2018 Wellington Track & Field Meet Newtown Park Sat 15 Dec

Adrian Stockill smashes NZ M50 discus record

Results

I went to Newtown Park to catch 3 people run a 10,000 championship track race scheduled to start around 4.15pm. It was going to be exciting. 

But as it turned out the race was cancelled because of a lack of interest. Funny that. But honestly scheduling a 10k track race only a few weeks after the well attended and very successful Agency 10k races does seem a little pointless.

Instead I did catch the fat end of a 3,000m race with 17 entrants. And that was fun. The starters were mostly Scottish probably drawn together by the smoke signals on social media. 

But there were others including Liam Woolford from the Manawatu and ex St Pat’s Silverstream athlete Liam Carson. Paul Hewitson represented WHAC which he seems to do quite often and I might add very well. Naturally it wouldn't be a proper race without Dan Hunt and his brother Ryan.  

I think the race went something like this:

#Mad Harry takes off and establishes about a 15-25 metre lead over the rest of the field. 

This gap is roughly maintained until the penultimate lap when the gap starts to close probably through a combination of Harry slowing and some of the chasing bunch increasing the pace. Don’t ask me for lap times. 

By the start of bell lap the leaders of the chasing group smell blood and are closing fast with Ben Twyman and Mark Moore going for the doctor.  

In the finishing straight a speedy BT and an equally determined MM have passed a dying #MH and pick up 1^st and 2nd respectively. Ben’s time of 8.59 is a PB and I suspect Mark’s time of 9.01 and those of several others will be personal bests as well. 

Ben gets a lot from me about his racing, but I want to give a shout out to Mark Moore who has really taken the bit between his teeth this year with his races and rapidly improving times. 

Harry is 3^rd while Stephen Day grabbed 4^th place to get his revenge on Andrew Wharton from last week’s trouncing at the Basin Reserve. These two masters I presume will continue their 100-year war for racing dominance.

Irish newcomer Shane O’Rahilly got his first taste of the Newtown Park track but I hope somebody told him and the other newbie Dom Godfrey the good racing conditions experienced are rare.

Sadly Deborah Lynch was the only woman in the field although Michelle Van Looy, who likes a good track race or two, was lurking about somewhere.

8.59.70 Ben Twyman

9.01.36 Mark Moore

9.02.98 Harry Burnard

9.05.26 Stephen Day

9.10.12 Andrew Wharton

9.12.15 Bert Prendergast

9.14.94 Liam Woolford

9.19.62 Shane O’Rahilly

9.20.98 Dom Godfrey

9.22.60 Dan Hunt

9.28.58 Valentino Luna Hernandez

9.33.57 Alasdair Saunders

9.41.12 Paul Barwick

9.43.83 Ryan Hunt

9.47.77 Liam Carson

10.14.68 Stephen Bass

10.30.56 Deborah Lynch

10.37.11 Paul Hewitson

The other news is that over at the Kiwi Throwers Social Club, a new national record was set in the M50 discus. The culprit was Adrian Stockill who biffed the thing out to 46.82 metres smashing the old record by 2 metres. 

That is not a misprint; the record was broken by 2 metres. 

I didn’t see the throw but it certainly excited Sir Peter Jack who jumped out of his portable throne and came hurtling across the inner field pushing his zimmer frame yelling and waving his stick. 

I thought he had found oil, but no he was only looking for Jim Blair to re-measure the throw and verify the record. Chatting to Adrian afterwards I can confirm he thinks he can go better with this biffing lark.

Other Stuff

Let it be known that Bert Prendergast does not do summer racing. So if it looks like he is then he isn’t.  Real racing starts in April.