Liza Hunter-Galvan has run the fastest marathon by a New Zealand woman for some time in finishing ninth in the Hamburg marathon in 2h 34m 40s.
The 35 year old former Aucklander, now living in Texas, cut nearly four minutes off her previous best set in Texas last December.
Hunter-Galvan, a mother of four, competed at the Athens Olympic Games finishing 51st in the marathon. Her latest effort is under the selection standard of 2h 37m for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
The women's section at Hamburg was won by Edith Masai of Kenya, three times world cross country short course champion, who had a promising marathon debut in 2h 27m 6s.
Meanwhile in Auckland Jordan Vandermade set a New Zealand M17 octathlon record of 6379 points.
He was competing in a combined events festival at Ericsson Athletic Stadium over the ANZAC weekend.
The 17 year old had an excellent first day of competition, in the eight event programme, starting with a 100m in 11.24s, a long jump of 7.03m, an outstanding shot put of 17.35m and a 400m in 50.48s.
Vandermade was over the 110m hurdles in 15.32s, the first up event yesterday and finished up with a solid run in the 1000m, despite the blustery conditions, in 2m 49.85s.
His total bettered Brent Newdick's best performance score of 6259 points set two years ago at Papakura.
Vandermade, coached by Les Mills, competed with the primary aim of assisting Steve Buckley of Tauranga secure a qualifying performance for the world youth championships in Morocco in July.
"I wanted to finish up the summer on a good note and help Steve qualify," said Vandermade.
Buckley succeeded with a score of 5473, 173 better than the standard set for selection. His best three events were the shot put with 14.14m a 52.15s 400m, and 15.98s in the 110m hurdles.
Heather Peters of Te Aroha bettered the standard in the women's heptathlon for the world youth championships with a total of 4214. However each country is limited to two athletes in each event and New Zealand has already selected Amanda Aldridge of Tokoroa and Shannon Francois of Tasman in the heptathlon.
source Athletics New Zealand
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