Aussie Beijing Wrap-up

In a word, our Aussie track & field team were successful. 

Our crew of 41 delivered our best Olympic result since 1968.  One gold, two silver and one bronze had us equal 8^th on the medal tally, albeit equal, with the Poms.

We were also 12^th on the placing table, which adds up points from top eight performances.

It was a tremendous 10 days of competition, that brought well deserved attention to the sport of Athletics.  Steve Hooker, Jared Tallent and Sally McLellan are now household names, alongside that bloke Bolt.

Given 26 of the team were making their first appearance at the Olympics, the future looks promising.  Add into that, our two world champions, Nathan Deakes and Jana Rawlinson who were missing from these games, the quality of athletes Australia boasts is exciting.

The results have already had a positive response, with enquiries being received from around Australia from people inspired by the Olympics.

So let’s take a closer look at how our athletes performed on a discipline basis.

Sprints

Sally McLellan sprinted into the headlines, with her celebration getting splattered over the front and back cover of newspapers throughout the country.

Her silver medal winning 12.64sec performance in the 100m hurdles was the best ever by an Australian at the games, by place and by time.  The 21 year old won our first Olympic medal in Hurdles, for 20 years.

Our 400m individual men both recorded personal bests in their heats, to advance them into the semi finals.  Joel Milburn’s 44.80 seconds was the 5^th fastest an Aussie has ever performed for the distance and the second quickest at an Olympic games.

Sean Wroe covered one lap of the Bird’s Nest in 45.17 to place 2^nd in his heat and join Milburn in the semi finals.

They then formed part of the relay team alongside John Steffensen, Clinton Hill, Dylan Grant and Mark Ormrod, which progressed to the final. 

They ran the second fastest time ever by an Australian team.  Wroe lead off in 46.07sec, handing the baton to Steffensen (45.26), who gave it to Hill (44.41) with Milburn (44.28) running the fourth and final leg.  Their combined time of 3:00.02 was faster than the silver medal winning performance from Athens and placed them 6^th in Beijing.

Distance

Youcef Abdi had the two best runs of his life in Beijing in the 3000m steeplechase.

Running a personal best of 8:17:97 placed him 6^th in the heat, where he progressed to the final.  Remarkably, his position didn’t change as he improved his two-day-old PB to 8:16.36.  In the process, he took down some massive scalps, which included outsprinting the defending Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi.

Our 3000m steeplechase girls ran gallantly in the tough Beijing conditions, but neither were able to qualify for the final.  Victoria Mitchell again brought out the neon pink hair, to run 9:47.88, while Donna MacFarlane placed 9^th in her heat in 9:32.05. 

It was a phenomenal Olympic debut for the event, which saw eleven national records fall from the heats and finals, plus the world record bettered by three seconds.

Tamsyn Lewis ran the fastest ever time by an Aussie at the Olympics to qualify for the 800m semi finals.  Her heat time of 1:59.67 earnt her 4^th in heat four, while Madeleine  Pape’s 2:03.09 placed her 6^th in her heat.  Lewis also ran in the 400m heats, edged out on a place in the semi finals by one spot.

Lachlan Renshaw was on debut in Beijing and got a tough introduction.  In his heat he drew the defending champion and the eventual winner of the final.  His time of 1:49.19 was far from his personal best, but the experience will no doubt be invaluable.

As it will also be for the 1500m boys of Mitch Kealey and Jeffrey Riseley.  Like many of the team, they suffered from a virus going through the village and struggled in their heats.  Kealey placed 11^th in his heat, with 3:46.31.  Riseley placed 12^th in the second fastest 1500m in Olympic history.  He ran 3:53.95, in the heat that was won by Rashid Ramzi, who took home the gold medal after the final.

Sarah Jamieson was agonisingly close to making the women’s 1500m final.  Only Marg Crowley has ever run faster at the Olympics, after Jamo’s 5^th placing 4:06.64.  Heat two, which featured Lisa Corrigan was a stark contrast to the both the other heats, which were slick indeed.  Corrigan positioned herself in the top two at the right time, but when the kicks came, she wasn’t able to match the others, placing 9^th with 4:16.32.

By his own admission, Craig Mottram didn’t achieve what he wanted to in Beijing.  Placing 5^th in his tactically run heat to miss out on the final was a shock to many.  Interestingly enough, the final was run almost identically to the 2006 Commonwealth Games Final, which certainly would have suited Craig better, than the major kick down in his Beijing heat.

