Meet New Zealand’s fastest women

Zoe Hobbs, a sprinter from New Zealand, has made history by becoming the first woman from her country to run 100 metres in under 11 seconds.

Hobbs was competing at the Sydney Track Classic in Australia when she achieved this incredible feat. She beat her own Oceania women’s 100m record with a time of 10.97 seconds, leaving her competitors behind. The record-breaking sprint also set an Australian all-comers record.

Hobbs had come close to breaking the record just a week earlier at the New Zealand Track & Field Championships, where she ran 11.07 seconds in the heats and 10.89 seconds in the final (although this was wind-assisted, meaning it didn’t count as an official record).

During the race in Sydney, Hobbs initially thought she had finished in 10.99 seconds, but she was ecstatic to find out that she had actually run even faster at 10.97 seconds, and the wind was legal. “It feels so good. When I heard the time and the wind was legal, I was absolutely stoked to finally dip under the 11-second mark legally,” she said.

Despite feeling some pre-race nerves due to the high expectations after her previous success, Hobbs managed to stay focused and execute her plan. She credits watching Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” for helping her relax before the race.

Hobbs’ amazing achievement puts her in a very exclusive group of sub-11-second runners, which is considered to be the hallmark of world-class sprinting. She hopes to continue her success at the Sir Graeme Douglas International in Auckland, her adopted home city, later this week.

In addition to her individual success, Hobbs also anchored a New Zealand A team to second place in the women’s 4x100m team event, with a time of 44.59 seconds.