Osmers gets Games score at pentathlon meet

Press, 27 January 1986, Page 22

Osmers gets Games score at pentathlon meet

Lyn Osmers (Technical) took a giant step closer to a place in the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team when she bettered the Games qualifying standard by 80 points in winning the Canterbury pentathlon championship for the first time at Queen Elizabeth II Park yesterday. In spite of rain on both days of the contest, Osmers compiled a total of 5455 points, which will become the new Canterbury record under the recently revised scoring tables.

The runner-up in her first he tathlon for a year was the former Commonwealth Games representative, Karen Forbes (Old Boys), with a solid

score in the conditions of 5023 points. She is hoping to make her bid for Games selection at the New Zealand championship at Auckland in March.

Osmers, the reigning New Zealand javelin champion, led the championship overnight with a score of 3022 points, some 84 points ahead of her previous best first-day score. A feature of the first day was her personal best 15.15 s 100 m hurdles.

Yesterday, the competition began in miserable conditions but cleared later in the afternoon. Osmers never looked like slipping. She gained one of her largest scores in the long jump with a leap

of 5.97 m, and consolidated her position with an outstanding javelin throw of 45.48 m. She was beaten by Forbes in the last event, the 800 m, but her time of 2min 20.25 s still earned her an impressive total of 820 points. Forbes was right “up with the pace” until the javelin. In this, a throw of only 30.18 m earned her 480 points and cost her any chance of a Games qualifying score. Earlier in the contest, she recorded her best heptathlon shot performance of 11.92 m.

Chris Middleton (Technical) won the senior men’s decathlon with 5459 points. Steve McKee (Toe H) was the runner-up with 5424 points. The 1985

champion, Peter Henry (Old Boys), did toot compete because of strained abdominal muscles. He said it would be at least two weeks before he could compete again. Ross Dominikovich (Old Boys) scored 5137 points for a win in the junior men’s decathlon. Robert Seeler (Lovelock) was second with 4928 points. Edward Sparrow (Toe H) won the under 18 championship with a good score of 5518 points. The other place-getters were Angus Ross (Old Boys) with 4606, and Nigel Iggo (Old Boys) with 4543. Amanda Ford (Technical) was the only survivor of the under 19 girls’ championship, scoring 3258 points.