09.07.2010

Solomon, Gollshewsky start world juniors campaign in style

On just its second day on tour the all-new Australian Spark has kicked off its 2010 IAAF world junior championships campaign with its first hit-out on Canadian soil at the Kajaks International Track Classic in Vancouver today.

Just 24 hours after touching down in Canada, 24 of the 36 members of the world junior team were out in force in the first of two warm-up competitions ahead of the 13th IAAF world junior titles, with new personal best performances by Steve Solomon (400m) and Taryn Gollshewsky (discus throw) the highlights of an action-packed day at the track.

One of five athletes selected to the 4x400m relay at the world junior meet, Solomon was out to shore up his spot on the team with an impressive run of 47.03.

Solomon, who has only been in the sport for six months, said the result was a real confidence-booster ahead of the IAAF titles in Moncton later this month.

“I’m very happy with that and happy to do it wearing Australian colours for the first time," Solomon said.

“I was feeling really good in my warm-up and I knew I was capable of running quick so I’m very happy to see the result. I’m a little bit disappointed I didn’t get under 47 (seconds) but taking time off my PB, you can’t argue with that.

“I have an amazing amount of confidence now, I feel like I can run low-46s with the split on the fly so I’m really confident going into world juniors."

The 17-year-old New South Welshman said the strong competition between the five 400m boys selected to the team had helped spur him on to the career-low mark.

“There’s definitely lots of competition within the group and I love that, it’s really healthy competition, we urge each other on to do well and it’s paying off,” he said.

Solomon was followed home by 4x400m relay teammates Johnny Rayner in fourth place (48.67) and Joel Bee in sixth (50.02). Fellow relay runner Grant Billingham took out the second heat of the one-lap event in 48.81.

In the girls’ event, Anneliese Rubie clocked 53.98 to take out second place ahead of 4x400m relay teammate Shannon Smith, who battled back soreness to run home in 58.30.

Also with a personal best on day one of competition in Vancouver was 2009 world youth representative Taryn Gollshewsky, who posted 50.50m to place fourth in the discus throw.

Travelling to Canada with a career-best mark of 48.24m, Gollshewsky today added more than two metres to that distance to show she’s in good shape ahead of the IAAF titles.

Taking out the girls’ discus event was Kim Mulhall, who stitched up victory with a fourth-round throw of 53.68m. In the boys’ competition, Commonwealth Games nominee Julian Wruck added his name to the winners’ list with a throw of 56.12m.

Also adding their names to the victory list were Karlie Morton in the 100m and Brooke Stratton in the long jump.

Morton, who will line up over 200m at the world junior titles, clocked 12.36 (w:-2.0) in the open girls’ 100m event to finish just ahead of teammate Ella Nelson, third with a time of 12.56. Fellow sprinter Caitlin Sargent placed third in the 100m invitational race but fell victim to a timing error and did not receive a stop-clock reading.

In the boys’ event, Patrick Fakiye edged out 200m specialist Jake Hammond, crossing the line in 10.77 (w:-1.2) to take out second place ahead of Hammond in third in 10.86.

Taking home the honours on the long jump runway was 2009 world youth championships finalist Brooke Stratton, who twice hit a distance of 5.89m to stitch up victory. Opening her account with a 5.89m leap (w:0.1), Stratton again hit the winning mark on her third of six attempts (w:1.4) to seal victory.

Rounding out the action in the field, hammer specialist Lara Nielsen posted 55.53m on her sixth and final attempt to place third and 2009 world youth championships silver medallist Amy Pejkovic placed second in the high jump with a leap of 1.75m. Fellow high jumper Emily Crutcher was forced to withdraw from the competition after clearing the bar at 1.70m to monitor a slight injury.

Back on the track, sprint hurdles gun Rosie Lawson faced the toughest challenge of the day when she lined up alongside two-time Olympian and five-time world championships representative Angela Whyte of Canada. Lawson clocked 14.30 (w:-2.3) to place third in the event, taken out by Whyte in 13.91.

Fellow hurdler Sasha Alexeenko looked strong coming down the home straight of the 400m event but ran into some bad luck in the dying stages, clipping the penultimate obstacle and dropping off the pace.

In the most exciting finish of the day in the first of two 800m heats, Brett Robinson stormed down the home straight to place second in 1:52.50, his time enough to shore up second place overall. Robinson was followed home by Kuey Diew in fourth in 1:52.61 (fourth overall) and Adrian Plummer in eighth in 1:56.80 (17th overall). In heat two of the two-lap run, Todd Wakefield led the field home in 1:53.08 to finish seventh overall.

The team will continue its world junior championships countdown tomorrow at Vancouver’s Trevor Craven Memorial Meet.

For more results from the Kajaks International Track Classic, click here.

Photo courtesy of Brent Vallance