2003 Articles

Christchurch pharmacist Melina Hamilton dispenses drugs during the week and then gets high at the weekends.

Hamilton scored a stunning win over world-class opposition in the Australian pole vault championship in Brisbane at the weekend ­ equalling her two-week-old national record of 4.20m.

With the title already safely in her pocket, she had the bar lifted up to the world championship qualifying height of 4.30m.

She came so close to clearing the height she needs to win a trip to the Paris worlds that she has decided to return to Australia at the weekend for the final Telstra invitation meeting of the season at Runaway Bay.

"I thought I had it," she said on her triumphant return from Brisbane yesterday. "On the first and the third vaults I brought the bar down with ever so slight a touch."

Hamilton, who is totally opposed to the use of drugs in sport, has not yet broken the news of her planned return to Australia to her boss at the Moorhouse Pharmacy. She laughed off the irony of her job. "I sell drugs and get paid for it, and it is all quite legal."

Hamilton won the Australian title on a countback from Rosanna Ditton, who also cleared 4.20m, but the big scalp was that of Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva.

The Australia-based Russian crashed out at 4.10m and had to be satisfied with a shock third. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Irie Hall wasn't even placed.

"It was nice to know I can beat the Olympic silver medallist, but I didn't even realise I had won the championship. I was concentrating on clearing 4.30m. I am still a bit disappointed not to get that."

Hamilton threw the opposition into disarray when she elected to pass at 4.10m in a moment of supreme one-upmanship.

"It was all on. I just sat there and watched them struggle."

Then she calmly soared over 4.20m at the first attempt. "I don't think the Australians were too impressed that I won it," she said.

Grigorieva has gone into crisis mode, and will probably miss this weekend's final meeting. But that won't worry Hamilton, who will again focus on 4.30m and ignore the competition around her.

"I've got nothing to lose by going back. If I don't go, I will never know whether I could have done it," she said.

Melina Hamilton
From: Stuff Bay of Plenty http://www.stuff.co.nz/bayofplenty/0,2106,2389499a6459,00.html
08 April 2003

After a disappointing Commonwealth Games campaign, former Taupo pole-vaulter Melina Hamilton got her career back on track when she won the Australian women's championships in Brisbane.

Hamilton is the second New Zealander in three years to win the title. With a winning height clearance of 4.20 metres, she out-jumped both Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva (4.10m) and Rosanna Ditton.

Now Hamilton will concentrate on clearing the 4.30m height needed to qualify for the world championships. Her personal best jump is 4.25m.