News
Mixed bag in Belgrade
Saturday in Belgrade featured Australians in just 6 events, the quietest day on the program, and was somewhat of a mixed bag of results.
The morning session started out of the stadium with the men’s and women’s half marathon whilst in the stadium the men’s long jump qualification rounds kicked off. Australia’s Shaun Fletcher progressed through to tomorrow night’s final. Beginning with a foul, the QLD athlete settled his nerves to pop out a 7.39m in round two and finished with a 7.56m leap with a slight head wind, not far from his 7.62m personal best to qualify for tomorrow’s final 5th in his group. AIS athlete John Thornell opened with a foul in round two managed a leap of 7.33m, he was unable to better this mark and did not progress to the final.
In the second day of the grueling women’s combined event, 2006 World Junior representative Megan Wheatley leapt 5.80m to record 5th place in the long jump, hurled the javelin 40.04 for 5th place and registered a quick 2:16.81 to place 4th in the 800m, to finish 7th overall with 5696 points. South Australian Lauren Foote was 3rd with a strong 41.24 in the javelin, 7th in the long jump with 5.67 and 8th in the 800m in 2:23.80 to finish 8th with 5599 points.
The men’s pole vault event was won by Russia’s Alexander Gripich with a vault of 5.60m. Reigning Australian and Youth Commonwealth champion Blake Lucas entered the competition at 4.95m, sailing over that height and 5.15m but struggled after passing at 5.25m. He then missed three tries at 5.35m to finish 9th. With a personal best of 5.55m Lucas was disappointed with his result but found the experience invaluable. Victorian Joel Pocklington also opened with an easy clearance at 4.95m and passed at 5.05, but disappointingly missed his three attempts at 5.15m finishing just behind Lucas in 10th place.
Beijing Olympian, Lachlan Renshaw recorded a comfortable 1:49.27 and is the 5th fastest qualifier for tomorrow night’s final. Renshaw placed third in his heat behind Iranian Moradi Sajad and Algerian Meilan Walid and will be hoping for a fast final to push him into the vicinity of his 1:45.79 personal best and the elusive world championships A qualifier of 1:45.40.
New South Welshman Justin Merlino placed 2nd in heat 2 of the 110m hurdles in 13.92 to progress to the final. Lining up against a quality field, Merlino placed 6th in 13.90 with the winner, Jing Yin of China recording a personal best time of 13.50 to take the gold. Earlier in the day, Queensland athlete, John Burstow finished 7th in his heat in 14.20 but failed to qualify for the final.
In an exciting finish to the night Australia represented by Clay Watkins, Brendan Cole, John Burstow and anchor man Tristan Thomas placed 3rd in their heat to progress to the final in 3:07.69 behind Poland and Belgium, they will start from lane 8 but should feature in the medals with Beijing Olympian Sean Wroe to come in to the team.
In action on the final day of competition will be Ellen Pettitt and Zoe Timmers in the women’s high jump final, Lachlan Renshaw in the men’s 800m final, Shaun Fletcher in the men’s long jump final, Bridey Delaney and Kalia McKnight in the Women’s 1500m final, Liam Adams in the men’s 5000m final and the Men’s 4 x 400m relay team.
For all the action from Belgrade click here.
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletters to keep up to date with Athletics in Australia.
More Headlines
