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Brent Newdick wins New Zealand’s first medal of the World University Games
Friday, July 10th, 2009
Auckland University of Technology student and National Decathlon Champion Brent Newdick has won the first medal for the New Zealand team at the 2009 World University Games in Belgrade.
Newdick who has also been selected for the team to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin next month set a new personal best point score of 7874 to finish second behind Belarusian Mikalai Shubianok who scored 7960 points.
Newdick’s silver is the first for the New Zealand team at the 2009 Games and just the 11th medal won by a New Zealander in the history of the Games. On his way to the silver Newdick achieved a personal best (pb) in the 1500m clocking a time of 4:29.26 and a new pb for his second day score.
New Zealand team Chef de Mission Dr Lynne Coleman, said “Brent’s performance on the second day of the decathlon was unbelievable. It’s such a tough event and to go out there at a meet of this size and importance and achieve personal bests and a silver medal is absolutely fantastic. The whole New Zealand team is very excited for him and it has created a real buzz amongst the group.”
There are just three more days of competition left at the Games, which will see New Zealand athletes in action on the track and in the pool.
New Zealand Universities Team Captain Monique Williams cruised into the semi-finals of the women’s 200m with a qualifying time of 23.55sec and 2008 Olympic Javelin thrower Stuart Farquhar is the top qualifier heading into today’s final (5.45am Saturday NZ time).
Meanwhile over at the pool the premier sprint race - the 50m freestyle will see three Kiwi’s inaction. Carl O’Donnell and Orinoco Faamausili will contest the men’s event and in her heat Samantha Ritcher will take on some the world’s best female sprinters including 2008 Beijing 4 x 100m freestyle bronze medal winner Australian Alice Mills.
For a full programme and events schedule for the 2009 world University Games visit www.ub2009.org.
For more information on the Games and International University Sports events visit www.fisu.net
The New Zealand delegation to this event is proudly supported by SPARC – the Governing body for Sport and Recreation in New Zealand.
