Olympic roundup and other news

BEIJING
Rebecca Wardell clocked a season's best of 14.07s in the opening event, the 100m hurdles, of the heptathlon competition at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Wardell was just .06s outside her personal best set in Christchurch on the eve of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. The 30 year old finished fifth in her heat, won by Aiga Grabuste of Latvia in 13.78s. Overall Wardell was 33rd out of 43 starters, in scoring 968 points for her performance.
In the high jump Wardell soared over the bar, in her third attempt, at a personal best height of 1.71m, a four centimetre improvement on her effort in Ratingen Germany in June when she collected a total score of 6108 points to qualify for the Olympics.
Wardell moved up to 24th after the shot put which she had out to 14.28m for 813 points and a total of 2648 after three events. Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine moved into the lead, with a total of 3052 points, after her 17.29m shot put.
Wardell was out to 5.84m (+0.3) in the long jump, the first event on the second day of competition. She scored 801 points for a total of 4369 for 25th place overall. Wardell maintained this position after the javelin throw of 42.14m and improved to 23rd after winning her heat of the 800m in 2m 13.65s.
Wardell just missed the satisfaction of scoring 6000 points finishing with 5989 points.
 
Nick Willis was safely through the heats of the 1500m with a comfortable second placing in heat one in 3m 36.01s.
Willis stayed out of trouble over the first half of the race moving up to lead at the bell. Willis was still leading at the 1200m in 2m 55.52s surrendering the lead in the straight to Mehdi Baala of France who won in 3m 35.87s.
While pleased with his run Willis would have liked something a bit slower in the heats, saying that he needs to conserve as much energy as possible at this stage with the semi-final and final still to go.

Kimberley Smith gave it everything in finishing ninth in the final of the 10,000m.
Smith recorded 30m 51.00s, 15 seconds outside her New Zealand national record set two months ago.
The 26 year old, 2005 world student games 5000m champion, dropped off the lead pack with 10 laps to run as the torrid pace set by Holland's Lornah Kiplagat took its toll.
"I didn't feel great and I knew at the half way stage that I was battling, I was pretty tired," said Smith.
"I beat some good people but I didn't have my best day, I tried my hardest," she added.
Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia smashed the Olympic record in adding the Olympic crown to her three world titles over the distance. The second and third fastest times in the history of the event were recorded with the first two dipping under 30 minutes.
Dibaba ran 29m 54.66s, Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey 29m 56.34s with Shalane Flanagan of US third in 30m 22.22s.

Meanwhile Beatrice Faumuina bowed out of her fourth Olympic Games after failing to secure a qualifying throw in the discus. Faumuina needing a throw of at least 60.28m to qualify as one of the 12 finalists was out to 57.15m in the first attempt and 54.49m in the third round.

It took just one put for Valerie Vili to qualify for the final of the shot put.
The imposing figure of 6ft 4in Vili punched the ball of steel out to 19.73m to go through as the best from both groups in the qualifying rounds.
Requiring 18.45m or at least the best 12 from both groups it was a mere formality for Vili, who waved to the spectators on leaving the Bird's Nest.
In Vili's group Meiju Li of China was the next best with 19.18m with Natallia Mikhnevich of Belarus out to 19.11m.
Lijiao Gong of China was the best in group B with 19.46m with 2008 world leader Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus qualifying with 19.08m.

Valerie Vili rocked her Belarusssian opponents with a massive opening throw of 20.56m to win the Olympic gold medal in the shot put.
Vili was in startling form with each of her rounds out over 20 metres, and her winning performance adding 2cm to her Oceania and New Zealand National record set in winning the world title in Osaka last year.
Natalya Mikhnevich threw out a challenge with 20.28m and the world leader with 20.98m Nadezhda Ostapchuk was unable to put her technique together coming out with a 19.86m late in the piece.
In the sixth and final round these two were unable to surpass Vili's opening effort and with the gold in the bag Vili gave her final round a miss and tore off to the stands to embrace her coach Kirsten Hellier.
Vili said the plan going into the competition was simple.
"Throw the shot put as far as I can," she said.
"The aim was to put pressure on my opponents from the start, it was an exciting competition, it is worth everything and to come out on top is amazing."
Vili savoured the moment, doing a lap of honour around the stadium draped in the New Zealand flag, to the applause of 91,000 spectators.
Vili has now won the world youth, junior and senior titles as well as the Commonwealth gold and now the Olympic gold, joining Jack Lovelock, Yvette Corlett, Norman Read, Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and John Walker as Olympic champions.

