22.08.2010

Athletics medal bonanza at YOG10

Australia's junior track and field stars had a sensational night at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore overnight, producing a gold and two silver medals at Bishan Stadium to add to the silver medal from earlier in the day.

Nick Hough flew over the 110m hurdles to become the Youth Olympic champion, while team flag bearer Liz Parnov jumped back into form with silver in the pole vault.

Brandon Starc rounded out a stellar night at the track claiming silver in the men’s high jump with a massive personal best.

Hough, who came into the meet ranked third, had to pull out the best performance of his promising career, clocking 13.37 to defeat China’s Dongqiang Wang, 13.41, with Jussi Kanervo of Finland taking the bronze in 13.53.

Understandably, the 16–year-old from Sydney was rapt with the result.

“I’ve been thinking about tonight for the past 18 months and then it all comes down to one 13 second race and I managed to pull it off. It’s a great feeling,” Hough said.

“They definitely pushed me. We were all very close. I’m definitely very happy with that win.”

Hough was a lot more relaxed and his start greatly improved on his heat performance.

“It was a much better start than the heat and I knew with my strong finish if I got out well it would be pretty hard to stop me. I felt great in warm-up and even in the call room I knew this would be my race."

Team coach Matt Beckenham gave Hough some words of inspiration before the race.

“I told him ‘You’ve got the talent, you’ve got the belief and now you’ve got the opportunity’. He wanted it more than the other guys over the last four hurdles,” an elated Beckenham said.

Hough credited his win to his coach in Sydney Anthony Benn, who four years ago convinced him to add hurdling to his sprint event repertoire. Before then he had never even thought about hurdling and he knows there is a lot of room for improvement with his technique.

Parnov claimed silver with a jump of 4.25m in the women's pole vault, just behind Sweden’s Angelica Bengtsson’s best of 4.30m, with Ukrainian Ganna Shelekh taking the bronze at 4.20m.   

Parnov had a battle on her hands from the outset as she went jump for jump with the eventual winner. The 16-year-old from Perth had a strong clearance on her first attempt at 4.25m but couldn’t clear 4.35m to put the pressure back on the Scandinavian. 

The world youth and world junior champion upped the bar to 4.52m after she had won the competition, trying to improve on her 4.47m personal best but she was unsuccessful.

For Parnov it is the end of a long campaign that has seen her based in Europe for the past two months and her recent form had been poor by her standards.

“I’m happy its over, that was so intense. She skipped a height and then I skipped a height and I started thinking, 'what if I clear this,' which I think was a mistake,” Parnov said.

“I’m happy that’s the pole I jumped my PB on and I haven’t been on that pole all European season so that’s definitely a bonus and I think I did the best that I could do today in the sweaty conditions out there.

“After qualifying, to be honest I was kind of freaking out but today was another day and I’m really happy with that.”

High jumper Brandon Starc pulled out a stunning nine centremetres personal best as he jumped 2.19m to claim Youth Olympic Games silver. So staggering was Starc’s performance that if he matched his previous PBm he would have landed in eighth.

The 16-year-old from the Hills district in Sydney cleared all his jumps up to 2.14m on his first attempt before he had to hold his nerve twice, as he cleared 2.17m and 2.19m on his third attempts to secure a medal.

Starc had one final jump to knock off the eventual gold medallist, Israel’s Dmitry Kroytor, but couldn’t clear 2.21m as Kroytor won on a count back, with Ukraine’s Viktor Chernysh sealing bronze after clearing 2.17m.

“I’m over the moon, I’m ecstatic. I wanted a PB and a silver medal, that’s unbelievable,” Starc said through a huge grin.

“I guess the excitement of the Youth Olympics, adrenaline and the good atmosphere got me over the line. I was feeling a PB but nine centremetres, I don’t know it's pretty unbelievable.”

Demii Maher-Smith was the other Australian in action. The Queenslander finished third in the long jump B final with a leap of 5.62m.

With thanks to Andrew Reid and the AOC