Young North Shore sprinter Graeme Read showed his true class and future potential on the world stage in men’s sprinting when he went through to the final of the 200 meters at Sherbrooke earlier today.
Running a personal best of 21.61 sec into a headwind when placing second to Britain’s Jamahl Alert Read was an automatic qualifier for the final from the second of three semifinals.
He then went on to place fifth in the final in 21.71 sec also into a headwind. This performance, which was his sixth race over a period of four days, highlighted the potential his coach Kerry Hill as talked of during the summer.
Read then came back later in the day to be an integral part of the men’s medley relay which finished fifth in the final. The medley relay run over 100m, 200m, 300m, and 400m, was an outstanding effort by the team after they lost their specialist 100 meter sprinter Philip Ah Lo with a pulled hamstring during the heats yesterday. Ah Lo suffered the injury just has he made the change to the outgoing athlete.
Today the team of Cameron Hayton, Graeme Read, Jordan Vandermade and Sam Wilson were up against the best in the world and performed with great credit to place fifth behind USA, Poland, Japan and Puerto Rico when clocking 1min 57.62 secs
Read says he is delighted to have turned in a series of best ever performances. With next year’s World Junior (Under 20) championships in Italy already beckoning following this week’s leap to world prominence, Read and coach Hill have some important decisions to make on pathways and preparation upon the team’s return later in the week.
Blincoe breaks through in test against the best
in Gateshead
USA based Adrian Blincoe ran his first sub 3.40 sec 1500metres in Gateshead
today, behind the king of 1500metres Hichjam El Guerrouji and an entourage of
the world’s best 1500m stars. His time of 3min 39.57 his a personal best.
It is exciting that New Zealand has now another promising young athlete moving forward in the 1500metre event alongside Nick Willis. Blincoe has a series of races planned in Europe now which may well see him post a qualifier for the World Championships.
Wardell clocks 58.33 in Finland
Rebecca Wardell in her second race in preparation for Paris World Championships
ran third and clocked 58.33 in Lapinlahti over 400 m hurdles last night. The
race was won by Erica Mårtensson SWE in a time of 57.50secs