Nina Rillstone gave New Zealand a top sixteenth placing in finishing 16th in the marathon in 2h 31m 16s.
Liza Hunter-Galvan was 35th in 2h 34m 51s and was pleased with her run.
"I'm here, I did it, I finished and I think I ran respectably," said Hunter-Galvan.
A total of 69 finished the marathon.
Rillstone was heading for 15th place just before the finishing line but was pipped by Dire Tune of Ethiopia. Rillstone was gutted that she had lost out on 15th place.
"It's gutting. I can't believe it. I'm very, very angry at myself. I had no idea she was coming, you get into the stadium and there's so much noise," said Rillstone.
However she was pleased to consolidate on her 13th place at last year's world championships with another top placing at elite level. Rillstone will be seeking a fast marathon in Berlin in September next year before moving on to the road racing circuit in the States.
Constantina Tomescu of Romania moved out to a minute lead after 20km which she held on to to win the gold medal in 2h 26m 44s. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya outsprinted Chunxiu Zhou of China for the silver medal in 2h 27m 6s, one second ahead of Zhou.
Tomescu has a best time of 2h 21m 30s recorded in Chicago in 2005. She was 20th at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, and third at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki. At the London marathon in April this year she finished eighth.

Nick Willis cut it fine making it into the final of the 1500m at the Beijing Olympics after finishing fifth in the second semi-final in 3m 37.54s.
In the scramble down the finishing straight Willis forged through in the dash to be in the first five places, with the drama being the shutting out of one of the favourites for the title, world champion Bernard Lagat of US, effectively enhancing Willis' chances of a medal in the final.
Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain won in 3m 37.11s, followed by Mehdi Baala of France in 3m 37.47s, Andrew Baddeley of Great Britain 3m 37.47s, Augustine Choge of Kenya 3m 37.54s and Willis.
The first semi-final was won by Asbel Kiprop of Kenya in 3m 37.04s, with the other two fastest qualifiers come from the first heat.
It will be the first time New Zealand has a finalist in the 1500m at the Olympics, since Tony Rogers in Los Angeles in 1984, and the first New Zealand track finalist since Toni Hodginson in the women's 800m in Atlanta in 1996.
The 1500m final will be on Tuesday evening, (2.50am Wednesday morning New Zealand time).

Other News
AUCKLAND
National women's marathon champion Hanny Allston won her first Auckland title winning the 10,000m road championship at Unitec Mt Albert on Sunday.
The former Australian orienteering representative and world champion was out on her own throughout recording 35m 49s, to beat Leonora Joy by over a minute.
Allston won this year's Rotorua marathon for the New Zealand title.
Jonny McKee improved on his fourth placing last year to win the senior men's title in 32m 15s. Aniel Smith had a close race with Stephen Lett for second, just edging Lett out by three seconds in 32m 45s.
World secondary schools cross country champion Esther Keown made light work of the W16 4000m winning comfortably in 14m 47s, while Hannah Barker won the W19 5000m in 18m 11s.
Paul Angland won the masters 10,000m in 33m 52s while Melissa Norris was the best of the master women running 19m 10s for the 5000m.

CHRISTCHURCH
Phil Costley won the Canterbury senior men's 10,000m road title in 31m 6s at Bottle Lake Forest on Saturday.
Sam Wreford was second in 31m 17s, with Matt Ingram third in 31m 30s. Richard Bennett won the masters 10,000m in 31m 51s.
Alexandra Williams won the women's 10,000m in 39m 26s. Sarah McSweeney, a visitor, won the W19 5000m in 18m 56s. The best of the masters over 5000m was Tracy Crossley in 18m 56s.