Monday, December 6, 2010

Top Kiwi athletes to battle in Christchurch

Leading Kiwi 1500m runners Nick Willis and Nikki Hamblin, medalists at the Delhi Commonwealth Games this year, will look to the international track meet in Christchurch on February 26 to kick-start their 2011 campaigns.Willis, second in the feature 800m here in 2010, will headline the men's 1500m in an attempt to secure the 3min 35sec world championships qualifying time early in the season.Willis said he had had a great deal of interest from international runners looking to battle in the race.

Hamblin emerged on the national scene in 2009, winning the 800m at the International Track Meet before going on to represent New Zealand at the world championships in Berlin. She then burst to importance in 2010 with a national record in the 1500m and her pair of silver medals in the 800m and 1500m in Delhi.She will race the imperial equivalent of the distance, the mile, in an attempt on the 23-year-old New Zealand record of 4min 30.5sec held by Aucklander Christine Pfitzinger.

Hamblin said she planned to race sparsely over the coming New Zealand domestic season.World junior representative Hannah Newbould, of Canterbury, has also confirmed she will be attempting the 27-year old New Zealand under-19 national record held by Sue Bruce.Newbould ran her best 1500m of 4.14:54 last July at the Victoria track standard in Canada and was the first Kiwi home at the 2010 international track meet 1500m in third place.

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