Juniors fire on the Coast

Victoria’s Jessica Rothwell electrified the Australian Under 20 and 23 Championships on Friday night when she decimated the Australian under-20 record for the 10,000m race walk in the final event on a night when a series of World Junior qualifying performances had until then been the main talking point.

From the start Rothwell was firing on all cylinders, and it was obvious throughout that something magical was in the making as she reeled off lap after lap with a consistency that is rarely seen, even at this high level of competition.

Her winning time of 46:15.17s was not only under the old record of 48:04.78 set by Laura Johnson in Jamaica in 2002 but was a whopping three-plus minutes under the World Junior qualifying standard of 49:25.00.

Melissa Hayes of New South Wales finished second in 48:04.62s and was also under the World Junior qualifying standard. The high quality of women’s race walking in Australia established years ago by Kerry Saxby and, in more recent times, by Jane Saville looks to be in capable hands with these young ladies.

In the men’s race Tasmania’s Daniel Coleman was only six seconds outside achieving a qualifier when he stopped the clock at 44:11.81s.

Earlier in the competition, Victorian Daniel Martin showed that he meant business in the 110m hurdles heats and added the other World Junior qualifier he had been seeking to his resume.

He ran the fastest of the heats in 14.05s, some .25 of a second faster that the required mark. His run in the final showed real class taking another .04 off his heat run and just missing the 14.00s barrier with a winning time of 14.01 seconds.

In the heats of the under-20 women’s 400m Angeline Blackburn of the ACT was only .07 off a qualifier when she crossed first in Heat 1 in 54.87s. This was well ahead of the next fastest competitor.

Brianna Beahan of WA took home gold but just missed a qualifier in the 100m hurdles final when she crossed in 14.10s,  ahead of second place-getter Shaleigh Gould of Queensland.

In the men’s under-20 400m and 800m heats, there was enough to suggest that the finals will produce some excellent results – Nick Frost of Queensland had the fastest of the 400s with 48.91s while James Kaan of NSW (pictured) was the best over 800m with the leading time of 1:51.51s.

While the track events did produce some outstanding performances it was in the field that the exceptional performances came thick and fast.

In the under-20 men’s and women’s discus events, an incredible eight competitors achieved World Junior qualifiers, ensuring the national selectors will have more than a few headaches when they sit down to finalise the team to represent Australia at the World Junior Championships later this year.

The women were first to show their wares with Kimberley Mulhall of Victoria setting the pace right from the start with a 48.74m throw first up.

She followed this up with a 50.74m effort in round two, a throw which was good enough to give her the gold medal although Lomana Fagatuai of NSW gave her a scare in round five when she landed the platter right on the 50.00m mark.

Vika Lolo of NSW was also right up there with a 49.66m effort in round two.

When you consider that Christie Chanberlain of NSW (4th/48.32m) and Te Rina Keenan of New Zealand (5th/47.28m) also bettered the World Junior qualifying standard it is only then that the overall quality of the competition can be understood.

Not to be outdone, the men also turned on the fireworks with Victoria’s Andrew Peska leaving it until round three to establish his superiority with an eventual winning throw of 55.04m, while surprise packet Julian Wruck of Queensland turned the tables on his team-mate Andrew Welch to snatch second spot with 54.29m in round five. Welch picked up the bronze medal with a 54.08m throw in round three.

All three placegetters bettered the World Junior mark of 54.00m which will give the selectors something to think about for Poland in July.

One of the biggest surprises of the day's competition came in the under-20 women’s triple jump where Queensland’s Ainsley Ackerman battled a -2.1 wind in the first round to leap a huge personal best of 12.93m. It was Ackerman’s first World Junior qualifier by just three centimetres.

In the under-23 events, one of the stronger performances came from New Zealander Alice Mason who took over 25 seconds off the meet record for the 3000m steeplechase with a winning time of 10:22.07m.

Catherine Drummond and Ellen Pettitt continued their rivalry in the high jump with Pettitt looking likely to take the gold with first attempt clearances at 1.76, 1.79 and 1.82 while her rival was inconsistent with a total of three misses at these heights.

When the bar was raised to 1.85m Queenslander Drummond cleared it on her first attempt while her West Australian rival missed all three attempts – giving Drummond the open and under-23 championships double, both at a height of 1.85m.

Tracey Barnett of Queensland was another to cause an upset when she came from fifth place after three jumps to snatch victory in the under-23 triple jump with a new meet record of 12.81m.

In the final event on the program, Ryan Gregson again showed his dominance in the distance events with a strong win from fellow New South Welshman Matthew Bayley and Victorian Kevin Batt. One of the highlights of the night came not in the competition area but at the presentation dais when one of Australia’s greatest ever distance runners, Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke, made a lightning trip to the championships from the opening of the new Titans' rugby league stadium to present the medals to these boys. He stayed on to meet a number of athletes and pass on some handy tips.

The championships continue on Saturday at the Gold Cost International track with Tauro, Breen and Graf fighting it out for the women’s under-20 100m, Trychelle Kingdom in the women’s under-20 800m, Hamish Peacock in the men’s under-20 javelin, Gregson v Huffer in the men’s under-20 1500m and Robbie Crowther in the under-23 men’s long jump.

By Daryl Cross