●BREAKING: Kittens hijack live weather bulletin●Rates revolt spreads through the regions●AI call centre rehires the staff it replaced●Coach sacked at half-time●Supermarket price gap hits 32 per cent●Secret album recorded in a Wairarapa woolshed●BREAKING: Kittens hijack live weather bulletin●Rates revolt spreads through the regions●AI call centre rehires the staff it replaced●Coach sacked at half-time●Supermarket price gap hits 32 per cent●Secret album recorded in a Wairarapa woolshed
flxba
Sport

She's 17, She Just Broke a 22-Year Record, and She Nearly Quit in March

Nobody outside her club had heard of her a year ago. On Saturday she took four tenths off a mark that had stood since 2004.

By Kieran Tapu · 4 September 2026 · 5 min read

Young athlete sprinting on a red running track at a stadium
Young athlete sprinting on a red running track at a stadium. Photo: flxba

The record had stood for twenty-two years and had been approached seriously perhaps three times. On Saturday afternoon, in a stiff crosswind, a 17-year-old from a club with sixty registered members took four tenths off it.

She found out it was a record from the announcer, roughly ninety seconds later, while still catching her breath.

In March she had told her coach she was finished.

The six months in between

A stress fracture, a change of training group and — she is blunt about this — a season where she stopped competing entirely and trained three days a week instead of six.

"Doing less is what fixed it," her coach said. "That's a very hard thing to sell to a teenager, and an even harder thing to sell to a parent."

Related articles