31 Jan 2009

New Zealand sprint champ flies in to beat the Aussies

6:18 am on 31 January 2009

New Zealand sprint champion Monique Williams won the 200m before being edged into second in the 100m at the Hobart Briggs Athletic Classic.

The New Zealand national champion over 100m, 200m and 400m travels between her Hamilton home and Australia to compete in the Aussie summer series.

The school teaching graduate, who is looking for a job, has her sights set on qualifying for the world championships in Berlin in August.

She ran 23.71 seconds to win the 200m and 11.82sec for her second in the 100m to Laura Whaler (11.79sec), of NSW.

Williams says she'll be looking to improve at the Australian Cup in Brisbane next week and hopefully compete at the Sydney and Melbourne grand prixs, and the Australian nationals (in March).

Friday's meet is one of a series around Australia leading up to the nationals in Brisbane in March.