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Felsman fastest man at AYOF
Despite windy conditions at the track, some admirable performance were recorded on the final day of competition at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in Sydney.
The focal point of competition was the re-run of the men’s 100m sprint final with medallists finishing in the same order as how they crossed the line in the original race.
Mitchell Felsman recorded an impressive effort into a 2.8m head wind to win gold with a time of 11.13 seconds.
Both Felsman and second place getter Banuve Tabakaucore (Oceania) were pleased with their performances but said they would have liked a tail wind so they could record fast times.
“It was a pretty good run although we didn’t have the same wind that we did yesterday but I’m really proud of my run as I led the first 50 and that’s good for me,” Tabakaucore said.
Coping with the drama of delays and the the postponement of the 100m race, both athletes appeared content with the final result.
“Everyone was pretty relaxed and everyone was the same to me in getting an official time so we didn’t mind too much,” Felsman said
“I was not too happy about it but after the race coming second to a great champion like Mitchell I’m still very proud of it,” the Oceania athlete commented.
In the men’s 5000m an enthralling contest took place between two Australian athletes in Dane Bird-Smith and Sean Fitzsimons, who share the same coach.
Bird-Smith won with a personal best time of 20:58.36 minutes which was just outside the AYOF record.
“I was feeling good throughout the whole thing, I just wanted to put on a nice strong pace and go well,” he said.
Fitzsimons recorded a 1 minute 15 second personal best and was really stoked with his effort, but on a souring note was disqualified shortly after the event.
The close rivalry between New Zealand’s Alex Jordan and Australia’s Alex Beck continued today with a scorching race in the men’s 200m event.
The New Zealander took the spoils in a slowly run race against the 1.7m head wind, but both men were extremely happy with their performances at the meet stating they were stoked at how they were going.
Rising star Caitlin Sargent won gold in the 200m in a time of 24.72, adding to her comfortable 400m win from the previous night.
In the 4x400m relay today, Sargent anchored her team to a silver adding to her previous 4x100m relay bronze.
Further information can be found on www.olympics.com.auLloyd Green for the AOC
Image courtesy fo David Tarbotton
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