Several southerners in team for Oceania event – Otago Daily Times

A good sprinkling of southern athletes has been selected for the Oceania area and combined events championships in Fiji at the end of June.

A large team of 55 athletes from across New Zealand has been picked for the championships.

With Athletics New Zealand deciding not to send a team to the World Youth Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, later this year, the team to Fiji has been enlarged.

The championships take place every second year and have under-18, under-20 and senior grades.

The team contains five New Zealand senior champions. Ben Langton Burnell (javelin), Max Attwell (decathlon), Anna Thomson (triple jump), Maddison-Lee Wesche (shot put) and Ariana Blackwood (heptathlon) have all been selected in their specialist events.

The southern representatives are 1500m runner Nathan Hill, combined events athlete Felix McDonald and another combined events athlete, Cameron Miller.

Also selected are: parafed sprinter Jacob Phillips, parafed long jumper/sprinter Anna Grimaldi, parafed shot-putter Jessica Hamill and parafed javelin thrower Holly Robinson.

Javelin thrower Anton Schroder, who hails from Southland but is educated in Dunedin, has made the team along with Liam Turner, who also comes from Southland but attends school in Dunedin.

The championships will take place in Suva. Australia has also named a big team for the championships and along with New Zealand should dominate the medals table ahead of 20 other national federations.

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Several southerners in team for Oceania event - Otago Daily Times