23-year-old Collis Birmingham ran the 15^th fastest overall heat time, in placing 10^th in his preliminary event.  Though he had aspirations of making the final, the experience gained by the young Victorian is a reality to be reaped.

Australia sent four marathoners to Beijing, three women and Lee Troop in the mens.  Troopy summed up the mens race as ‘carnage’, as Samuel Wanjiru smashed the Olympic record by three minutes.  Finishing in 60^th place, Troop’s time of 2:27:17 was a gutsy one nonetheless. 

Benita Johnson was highest placed female marathoner, placing 21^st in 2:32:06.  Her fellow Victorians ran proudly at first their Olympics, with Lisa Weightman placing 33^rd in 2:34:16 and Kate Smyth 44^th in 2:36:10.

Throwers/Multi’s

Two Australian throwers made finals in Beijing and both were debutants.  Jarrod Bannister placed 6^th in the mens javelin; the highest placing ever by an Aussie at the Olympics.  Despite injuring his elbow in the final, he managed 83.45m, being beaten by Andreas Thorkidsen who set a new Olympic Record.

The baby of the team, Dani Samuels threw 60.15m in the final of the women’s discus to place 9^th.  While Benn Harradine’s 58.55 in the men’s equivalent was enough for 17^th in his qualifying pool. 

Not since 1956 had Australia had two men in the Shot Put at an Olympics.  This year, Justin Anlezark was 9^th in his pool, with a best put of 19.91m, while Scott Martin finished 10^th in his pool with 19.75m.

Heptathlete Kylie Wheeler was involved in the very first event at the Bird’s Nest and was clearly inspired by the occasion.  The West Australian set three personal best during the competition, in Javelin, High Jump and her overall to place 11^th with 6369 points.

Walkers

Of our medals, they won half of them.  Of our top eight placings, they had three.  A brilliant result from a team of seven walkers.

Naturally, Jared Tallent takes the headlines.  His bronze in the 20km and silver in the 50km was the first time an athlete has won two medals at the same games in 36 years.

In the absence of world champion Nathan Deakes, 23 year old Tallent stepped up and up.  Luke Adams went one better than his 7^th placing in Osaka over 20km, finishing 6^th in Beijing.  As a last minute replacement for Deakes in the 50km, he placed 10^th, setting a new personal best by nearly six minutes.

The results for our walkers were certainly sweet and sour.  Chris Erickson had the misfortune of being disqualified in the 20km event and Adam Rutter was unable to finish the gruelling race, after suffering from a virus.

The 20km women’s event also had mixed results.  Defending bronze medallist from Athens, Jane Saville placed 20^th with 1:31:17, the third best ever by an Aussie at the Olympics.  Claire Woods equalled her PB of 1:33:02 in placing 28^th and Kellie Wapshott walked 1:37:59 for 40^th.

Jumpers/vaulters

Australia first had Captain Cook, now we have Captain Hook.

Steve Hooker won Australia’s first field event gold medal in 60 years.  Not only that, he set a new Olympic record in the process, clearing 5.96m.  It was a magical performance from the 26 year old that has inspired a nation.

At this third Olympics, Paul Burgess was looking good in qualifying for his first final, but faulted at 5.55m and placed 8^th in his group.   Alana Boyd vaulted 4.30m to finish 8^th in her qualifying group at her inaugural Olympics. 

In the horizontal jumps, Bronwyn Thompson and Fabrice Lapierre were the Aussie representatives.  At his first Olympics, Lapierre missed a spot in the final by only four centimetres, after his best leap of 7.90m was enough for 8^th in his pool and 16^th overall.  While at her third games, Thompson’s story was similar to Lapierre.  Her best jump of 6.53m was six centimetres short of a position in the final and placed her 17^th overall.

And so we look towards to London via Berlin, Dehli and Dagu. We take the successes, experiences and learnings of Beijing as inspiration to keep pushing athletics to its rightful place, the forefront of Australian sport. With many of our athletes heading back to Europe to compete and then home for our season we can’t wait to have them here bringing a bit of magic to the track, fields and roads of Australia, stay tuned to athletics.com.au for up to the minute Australian athletics news and information.

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - Athletics Medal Tally

Rnk	Cou	Gold	Silv.	Bro.	Tot
1		7	9	7	23
2		6	5	7	18
3		6	3	2	11
4		5	5	4	14
5		4	1	2	7
6		1	3	3	7
7		1	2	2	5
8		1	2	1	4
8		1	2	1	4
10		1	1	3	5