Hobbs speeds to 100m title to start season in style

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

The 26-year-old, who final yr turned the primary girl 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 assert her seventh 100m victory on the meet.

“My focus coming into at present was to get these first races below my belt and to make it really feel as clean and relaxed as I might,’’ Hobbs stated.

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

James Preston produced a blinding early-season efficiency to report a shocking meet report of 1min 45.89sec on his method 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 report 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 comply with 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 Traditional simply 5 days earlier to set a meet report 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 collection at Mitre 10 Park together with her finest 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 publish a meet report 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 assert 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 (Exceptional Runners) clocked 21.54sec to pip McLeay by 0.07sec within the males’s 200m.

— Employees reporter