17.12.2007

Grant, Gould lead multi winners

Personal bests and some outstanding competition highlighted the Australian Under 18 and Under 16 Combined Events Championships in Canberra over the weekend.  
 
Victoria’s Scott Grant (pictured) stood proudly on the victory dais after the gruelling 10-event decathlon with a gold medal around his neck and his first national title under his belt.

While Grant was the final victor he didn’t have things all his own way. Fellow Victorian Sam Baines and David Kinnersley led the competition in the first two rounds, with Kinnersley posting personal best performances in the first two events - the 100m and long jump. A strong throw of 14.29m in the shot put saw Grant take the lead after the third event, which he held after his preferred event the high jump.
 
Kinnersley bounced back with a strong performance in the 400m to finish in the lead at the end of Day 1 on 3517 points, with Grant second on 3498 points and Baines a very close third following his 48.87-second 400m.
 
Baines was the leader after the first event on Day 1 and, with the outstanding performance of the meet, bounced back into the lead after the first event on Day 2, the 110m hurdles. Baines recorded a time of 14.70 seconds in the hurdles to score 886 points, the highest point-scoring performance of the championships. The lead then seesawed between Grant and Baines, with Grant setting a personal best in the 1500m to take his first title.
 
While Grant and Scott battled away in front, young Queenslander Nathan Trembath was working away quietly recording personal best performances and staying within touch of the leaders. A strong performance in the javelin saw Trembath overhaul Baines and move into second, a position he held over the 1500m. Trembath recorded personal best performances in eight out of the 10 events and a huge personal best for the decathlon.
 
Grant, along with a number of other athletes, is coached by Peter Winter in Melbourne. The Winter group was a significant factor in the large number of athletes competing, competition which Grant obviously enjoyed.

"Being an ex-decathlete, Peter can coach across all the events, and has a good squad of athletes which helps in training and made this weekend enjoyable and competitive," Grant said.
 
Not to be outdone, the women’s under 18 heptathlon saw a great battle between the top five girls with the eventual winner, Shayleigh Gould of Queensland, not known until after the last event. Gould led the competition after the first event, the 100m hurdles - not surprising considering Gould is the Australian All Schools 100m hurdles champion.

After this event, fellow Queenslander Zoe Sharplin and New South Wales athletes Caryn Brett and Trudy Thompson battled for the lead. Thompson, an Australian representative at the World Youth Championships in the high jump, was a clear leader after her pet event and held her lead through the third event - the shot put. A strong performance in the 200m saw Sharplin take a narrow lead at the end of the first day’s competition, with less than 100 points separating the first five competitors.
 
Australian All Schools long jump champion Brett dominated the long jump and jumped into the lead, with Gould jumping a 39cm personal best to keep in touch with the leaders. Victoria’s Ashleigh Hamilton threw a personal best of 32.29m in the javelin to move up into second place.
 
As the girls stood on the starting line for the final event, the 800m, Brett held a narrow lead of 13 points over Hamilton, with Gould and Sharplin a further 51 points behind in third place. A strong performance over the distance by any one of the four girls would determine victory.

As the gun went, Gould made it clear that she was going to be the one to beat. Building a dominant lead in the first lap, she held on to win in a new personal best time of 2 minutes 16.19 seconds. Gould’s outstanding run gave her enough points to take the lead in the competition and win her first national multi-event title. 
 
Coached by Craig Smythe and Ian Fenwick, the girl from the Sunshine Coast set personal bests in the long jump (5.38m), 800m (2:16.19) and heptathlon (4967 points). Hamilton held on for second place in the 800m in 2:28.10 and in doing so scoring sufficient points (4858 points) to overhaul Brett (4799 points), who was third across the line and third in the heptathlon event.
 
A small field of six competitors took part in the under 16 boys heptathlon and, unlike the under 18 events, New South Wales athlete Andrew Neville dominated the event.

Neville led after the first event but was overhauled by just 10 points by training partner Bradley Sharne in the shot put and then never looked back, taking a commanding lead in the high jump which he held through to the end. Sharne held on for second place to give coaches Fred O’Connor, Dan Suchy, and Roger Green a quinella. A talented athlete, Neville also won gold at the Australian All Schools Championships in the high jump and long jump events. Queensland’s Robert Fenwick finished third in the competition on 4266 points behind Neville (4541 points) and Sharne (4277 points).
 
The under 16 women’s heptathlon saw a large field of girls contest the seven events and again, like the under 16 boys, the event was dominated by New South Wales. Gabi Simpson, competing in only her second heptathlon, led from the first event and was never headed. A huge personal best in the 90m hurdles (13.06s) was followed by personal bests in the shot put (9.09m) and 200m (26.30s). Simpson’s first heptathlon was the NSW All Schools, an event she also won. The talented athlete from Malabar in Sydney, coached by Aydan Tuhy, has made an impressive start to athletics as she moves up from the Little Athletics ranks. Victoria’s Jessica Kaufman finished second with 4425 points with Queensland’s Shelley Tuicakau third with 4404 points behind Simpson’s 4714.
 
The championships was a great success with large fields in three of the four events. National Youth Event Coach for combined events Peter Hannan was in Canberra to keep an eye on the young athletes, as was Peter Winter.

"It was a great weekend of combined events competition," Hannan said. "Athlete registrations were up from 2006 in most age groups except the under 16 boys. The standard was also very high.

"The winning score in both the under 16 and under 18 boys was higher than last year’s winner, while in the girls’ age groups the competition was even fiercer. The first three place-getters in both the under 16 and under 18 girls all exceeded the winning scores from last year’s competition.

"This bodes very well for the continued development of our future stars in the combined events in Australia."

Both Hannan and Winter have worked hard to promote participation in combined events and should be acknowledged for the increase in numbers at this year’s championships.

Report and images courtesy Michael Thomson