, but I know he’ll still love me, at the end of the day, he has to, he’s my dad.”

Thursday 5 August
Tom Walsh won bronze in the shot put to match his bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Ryan Crouser retained his Olympic title with an Olympic record throw of 23.30m and Joe Kovacs repeated his silver medal from Rio with a throw of 22.65m.

Walsh said it was awesome but the road to Tokyo hadn’t been easy.

“The last 18 months hasn’t been easy and to be standing here now with the flag on my back is pretty cool,” said Walsh.

“I gave myself a chance to throw really well today. I stayed in the fight, my best competition of the year,” he added.

“I think I’m happy with how I performed. The distance and, I guess, the outcome…for sure, a gold would feel much better, but I gave myself a chance, which is the main thing.”

Jacko Gill was just outside the top eight to advance for three further rounds finishing ninth with 20.71m.

“A little disappointed,” said Gill. “This campaign, I thought there was a bit more there. I had expectations of a medal…and just didn’t do enough today.”

Nick Willis finished ninth in the first semi-final of the 1500m in a season’s best time of 3:35.41 and did not make it through to what would have been a record fourth 1500m final.

“Obviously I didn’t make the final, but I have no regrets about how I ran. I gave it everything,” said Willis.

“It was a perfect situation for me to have a chance at qualifying… but head held high, really proud of myself but also so thankful to my wife who’s also my assistant coach, and my coach Ron Warhurst.

“I would not be standing here today, I would have quit the sport two or three years ago but they kept me in it and said ‘trust me, it’s worth it’. And they were absolutely right.”

Friday 6 August
Quentin Rew finished a creditable 16th in the 50km race walk in 3:57:33. Quentin competed at the Olympic Games in London 2012 and Rio 2016, finishing 27th and 12th respectively in the 50km race walk. At the 2017 World Championships in London, he finished 12th in a New Zealand record of 3:46:29 before finishing 11th in the same competition two years later in Doha.

Saturday 7 August
Camille Buscomb finished 19th in the 10,000m in 32:10.49. Buscomb had earlier experienced the heat in the stadium from earlier competition in the 5000m heats and was ready for the 10,000m in similar conditions.

“My goal was to finish feeling good and I did that. I finished feeling really good. I know obviously the time wasn’t super-fast, but I feel like I competed and I enjoyed the race,” said Buscomb.

“My worst nightmare was going to be blowing up, feeling horrible, getting heat stroke, not coping, so I just really wanted to be in control feeling good, enjoy it.”

Sunday 8 August
Zane Robertson battled through the heat and humidity for a courageous 36th placing in the marathon in 2:17:04 after passing the halfway in 1:05:1, and Malcolm Hicks was 64th in 2:23:12 after covering the first half in 1:08:42.

Robertson said, “I left it all out there today, no excuses. I put myself in with a shot at a top 10 and perhaps a medal shot up to 30/31km.”

He added that the lights went out around the 32km mark.

“Somehow I got to the finish line running on fumes even though I don’t remember anything or finishing. After finishing I woke up in the medical tent in an ice bath with a thermometer up my ass.”

New Zealand Competition Results

DUNEDIN
New Zealand Cross Country Championships, Chisholm Links – 7 August 2021
Oli Chignell triumphed on his home course for the senior men’s title and Waikato Bay of Plenty champion Kerry White added the national women’s title with an impressive display of front running at the Chisholm Links in Dunedin.

A large group headed the men’s title race over 10km, which was down to Chignell leading Matthew Taylor, Janus Staufenberg and Christopher Dryden after the first two laps.

But once Chignell had found his rhythm he was on his own and on his way to his second national cross country title.

He finished full of running in 31:45, 19 seconds ahead of Taylor with Christopher Dryden third in 32:23.

Chignell knew he was in the form to win.

“I knew I had the tools to win from wherever I needed to, whether that be from the gun or the last 200m. The plan was to ease my way into it over the first couple of laps and find my legs. It’s a tough course and it was a matter of finding a natural rhythm if you can and from 6km out I decided to move to the front and run the race at a pace that I found comfortable, but pushing it.

