18.08.2010

Birkinhead Australia's biggest hope

The giant of the Australian Youth Olympic team, Victorian Damien Birkinhead, looks assured of a spot in Sunday’s shot put final after a 20.89m throw in a rain-shortened qualifying round today at the Youth Olympic Games.

The 17-year-old was sitting comfortably in third place before the Singapore heavens opened up, with the final qualifying throws postponed until tomorrow.

“After my first foul I was really nervous,” Birkinhead said.

“I’m just very relieved to get that throw out there.”

The quiet athlete punched the air after his tremendous second throw, which was just short of his personal best but more importantly, was his best throw under the pressure of an international meet. The Youth Olympic Games are Birkinhead's second international appearance, the throws gun lining up at last year's IAAF world youth championships in Bressanone, Italy.

Elliot Lang provided another highlight of today's athletics action, throwing a huge personal best in the javelin. Sadly for the Sydney teenager 68.83m - an impressive 1.36m ahead of his previous career-best mark - wasn’t quite enough to advance to the final, Lang finishing in ninth place and missing the final by 23 centimetres.

Incredibly, athletes ranked two through nine threw personal best marks in the qualifying round and the Australian appreciated how tough the competition was.

“I was a bit disappointed to just miss out but everyone who got in deserved to get in and there are some amazing throwers here,” Lang said.

“I was really happy with how I threw. I’ll be back for the B final and hopefully win it.”

Fellow thrower Prabhjot Rai and long jumper Kurt Jenner also just missed qualification for the A finals.

Rai was just six centremetres short of a berth in the A-group decider with her best attempt of 13.56m. She will get another turn on the world stage in the B final of the event.

Jenner missed the long jump A final by nine centimetres, the 17-year-old troubled by his run-up and fouling his first and third attempts. His second jump of 7.10m was well short of his best, and his form, but Jenner said he would try to learn from today and make amends in the B final.

“My run-up had been good coming in but I just couldn’t get it right today. It’s all part of jumping and I’ll learn a bit from this and in the next comp I'll try to control myself,” Jenner said.

“I’m looking forward to the B final and hopefully I'll get a good jump out because I’m in good shape.”

On the track, the two Australian middle distance runners fought hard in the Singapore heat but the pace proved too much

Rick Whitehead ran a personal best time of 2:27.81 to finish seventh in the rarely-contested 1000m, hanging on when the leaders stepped it up in the final lap but dropping off the pace with 200m to go. With a more even pace Whitehead hopes to run faster still in the B final and add to his international experience.

Rounding out the track action, Ipswich steeplechaser Grant Gwynne struggled to produce his best, running with the pace early but unable to regain his momentum after being checked mid-race. Gwynne placed 11th, almost 20 seconds off his best, but vowed to return for a better race in the B final later in the week.

Tomorrow four Australians feature in qualifying action, with Brodie Cross in the pole vault, Raheen Williams in the 400m hurdles, Jenny Blundell in the 1000m and Monica Brennan in the 200m.

With thanks to Andrew Reid at the AOC