101st Australian Athletics Championships Arrive in Adelaide

The wait is over and the nation’s premier athletes are ready and raring for the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Australian Athletics Championships, with Day One featuring world-class race walking action, Paralympic powerhouses and rising stars at the SA Athletics Stadium.

Race walking royalty will bookend the opening day of the Australian Athletics Championships as the likes of Jemima Montag (VIC, Brent Vallance) and Declan Tingay (WA, Brent Vallance) battle it out for national glory at the SA Athletics Stadium, priming themselves for the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships later this month.

The reigning Commonwealth champion over the distance, Montag will lead the way for a field of emerging stars spearheaded by Alexandra Griffin (WA, Jared Tallent) who is chasing selection for the 2024 World Athletics Under 20 Championships, while the Open men are hard to separate on paper.

Australian record holder Tingay has returned from injury but meets the in-form Kyle Swan (VIC, Jared Tallent) and Rhydian Cowley (VIC, Brent Vallance) for a 25 lap showdown, with the established Olympic trio likely to wind the clock down to the low 38-minute range en route to the podium.

Rising star Isaac Beacroft (NSW, David Beacroft) will lead the charge as one of seven junior men to have posted qualifiers for the 2024 World Under 20 Championships to take place in Peru this August.

Australia’s Paralympic hopefuls will be in full flight as Paralympic champion and world record holder James Turner (ACT, Iryna Dvoskina, T36) prepares for his one and only race of the championships, the 400m T36. Set to be pushed in the multi-class event, Turner will race to deliver a statement ahead of the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships and Paralympic Games.

World Para Championships silver medallist Guy Henly (VIC, Dale Stevenson, F37) is also ready to ramp up his Paris proceedings in the Men’s Discus Ambulant, while Sarah Walsh (ACT, Matt Beckenham, T64) launches for gold in the Women’s Long Jump Ambulant having posted two Paralympic ‘B’ qualifiers to date this season.

Fellow World Para Championships silver medallist Rhiannon Clarke (WA, Danny Kevan, T38) has raced prominently in Perth and will be out to kick-start her bid for a golden sprint triple in the Women’s 400m Ambulant, before also taking to the 100m and 200m events later in the program.

A star-studded day of Under 20 action is topped by the Women’s 100m featuring the fastest juniors in the country, headlined by the blazing form of Aleksandra Stoilova (NSW, Mark Elliot) who recently clocked a windy career-best 11.15 (+2.5), while Jessica Milat (VIC, Cathy Woodruff) and Olivia Dodds (WA, Lyn Foreman) boast 11.37 and 11.48 credentials respectively.

Returning to the site of his 2022 Australian All Schools Championships triumph, teen sensation Gout Gout (QLD, Diane Sheppard) approaches in scorching form for the Under 20 Men’s 100m, fresh off a 10.29 performance last month to further fuel the frenzy at 16-years-old.  

The nation’s best multi-event athletes will commence proceedings in the Women’s Heptathlon as 6000-point heptathletes Taneille Crase (QLD), Camryn Newton-Smith (QLD, Ralph Newton) and Tori West (QLD, Eric Brown) lay down the first four of seven events across two days, while Mia Scerri (VIC) leads the Under 20 event as one to watch after dominating the 2023 Pacific Games with a personal best of 5624 points.

Paralympic medallists Rosemary Little (NSW, Rick Hoskins, F32) and Maria Strong (VIC, John Eden, F33) will go head-to-head in the Women’s Shot Put (Seated) on the BASELINE system, having both landed on the podium on the podium at last year’s World Para Championships in Paris.

One of the first events on the program, the Under 20 Women’s Discus will see Chelsy Wayne (NSW, Dennis Knowles) take on Xylavene Beale (NSW) and Charlize Goody (QLD, Mark Sills & Mick Moore), with just 52cm separating the trio’s personal bests.

All three athletes have eclipsed the 49.00m qualifying mark for the 2024 World Under 20 Championships along with Riley Jay Henry-Purcell (QLD), adding extra pressure to the contest which will demand a throw over 50m for victory.

The first-round action for Australia’s top Open athletes is spearheaded by the highly anticipated Men’s and Women’s 1500m Heats featuring some of the deepest field assembled in the history of the championships, including Stewart McSweyn (TAS, Nic Bideau), Jessica Hull (NSW, Simon Hull) and Australian record holders Linden Hall (VIC, Ned Brophy-Williams) and Oliver Hoare (NSW, Dathan Ritzenhein).

The entry list and timetable can be found HERE, while tickets can be found HERE.

Day One of the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Australian Track and Field Championships will be streamed live and free via 7plus from 11:55am ACST. To tune in, click HERE.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 11/4/2024