25.07.2010

Wruck on a roll with world junior bronze

Commonwealth Games nominee Julian Wruck has shown his preparations for New Delhi (IND) are on track with a bronze medal in the men’s discus throw on day six of the 13th IAAF world junior championships in Moncton, Canada, overnight.

The 19-year-old Queenslander, now based at Texas Tech University in the USA, took bronze with a best effort of 61.09m to claim the first medal for the Australian Spark at the 2010 world junior meet.

Opening his account with a heave of 59.88m, Wruck hit the bronze medal-winning mark in Round 2 of the competition before rounding out his series with throws of 60.55m, a foul, 60.87m and 60.55m.

The Delhi-bound athlete said the result was a good stepping stone along the road to his senior international debut at the Commonwealth Games this October.

“It was pretty good, I didn’t really throw according to plan but it could have gone a lot worse as well,” Wruck said.

“Today gives me a lot of confidence going into Delhi but I think I’m going to attack the Commonwealth Games completely differently, I think I can do well there and today was a really good experience for the future.”

The junior national record-holder, who boasts a personal best of 62.61m, said bigger and better things were ahead.

“Ahead of Delhi I’m going to focus more on strength and a higher throwing volume, there are a few things I need to fix up here and there but I’ll figure it out,” Wruck said.

The gold medallist in the discus throw at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India, will be joined by 2009 world championships contenders Benn Harradine and Scott Martin in the men’s discus event in New Delhi.

The former Gold Coast resident becomes just the second Australian to claim a medal in the men’s discus throw since the inception of the IAAF world junior championships in 1986, Victorian Werner Reiterer claiming silver at the inaugural edition of the meet in Athens, Greece, with a heave of 58.64m.

Reigning women’s discus world champion Dani Samuels was the last Australian to win a medal in the discus throw at a world junior titles, taking gold in Beijing (CHN) in 2006.

Wruck joins Regan Lamble (eighth - 10,000m walk), Patrick Fakiye (eighth - 100m), Kim Mulhall (fourth - discus throw), Brett Robinson (eighth – 1500m), Dane Bird-Smith (fifth – 10,000m walk) and Brooke Stratton (sixth – long jump), as well as the women’s 4x100m relay team (seventh), in posting top-eight performances for the Australian Spark at the 2010 world junior titles with one day of competition now remaining.

At the conclusion of the penultimate day of action at Stade Moncton, the 36-strong Australian Spark sits in 16th position on the placing table with a total of 23 points.

On Sunday reigning world youth championships silver medallist Amy Pejkovic (high jump), national junior record-holder Sam Baines (110m hurdles) and 2009 world youth titles representative Mitchell Tysoe (110m hurdles) will feature in finals action on the closing day of competition of the week-long meet.

For all the action from day six at the 13th IAAF world junior titles, click here.