“I just gradually lengthened out, from 10 metres went out to 150-200 metres and just kept working all the way through,” said Chignell as a hailstorm swept the ground.

Last year in the challenge race on the Chisholm Links course Chignell was third behind Hayden Wilde and Sam Tanner.

“No one was anyway near Hayden Wilde last year and he just went out and smashed it. And coming in this year I knew I was in really good form, fairly good shape and I knew that I could win and so it was just about running my own race and executing what I’d planned to do.

Chignell bypassed the Otago championship.

“I had a bit of a problem with plantar fascia, so I decided to give it a miss and save myself for the big dance and I had a lot of pent-up racing energy and I managed to unleash today in full force.

“Bathurst here went come all the way, hopefully some big competitions next year, world cross, World outdoor champs, Comm Games, that would be brilliant,” said Chignell.

White said that having done a good time in winning the Waikato title she knew she was in the form to tackle the national title.

“I thought if I can do something similar in the nationals I’d be in for a pretty good shot.

“I didn’t really have a plan, I was going in with a good bunch of girls and I said okay let’s see how long we can stick with them for. When I started getting up on them I was starting to feel really good and so I kept pushing this pace and I took the lead and tried to hold it and I did and it felt really good.

“I was just so stoked, I thought that it was in me and the confidence to have that and I did it, finally did it, and things are starting to tick and I’m so happy to get that win,” said White.

Her winning time was 37:23. Auckland’s Anneke Grogan was second in 37:47 and Ruby Muir third in 38:46.

Former national senior champion Lisa Cross blitzed the master women’s 6km. Sally Gibbs (58) was the second master to finish in 24:49 to easily win the 55-59 age group. South African Rodwyn Isaacs, who has only been running since October 2018, and been in the country for eighteen months, led in the master men.

Outstanding runs came from Hannah Gapes in the under 20 women, Will Anthony in the under 20 men 8km in 25:53, Bella Earl in the under 18 women and Charlie Hazlett in the under 18 men.

Gapes said the winter season had gone to plan.

“I just wanted to finish off my last cross country race on a high and it worked out. I couldn’t have asked for a better cross country season, it’s all gone to plan and I’m super happy with it,” she said.

Anthony said that he went a bit faster than he was planning to over the first kilometre.

“But I managed to maintain pretty reasonable splits the whole way so pretty stoked,” he said.

“I went out hard hoping to string the field out with that wind down the home straight and make everyone battle through it and it worked out well.”

Hazlett said that he was running off a lot of nerves and energy, as he had only arrived at the ground 40 minutes before the start.

“My flight from Christchurch this morning was delayed so it was very stressful, but I made it here and I have won,” he said.

International Results

BELGIUM
Flanders Cup, Kessel-Lo, 7 August: Hamish Carson 3000m 7:52.93 (1).

Road and Trail Races Around the Country

AUCKLAND
O’Hagan’s 5km, Viaduct Harbour, 3 August: Matt Ogden 16:13, Devon Beckman 16:57, Harry Harris 17:00. Tia Knight 18:57, Kayla Fairbairn 20:00, Rosie Taylor 20:19.

Rat Race 5km, Takapuna, 4 August: Mark Boyce 16:15, Mike Lichtwark 16:19, Gene Rand 16:20. Jacqueline Kemp 22:40.

Onehunga Half Marathon, Taumanu Reserve, 8 August: Daniel Coates 1:15:43, Gene Rand 1:16:38, Keith Burrows 1:18:24. Jessica Jellicoe 1:36:21, Terri Bidwell 1:37:11, Amelia Edwards 1:42:03.

FIORDLAND
Te Anau 10km and Half Marathon, 7 August: Jason Hall 1:19:12, Mark Paterson 1:19:44, Christopher O’Connell 1:21:54. Meg McKay 1:26:40, Rebecca Clarke 1:29:05, Sammy Burke 1:31:04.