Sprinter Zoe Hobbs (Ngāruahine) claimed an eighth straight national title in the women’s 100m in Wellington on Friday evening, easing to victory in 11.13 seconds.
Hobbs summed up her race as “pretty solid”, adding “You can’t beat ‘Welly’ on a good day”.
“[I] had some friends and family and my partner here to watch, so it’s always special to race at home in front of them.
“I don’t get many opportunities now to run in New Zealand with much of my racing overseas. So it’s always special to have everyone and all of my people here.”
At last year’s New Zealand nationals, Hobbs ran the fastest women’s 100m ever seen in this country, recording her first sub-11 time, a scorching 10.89 seconds, ruled out as a record due to a tailwind.
Although Hobbs made the first global final of her career just two weeks ago - narrowly missing bronze by 0.01 seconds in the indoor 60m in Glasgow - she says she is still building her 100m form ahead of the Paris Olympics in July.
“I hadn’t done a lot of 100s this season and off the back of a lot of travel this past month, I think what I ran today was pretty solid,” says Hobbs.
“I just wanted to come out and have fun.”
She was too fast for Brooke Somerfield who was second in 11.55 seconds and Portia Bing in third in 11.67 seconds.
Watch Zoe Hobbs’ women’s 100m final at the NZ nationals.
The New Zealand Olympic team for Paris is officially announced next month.
Hobbs, who has already met the qualifying standard, can’t wait.
“This will be my first Olympics so that in itself is really, really exciting to be up for.”
Hobbs next races in Japan in May.