Zoe Hobbs Snares Oceania Sprint Mark
Zoe Hobbs blitzes to a stunning Oceania women’s 100m record of 11.08 (+0.7m/s) to place second and advance to the women’s 100m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon today.
The 24-year-old Aucklander chipped 0.01 from her Oceania record mark set last month at the Oceania Area Championships in Mackay, Australia.
Competing at her second World Championships she looked cool and composed pre-race and made a solid start. She was quickly into running, although in the first half of the race she trailed world number two Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, quick-starting Chinese sprinter Xiaojing Liang and Bahamian Anthonique Strachan.
However, in the second half of the race Zoe came into her own, powering home to snatch second spot from Strachan in a photo-finish in 11.08. Jackson claimed line honours in 11.02.
Remarkably, it was the fifth time since December that she has lowered the New Zealand women’s 100m record and she becomes the first Kiwi woman in history to reach the 100m semi-finals at a World Championships. Interestingly, she ran exactly half-a-second faster today in the 100m than she did when running the heats of the last edition of the World Championships in 2019.
The semi-finals of the women’s 100m take place at 12.33pm on Monday.
Results here