Angus Lyver went into the final event the 1500m with Jack Henry breathing down his neck. He had to make sure that Henry didn’t come away with a time that would bridge the points difference.

Henry came through and finished in 4:32.40, but Lyver dug deep over the final 200m and recorded 4:47.13 to win the title by 18 points.

Lyver said he had a few anxious moments at the start of the 1500m.

“I took it a wee bit fast, and then Jack got almost a 100 metres on me so I thought I was toast. But I managed to pull it back somehow.

“It is an absolute privilege running with these Canterbury boys who I train with every few days,” said Lyver on winning the title for the second year.

“It was nice to finally get a PB in the pole vault, which resembled what looked like to be a pole vault.”

It was equally close in the women’s heptathlon with defending champion Briana Stephenson trying to run faster that Maddie Wilson in the 800m.

The both have similar best times and they went neck and neck, Wilson finishing a hundredth of a second in front in 2:11.53.

Wilson won with a total score of 6059, beating the performance standard for the Commonwealth Games of 6050.

Wilson said it was super satisfying result.

“To get over that 6k points, after a couple of years, it’s really nice.

“I just had to hang on to Bree and knew I had to get that 2:12 time to get the 6050. I was really happy with the high jump which was a bit over place but I got there with an equal PB 1.87m, coming after a PB 100m hurdles,” she said.

Stephenson said she tried hard in the 800m.

“Always 64 seconds through the first lap, is the plan, and I wanted Maddie to get over that 6050, so we spoke about going through the 600m together at about 1:37, which we went through pretty perfectly and I said I’d let her have the last 200m. But I had some left in the tank and wanted to keep challenging her, so I felt we really pushed ourselves to do our best in that race.

“I’ve done the A standard for the Games, so I just wanted to put another good on the board and just tipped over the 6000,” she said.

Results:

Men

Senior decathlon: Angus Lyver (Chch OB) 7281 points (100m 10.78 +0.2, LJ 7.19m -1.7, SP 12.85m, HJ 1.87m, 400m 48.70, 110m H 15.51 -0.4, DT 41.91m, PV 3.50, JT 56.18m, 1500m 4:47.13), Jack Henry (Canterbury) 7263 (11.40 -0.6, 6.94m -1.4, 13.68m, 1.87m, 50.71, 14.68 -0.4, 14.82m, 4.30m, 52.95m, 4:32.40), Max Attwell (Canterbury) 7073, Luke Moffitt (Otago) 6374, Max Teuruaa (Cook Islands) 6337, Connor Brown (Tauranga) 6052.

Under 20 decathlon: Jacques Temarii (French Polynesia) 6161, Asher Robertson (Lower Hutt) 5836, Ty Gonzales (Lynndale) 5067.

Under 18 decathlon: Connor Brady (Takapuna) 7074, Elikai Manuel (Takapuna) 6132.

Masters M60 decathlon: Mark Lett (NHB) 3477.

Under 16 Octathlon: Christiaan Findlay (Owairaka) 2892, Puatua Puatua (Lynndale) 2354, Blake Spalding (Owairaka) 1712.

Women

Senior heptathlon: Maddie Wilson (Canterbury) 6059 points (100m H 14.26 +0.4, HJ 1.87m PB, SP 12.72m, 200m 25.33 -1.8, LJ 6.00m +0.5, JT 41.28m, 800m 2:11.53), Briana Stephenson (HBG) 6002 (100m H 13.46 +0.4, HJ 1.72m, SP 12.53m, 200m 24.08 -1.8, LJ 5.88m, JT 38.73m, 800m 2:11.54), Maya Francis (Australia) 4230.

Under 20 heptathlon: Tayler Trow (Manawatu Whanganui) 4864) Jody McCarthy-Dempsey (Canterbury) 4746, Lauren Barrett-Hamilton (Waitakere) 4377.

Under 18 heptathlon: Jamie Fell (Hamilton City Hawks) 4888, Juno Ireland (Waitakere) 4679, Anna Gillett (Chch OB) 4309.

Masters: W40 heptathlon: Melissa Karl (Takapuna) 1897.

Under 16 Pentathlon: Kate O’Connell (Takapuna), 2379.

New Zealand 24 Hour Track Championship, AUT Millennium Stadium, North Shore – 21/22 March 2026

Keith Burrows continued his run of success in ultra distance running collecting another 24 hour title covering 231.107km. He won his first 24 hour title in 2020.

Siân Johnson won her first women’s title.

Results:

Men: Keith Burrows (Owairaka) 231.107km, Troy Field (Auckland) 205.222, David Middlemiss (Hamilton) 201.947, Shawn O’Leary (Auckland) 184.574, Alan Shand (Auckland) 173.021, Peter Marek (Auckland) 171.538.

Women: Siân Johnson (Gisborne) 165.768, Summer Yu-Fan Hsiao (Auckland) 159.477, Maggi Forsyth (Greymouth) 127.200.