Hobbs speeds to 100m title to start season in style

Dash star Zoe Hobbs opened her 2024 marketing campaign in fashion by scorching to victory in 11.39sec within the girls’s 100m closing to mild up the twenty fifth anniversary version of the Potts Basic in Hastings on Saturday.

The 26-year-old, who final 12 months grew to become the primary lady in Oceania to run a sub-11sec 100m mark, had earlier cruised to prime spot within the heats in 11.24sec.

Making her blistering trademark begin, Hobbs rapidly bolted to the entrance and was unstoppable as she blasted to the highest of the rostrum to say her seventh 100m victory on the meet.

“My focus coming into right now was to get these first races beneath my belt and to make it really feel as easy and relaxed as I might,’’ Hobbs mentioned.

“I head abroad shortly with world indoors within the combine then I’ll be again to New Zealand for nationals, which I’m actually trying ahead to.”

James Preston produced a blinding early-season efficiency to document a shocking meet document of 1min 45.89sec on his approach to a fourth successive victory within the Allan Potts Memorial 800m.

It was by some margin the quickest time Preston has recorded in New Zealand and shattered the earlier meet document by greater than 2sec.

The marquee Sylivia Potts Memorial 800m served up a shock as Laura Nagel revealed her extraordinary versatility to dethrone Holly Manning courtesy of a near-3sec private better of 2min 5.37sec.

Nagel, the nationwide 1500m, 3000m and 5000m champion, stayed affected person when Manning and Stella Pearless (North Harbour) opted to observe a fast tempo set by pacemaker Lucy Jacobs.

Nagel timed her problem to perfection to kick previous Manning to a memorable win.

World championship finalist Connor Bell backed up his excellent show on the Pre-Potts Basic simply 5 days earlier to set a meet document mark of 64.78m en path to victory within the males’s discus.

Bell, who registered 65.39m on the Pre-Potts occasion, couldn’t fairly match that show however a 64.78m effort in spherical six repelled the sturdy problem of French athlete Tom Reux, who achieved a PB of 58.72m for second.

Tokyo Olympian and Oceania record-holder Lauren Bruce produced one other encouraging early-season efficiency to clinch a complete victory within the girls’s hammer.

Bruce, who earlier this month breached the 70m line with a 70.15m effort in Brisbane, unleashed a stable sequence at Mitre 10 Park along with her greatest effort of 68.21m.

The Olympic entry-standard mark the Australian-based athlete is chasing is 74m.

Lex Revell-Lewis (Waitakere) was rewarded for his aggressive method to put up a meet document and PB of 47.34sec as he dominated the boys’s 400m. The nationwide champion over the one-lap distance rapidly caught the stagger on Fergus McLeay (Hill Metropolis) and easily ran away from the opposition.

McLeay, the 2023 nationwide 400m silver medallist, grabbed second in 49.05sec with Jackson Rogers (Aspiring Athletics) third in 50.20sec.

Portia Bing executed a composed efficiency to say a commanding victory within the girls’s 400m.

Bing, a world championship and Commonwealth Video games consultant within the 400m hurdles, completed strongly over the ultimate 150m to finish a complete win in 53.76sec.

Cody Wilson (Mana) gained a good males’s 100m in 10.71sec. Hayato Yoneto (Outstanding Runners) clocked 21.54sec to pip McLeay by 0.07sec within the males’s 200m.

— Workers reporter