Original article appeared in The Wanaka App 17 Nov 2022. Written by Diana Cocks. LINK
Wānaka athletes excelled at the prestigious annual Yvette Williams Memorial Meet recently, stacking up new personal best times (PBs) and podium finishes, while one teenager smashed a long-held record.
Sprint champion Phoebe Laker set another new record, breaking the Otago girl’s U14 record she set only two weeks ago by a whopping 1.7 seconds, when she won the women’s open 400m race last weekend (November 12-13) at the Caledonian track in Dunedin.
She then went on to win the women’s open 200m with a new personal best time of 26.39s and was placed third equal in the women’s open 100m under windy conditions.
Phoebe is just 13-years-old.
“For a young 13-year-old girl to win the Open Women’s 200m and 400m events, all with sizeable PBs, was extraordinary,” her coach Michael Beable said.
At last month’s Otago Secondary School Athletics champs (OSSAC), Phoebe broke the 60s barrier for the first time while establishing a new record in the girls U14 400m; at last weekend’s Dunedin meet, however, she not only smashed that record but her new time of 58.21s also eclipsed the longstanding Otago girls U15 400m record set by Kirstin Downie (who later represented NZ) 38 years ago.
Her “performances were nothing short of amazing. She ran an outstanding 400m race [and] her 0.71s PB improvement for the 200m was huge for a short sprint”, Michael said.
The new competitive season has just started but Phoebe’s new 400m time currently ranks her first nationally for girls 16 years and younger.
“Right now, she has the fastest recorded 400m time by a female in New Zealand for the 2022/23 summer season,” he said.
Phoebe was also a member of MAC’s 4x400m relay team (including Chantel Thurston, Amaya East and Millie East) which won OSSAC’s women’s U16 4x400m in a time of 4:10.60s, obliterating not only the OSSAC girl’s U16 record by a magnificent 10.30s but also bettering the OSSAC girl’s U19 record by 3.84s.
Phoebe has “a very good cardiovascular engine”, he said, and an enthusiastic attitude towards her carefully managed training programme.
“There is every indication that she will go faster this season in all three sprints events, but especially in her primary event, the 400m.”
Phoebe wasn’t the only local Aspiring Athletes Club (AAC) member to claim podium finishes at the meet.
Middle distance runner Billie Crowe, running largely out on her own, won the women’s open 800m and Georgie Bruce in her first Heptathlon event scored 3326 points to win the South Island championship event.
Recent sprint training by high jumper Jackson Rogers paid off with second placings in both the men’s 100m (in 10.83s) and 200m (22.08s), achieving significant PBs by 0.44s and 0.46s, respectively.
Michael said Jackson is focussing on sprinting this season to allow more time to fully recover from a spine injury.
Mount Aspiring College (MAC) athletes Matthew Botting (15) and Cody Armstrong (16), both relative newcomers to this level of competition, continued their good form established at last month’s (October 28-29) OSSACs.
Team-mates and training partners, their sprinting rivalry pushed them both to new PBs with Matthew claiming second placings in the mens’ 16-17 years 100m and 200m races while Cody took third placings in both races.
The Yvette Williams Memorial Meet also hosted Otago Junior Interclub events, for athletes aged 7-14 years. AAC junior athletics programme manager Kirsten Wyatt said Jared Enoka (9) performed “extremely well” in his age group, winning the 60m, the 200m and the long jump, as well as placing sixth in the Vortex throw.
Article added: Sunday 20 November 2022
