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Rain won't extinguish the Spark on day four in Moncton
Wet and wintery conditions have done nothing
to dampen the Spark’s spirit on the first session of day four at
the IAAF world junior championships in Moncton, Canada, with five
of the six athletes in action progressing through this morning’s
qualifying rounds.
200m runners Ella Nelson, Karlie
Morton, Jake Hammond and Mathew
Turk joined long jump gun Brooke Stratton
in booking an encore appearance at Stade Moncton after strong
performances on the world stage today, while Lara
Nielsen just missed out on moving through the qualifying
rounds of the hammer throw.
New South Wales athlete Amanda Bartrim did not
take to the field after qualification for the women’s pole vault
was postponed 24 hours due to inclement weather.
In driving rain 200m athletes Ella Nelson and
Karlie Morton kick-started the Spark’s campaign on day four of the
week-long meet, Nelson lining up in heat two and Morton in the
sixth and final qualifying run of this morning’s opening
round.
Braving the soaking wet conditions that greeted athletes after a
hot and humid start to the meet, Nelson and Morton ran gallantly to
stop the clock at 24.26 (w:0.2) and 24.16 (w:0.5) respectively and
advance to tonight’s semi-finals.
Sixteen-year-old Nelson, who is one of the youngest members of the
Australian team, said she would look to step it up a gear on the
track tonight.
“I was pretty nervous at first going out
there, the rain wasn’t great but you’ve just got to deal with it,”
she said.
“I had no idea what to expect and I was kind of disappointed with
my run but what can you do, I’m just really relieved it was good
enough to get through to the semi.”
Fellow 200m runner Karlie Morton said an easy afternoon was ahead
in preparation for her return to the track tonight.
“I’m really excited to have made it through and I’m just going to
go have an ice bath and have something to eat, I might have a sleep
for a bit and just rest up, that’s all I need, my legs are a bit
sore so I’ll put my legs up and hope I can run better again
tonight,” said the New South Wales-based sprinter.
With the competition only set to get tougher in tonight’s
semi-finals, Morton said she would be out to build on this
morning’s run.
“Tonight I have to run a faster bend and just keep going all the
way to the line because in that one I didn’t run too well,” she
said.
In the men’s event, Jake Hammond clocked a season best time of
21.37 (w:0.2) to place third in his heat and automatically advance
to the semi-finals.
Lining up in lane one, Hammond showed he is in strong shape
following an injury-plagued season and will head into tonight’s
race high on confidence.
“I was a bit worried about lane one and seeing how I would go
having all the boys on the outside to chase but it was really
good,” Hammond said.
“I thought it would be a lot quicker and I thought I would run a
lot quicker but with the wind and the rain it wasn’t really
favourable.
“I haven’t really raced much this season at all because of injuries
but I’ve been training a lot better than today’s time so I’ll see
if I can pull it all together in the semi. You’ve got to have
confidence, you’ve got back yourself in so that’s what I’m going to
do tonight.”
Fellow 200m runner Mathew Turk also advanced as an automatic
qualifier after placing second in his heat in a time of 21.44
(w:0.5), the Victorian withstanding three false starts – including
the disqualification of Jamaican Dexter Lee, who last night became
the first man in world junior championships history to take out
back-to-back 100m crowns – to progress to the penultimate
round.
“It’s a pretty good feeling, there were three false starts in my
race but I wasn’t too worried about it, I just wanted to forget
about it and run my own race and it went pretty well, I qualified
so that’s the main thing,” Turk said.
In the field, team co-captain and 2009 world youth championships
representative Brooke Stratton qualified for tomorrow night’s long
jump final with a leap of 5.84m (w:0.6), her best effort of the day
coming on her maiden trip down the runway.
Seventeen-year-old Stratton followed her opening jump with a leap
of 5.71m before fouling her third and final attempt, progressing to
the final as the seventh-ranked qualifier.
The Victorian said today’s wintery conditions
had done nothing to dampen her spirits, the wet weather reminiscent
of her preparation for the world junior titles at home in
Melbourne.
“It’s just like Melbourne weather, I’ve been used to training in
the rain all through winter so to jump what I did, I was really
happy with that,” Stratton said.
“The conditions put everyone back in the field a little bit so I
guess it was an advantage for me having trained through winter at
home and I’m really happy with the result.”
A finalist at last year’s world youth titles in Bressanone (ITA),
Stratton will take the lessons learned on her international debut
with her into tomorrow night’s final.
“Obviously I know what I’m up against now and I know to take my
time on the runway and just give it everything,” she said.
Stratton was joined in the field by hammer thrower Lara Nielsen,
who threw 53.20m to place 14th overall and just miss out on a place
in the final.
Opening her account with a heave of 48.31m, Nielsen went on to
record a distance of 52.48m before posting her best mark of the day
on her third and final attempt.
Nielsen said the world junior championships experience was a
highlight of her athletics career and would help set her up for
bigger and better things in the years ahead.
“It was really good being able to compete against all the different
countries and to have that experience, it was good to have so many
people at such a high standard that we just don’t get in Australia
so to be able to compete against them was great,” she said.
“Being out on the world stage has been a really good experience in
helping me to get more confidence, become more prepared and just to
know what to expect next time.”
Tonight the action continues at Stade Moncton with Nelson, Morton,
Hammond and Turk in the semi-finals of the 200m, Kim
Mulhall in the final of the discus throw and Brett
Robinson in the final of the 1500m.
For all the action from day four, click
here.
The 13th IAAF world junior championships are being streamed live
online via CBC. Click here
to catch the Australian Spark in action or sign up to AthsAust
here to follow the team on
Twitter.
For a live stream of the meet outside of Canada, click
here and select 'other'
sports.
Photo courtesy of Jodi Lambert
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