Kiwi speedster Zoe Hobbs has created NZ athletics history, becoming the first woman to break 11 seconds for the 100 metres at the national championships in Wellington.
Unfortunately, an excessive 3.4mps tailwind means the time will not be recognised as a national record, which Hobbs broke legally in heats earlier in the day.
Still, the time propels her through a benchmark that puts her among the world's fastest women. Hobbs' performances make her the quickest over 100m so far this year, bettering the previous best of 11.20s by Australian Naa Anang.
A legal 10.89s would see her ranked 59th all-time, with the world record standing at 10.49s, by American Florence Griffith-Joyner - the infamous 'FloJo' - from 1988.
Injury has kept Hobbs off the track through most of the NZ summer, with her heat representing her first competitive race this season.
"It feels incredible," she said. "I was not expecting that.
"I just wanted to come out here today and be in one piece at the finish-line. I wasn't expecting that result, so to open the season like that was incredible."
Hobbs, 25, clocked a legal (1.8mps) 11.07s in the preliminaries, shaving 0.01s off her previous national mark, set at last year's world athletics championhips at Oregon.
"My mentality going into that race, I wanted to treat it as a season-opener and not put too much pressure on it," she said. "My goal was just to flow through the race, be nice and relaxed, and finish in one piece.
"I think flowing it like that gave me confidence and showed me I was capable of that time, then I just wanted to come out and blast it as much as possible.
"Last year was probably the first time I truly believed I was capable of doing that [breaking 11 seconds], Having run 11.07 in the heat, it was a matter of maximising the opportunity and really gettting after it.
"Now I've done with the wind, I've got to do it legally."
The men's 100m title was taken out by Cantabrian Tiaan Whelpton in a swift 10.13s, albeit aided by 5.2mps wind.
Meanwhile, Tori Peeters set a national resident record in the women's javelin with 60.60m and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Madison Wesche tossed 19.13m in the women's shot put.
