16.03.2008

Parnov closes day, meet of promising performances

Isn’t it amazing how often the best is saved until last.

It was the case on Sunday at the Australian Under 20 and Under 23 Championships on the Gold Coast where the final event to finish, the women’s under-20 pole vault, saw the large crowd on the edges of their seats.

West Australian Vicky Parnov lined up the bar set at 4.35m and then charged down the runway, launched into space and flew over to get herself an Olympic B-qualifier.

It didn’t matter that it was also one of seven World Junior qualifiers on the day. To Vicky, it was more important that it continued her dream of getting to the Olympic Games; a B-qualifier got her up one more rung on the ladder.

After this clearance she had the bar raised to 4.45m, the Olympic A-qualifying height, and while her third attempt at this height was close, she was unable to achieve the ultimate goal on this occasion.

On this final day, the World Junior qualifying performances were more spread across the track, jumps and throws than on the previous two days.

Olivia Tauro (NSW) chose to bypass the 400m in favour of the 200m and while this paid dividends in spades, the fickle wind robbed her of yet another World Junior qualifier. Her winning time of 23.74s was well under the qualifying standard but the tailwind reading of 2.1 sealed any chance of it being recognised.

In the women’s 1500m the bunched field set a good tempo and it wasn’t until the closing stages that Bridey Delaney of New South Wales and her State team-mate Chloe Tighe managed to get a break that allowed them to stride to the line, with both getting under the World Junior qualifying time of 4:23.50.

Delaney was credited with 4:21.57s and Tighe with 4:22.44s.

Kimberley Mulhall of Victoria continued on her merry winning way, this time adding the shot put gold medal to her every growing collection of accolades.

Like others in these championships, she left it until the final throw in the competition to exert her dominance as she put the weight out to 14.75m, 15cm beyond the 14.60m standard.

Interestingly, it wasn’t until this throw that she actually took the lead as she was sitting in second place behind the NSW powerhouse Vika Lolo; 14.39m to 14.42m.

The Queensland high jumpers continued their dominance with Josh Hall following in the footsteps of compatriot Cal Pearce who earlier won the under-23s event.

Like Mulhall, Hall had a battle on his hands and didn’t take the lead until the bar was raised to 2.11m. He cleared it on his first attempt to turn the tables on the leader up to that stage, Thomas Brennan of Western Australia who took three attempts to stay in the competition.

Hall took three jumps to get over the next height, 2.14m, but cleared 2.17m on his first while Brennan bowed out at 2.14m.

As it turned out, 2.17m was the winning height as Hall missed on his three attempts.

Watch out Scotty Martin and Justin Anlezark, Emanuele Fuamatu is coming to get you.

The 18.00m World Junior qualifying tape received a battering in the under-20 shot event as the big New South Welshman completed an almost perfect series of throws - 18.77m, 19.00m, 19.06m, 19.26m and 19.37m. Although he did start off with a first round foul, it doesn’t get much better than that.

In the women’s under-20 400m hurdles, Brittney McGlone wasn’t far outside the qualifying mark of 59.50s as she crossed the line in 59.69s; had she been pressured more she may have reached it.

Similarly in the men’s under-20 400m hurdles, Ian Dewhurst of New South Wales ran a consistent race to finish just outside the required 52.50s standard. His winning time was 52.76s.

Kurt Mulcahy of the AIS scored a good double when he proved too strong in the run home to win the 200m in 21.58s to add to his 400m gold medal. On the other hand, Ryan Gregson (NSWIS) had to work hard in the men’s under-20 1500m to break away over the final 250m in order to secure the gold medal in a time of 3:53.88s from Victoria’s Craig Huffer (3:54.67s). The race was a tactical affair with the field bunched for much of the first 1200m and a mad dash over the closing stages.

Henry Frayne of Victoria sealed the under-20 triple jump with a third round effort of 15.47m, although he would have been more satisfied if he had jumped another 13cm to get a qualifier.

Across the weekend, 25 outright results satisfied the World Junior qualifying standards and, in the coming days, selectors will put their heads together to name the team that will represent Australia at those championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland from July 8.

In the under-23 events, little changed from the first two days with medals and meet records the targets of the competitors.

Laura Whaler of New South Wales set a new mark in the 100m final where she crossed the line first in 11.79s, while in the 400m hurdles Lauren Boden of the ACT added the under-23 crown to the open title she won two weeks ago. She, along with second placegetter Lyndsay Pekin of WAIS, both ran under the old record with respective times of 58.25s and 59.88s.

Pekin was not to be put off as she came out and ran an excellent 400m final to win gold in 55.16s.

Todd Bateman of SASI was impressive as he won the under-23 100m title in 10.50s, but his enjoyment was short-lived when the wind reading was given as 2.2 assisting – the record therefore is still standing at 10.55s.

Tristan Thomas was equally as impressive as he left his opposition wallowing over two seconds behind in the under-23 400m hurdles.

His winning time was 50.31s, almost two seconds inside the old record set last year.

The biggest upset of the day came in the under-23 pole vault where open silver medallist Matt Boyd was expected to add this title to his family treasures.

However, Joel Pocklington of Victoria had other ideas and while his winning height of 5.05m was not as high as what Boyd had jumped two weeks ago (5.35m) it was still better than the record of 5.00m. As they say, winners are grinners regardless of the actual performance.

William Higgins of NSW had a successful final day collecting two gold medals, the first in the under-23 hammer where he took the lead in the second round with a throw of 50.62m and then increased that in the fifth round to 52.85m. Just two months ago his PB in this event was some nine metres behind his winnng throw today.

Later in the day he also won the discus quite easily with a throw of 46.32m.

Queenslander Tracey Barnett finished off her championships campaign in style by winning the under-23 long jump with a best jump of 5.59m. This gave her a second gold medal after she had earlier won the triple jump.

In the under-23 400m, Alexander Bubner of SASI stormed home to win in 47.34s from Tyson Smith of Queensland and Martin Smellie of New South Wales, while in the 1500m Queensland’s Adam Graham scored a narrow victory over Victorians James Alexander and Kale Symons in 3:55.18s.

By Daryl Cross

Read the review of day one here
Read the review of day two here
Click here for the full results