04.04.2009

Seven in a Rowe in Adelaide

Victorian Alexander Rowe has posted the seventh world youth qualifying performance of the Under 20/23 Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide, taking out the under 20 men’s 800m in a new personal best time.

Rowe took out the event in 1:49.64, shaving almost a second off his previous best mark of 1:49.63 in a closely contested race.

“I was very happy, I was lucky enough to get paced to 700m just by coincidence and then I was able to pull off and go down the home straight strong,” Rowe said.

“It’s really good to have a lot of people around you that are fast, not only in the race but in your mind to push you in training.”

With world youth selection yet to be finalised, Rowe has already set his sights on a berth in the 800m final in Italy in July. 

“Looking at the rankings I should be able to make the final and then once you’re in the final anything can happen,” he said.

Rowe’s effort takes the total number of world youth qualifying results at the championships to seven, after Denise Snyder, Shani Sleeman and Amy Pejkovic (high jump), Alex Beck (400m), Brooke Stratton (triple jump) and Dane Bird-Smith (10,000m walk) all posted qualifiers on day one.

Fresh from selection to the men’s 4x100m relay team for the 2009 world championships, Victorian Aaron Rouge-Serret arrived in Adelaide looking for a world championships B-qualifying run in the under 23 men’s 200m.

Despite racing away to a clear victory in a time of 21.46 (w:-2.0), Rouge-Serret’s attempt at the B-qualifier was thwarted by tough race conditions.

“I was hoping to get a tailwind and be able to get a world championships B-qualifier but the winds coming off that bend were pretty strong so that kind of dashed my chances,” he said.

The 21-year-old Victorian, who will contest the Stawell Gift next weekend, said his sights were already set on the world championships in Berlin in August.

“I think it’s possible to medal, for sure,” he said.

“We all know what happened at the Olympics, three or four teams dropped the baton including the USA and that just cleared the way for Jamaica. I definitely think we have the potential to medal and we’ll definitely be trying for it.”

In the field it was 19-year-old Hamish Peacock (TAS) keeping the statisticians busy, winning the men’s under 20 javelin title before clinching third place in the shot put.

Peacock threw 72m to take out the javelin championship, then landed 15.26m in the shot put to add a bronze medal to his day’s work.

Under 19 Talent Squad athlete Matt Cowie (WA) won the shot put event with a throw of 17.29m.

“I’m very glad to get a decent throw out in competition and I was very consistent as well, which I was very happy with,” he said.

Cowie will now turn his attention to qualifying for next year’s world junior championships.

“I’m going to really try to go for a world junior qualifier in the shot, I really think I can get there,” he said.

“Now that I know I can throw at least 17m in competition the sky’s the limit and I’m looking forward to it.”

Athletics Australia’s Jump Start to London squad continued to impress on day two of competition, led by Laura Whaler (NSW) in the women’s under 23 200m.

Whaler won the national title in 24.10 (w:-0.7), the new personal best time proving she is on track for an exciting future.

In other highlights:

- Western Australia’s Elizabeth Parnov claimed the national title in the women’s under 20 pole vault with a winning leap of 4m. As the last competitor in the field Parnov raised the bar to 4.16m in an attempt to set a new world record for her age group but was unsuccessful at her three attempts.  

- Under 19 Talent Squad athlete Selma Kajan (NSW) blitzed the field in the women’s 800m to claim the national under 20 title in a time of 2:05.19.

- Fellow Under 19 Talent Squad member Karlie Morton (NSW) won the women's under 20 200m championship in a time of 24.62 (w:-1.7).

- Target 2012 athlete and current Australian under 20 record holder Laura Cornford (WA) took out the under 23 women’s javelin with a throw of 56.23m.

- World youth hopefuls James Connor (NSW), Kane Grimster (VIC) and Jordan Williamsz (VIC) and Under 19 Talent Squad athlete Cameron Page (NSW) have all qualified for tomorrow’s men’s under 20 1500m final.

For a full list of results from day two, click here.