Athletes compact decathlon into day

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BUSY DAY: Jonathon Lord gives it his best at the long jump as part of the annual South Canterbury Athletic Club's one-day decathlon.

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The annual South Canterbury Athletic Club's one-day decathlon was held in mainly wet and wild conditions.

The event is designed to find South Canterbury's best all-round athlete.

This year 18 athletes ran, jumped and threw their way through 10 challenging disciplines.

This is an astonishing number considering the New Zealand multi-event championships struggle to attract any more than a dozen competitors.

The decathlon is normally held over two days with such events as 100 metres, high jump, hurdles and javelin.

The South Canterbury Athletic Club has condensed the entire event into just five hours.

The bragging rights for South Canterbury's Greatest Athlete this year goes to Simon Small with a total score of 4650 points.

Notable performances came from Sam Small with a powerful javelin throw of 36.80 metres, and Leanne McKenzie with an impressive 1.65-metre high jump.

Jonathan Lord also performed well with a 27-metre discus throw and Clayton Murray ran 1500 metres in 5m 21s.

As the final 1500 metre event began, a hail storm started and athletes were pelted by hailstones the size of marbles.

Results:

Open: C Murray (3755), W Doyle (3627), R Herrick (3414).

19 men: S Small (4650).

16 boys: M Dewar (3515).

14 boys: S Small (3984), B Laing (3301).

- © Fairfax NZ News