17.01.2009

Australia dominates day 1 of AYOF track

Despite the blustery conditions and some controversy with the 100m races the first day of athletics at the AYOF saw a fantastic session with strong performances across the board.

Australia dominated winning 11 of the 12 races on offer with many young stars announcing themselves upon the international scene.

The highlight of the night however was in the men’s 400m in which the first two place getters broke the AYOF meet record, lowering their personal bests and recording World Youth Championship qualifiers.

New Zealander, Alex Jordan took 0.41 seconds off the existing AYOF record with a time 47.86 surprising not only himself but Team Manager Steve Willis.

“This is only his third 400m that he has ever run and the 200 was always going to be his main one… then to come away and run a performance like this in the four is fantastic,” Willis said.

The news for Australian Alex Beck (48.09) was just as exciting taking 0.60 seconds off his best.

Beck who is coached by Olympian heptathlon gold medalist from Los Angeles 1984 Glynnis Nunn has a big future indicated with this performance. He has become the first Australian to qualify for the World Youth Championships in the 400m.

In the men’s 110m hurdles the favourite Mitch Tysoe was beaten by countryman Cameron Hyde who set a new AYOF record, 13.92.

Hyde beat the existing record by 0.05 seconds continuing the close rivalry between himself and Tysoe who are ranked two and one in the world for their age respectively.

There was confusion in both the men’s and women’s 100m races. Recall guns were fired in the two events to call the athletes back but most did not hear the starter’s gun. As a result the women’s result was re-run 90 minutes later where up and coming star Ashleigh Whittaker took the gold.

The 15-year-old won with a time of 12.20 from fellow Australian Karlie Morton (12.25) and China’s Huijun Lin 12.38. 

Even more controversy hit the men’s 100m race when placegetters lodged a protest following the recall guns at the start.

The initial running, recorded with hand time results, was won by Mitchell Felsman, but after an hour of deliberation it was decided that the race would be run again on Saturday.

Australia dominated the 4x100m relays winning gold, silver and bronze in both the men’s and women’s events with the Australian women’s team breaking the AYOF record.

Distance runners Natalie Dudkowski and Nikki Hiscock proved themselves as promising stars of the future with Dudkowski recording an eight second personal best in the women’s 2000m steeplechase (6:46.83) and Hiscock a dominant performance in the 1500m (4:42.16).

Other track event winners today were Jordaon Nelson won the men’s 2000m steeplechase (6:11.18), Caitlin Sargent the women’s 400m (55.21), Rosanna Lawson the 100m hurdles (14.49) and Jordan Williamsz (3:55.19) in the men’s 1500m.

The second and final day of action kicks off at 3:30pm this afternoon (Saturday) at Sydney Olympic Park.

15:30 - 19:00                                                  
Hammer-W, Pole Vault-M, Long Jump-W, Shot Put-M, 400m Hurdles-M,
Discus-W, 400m Hurdles-W, 800m-W, 800m-M, 200m-M, 200m-W, High Jump-W,
3000m-W, Long Jump-M, 3000m-M, Discus-M, 5000m Walk-M/W, 4x400m-W, 4x400m-M  

Please click here for live results

For further AYOF information, please visit www.olympics.com.au

With thanks to Lloyd Green and Caitlin Chalmers for the AOC

Image courtesy of David Tarbotton