Eddie Osei-Nketia reigns supreme as New Zealand’s top sprinters clash in Melbourne

American football-bound sprinter Eddie Osei-Nketia remains New Zealand’s king of the 100 metres after comfortably defeating his Kiwi rival Tiaan Whelpton at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne on Thursday night.

In a sharp 100m – the final event on the track at the Continental Tour gold meet at Lakeside Stadium –Osei-Nketia pushed Aussie ace Rohan Browning to the limit, coming home in 10.27 seconds – just 0.01sec behind the race winner (10.26s).

Whelpton, who flew across the Tasman on Tuesday after competing in the ITM meet in his home-town Christchurch on Sunday, was well back in third in 10.39s in less than favourable conditions in Melbourne.

Whelpton recorded an equal PB of 10.18s a month ago in Hastings, while Nketia, who heads to a football scholarship at the University of Hawaii later this year, had run 10.21s in Canberra just a few weeks back. Nketia, of course, broke his father Gus Nketia’s 21-year-old national record with a blistering 10.08s in the heats at last year’s world champs in Oregon.

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The other Kiwi highlight of the meet came when James Preston and Brad Mathas produced a one-two finish in the 800m with a pair of outstanding runs. Preston timed his final kick perfectly to storm home over the last lap to grab victory in a very quick time of 1min 45.85sec – just 0.55s off his PB of 1:45.30 and within shouting distance of the world champs auto standard of 1:44.70.

Mathas’ run was not without note either as he waited patiently for the inside lane down the home straight, and got it to storm home just behind his compatriot in 1:46.00.

Sam Tanner stormed home second in the feature John Landy mile race in 3:53.83, over a second behind Aussie race winner Ollie Hoare (3:52.24), while Lauren Bruce finished third in the women’s hammer throw with a best toss of 65.45m – well below her national record of over 74 metres.

In other events Georgia Hulls managed equal fourth in the women’s 200 in 23.56; Rebekah Greene went close to her PB with 4:15.08 to come home 12th in the women’s 1500 metres; while Julian Oakley was fifth in the men’s 3000m in 7:53.00.