The Australian Team starts Day 1 of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
Over the next 10 days, more than 1900 of the world’s best athletes from 210 teams will be in action at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
Things get underway in the Qatari capital on Friday night and Christian Malcolm, Head of High Performance and Coaching, says his young squad of 60 athletes (the second largest ever Australian team sent to the World Championships) are chomping at the bit to compete.
“We have enjoyed great holding camps in Cairns and Italy, everyone has been pushing each other and working hard and we feel confident going into these Championships,” said Malcolm.
“The benefit to these camps is that it builds team morale. It’s a young team and new generation of athletes with 31 making their debut, so it was important to build a togetherness. We’ve got a great balance and mix of personalities and characters in this squad, not just across the athletes but within the coaches and backroom staff also. This bond is vitally important not just for these World Champs, but we are also looking ahead towards Tokyo as the long-term ambition.”
“Arriving in Doha you can sense that everyone is excited,” agreed Team Co-Captain Genevieve Gregson (3000m Steeplechase). “The anticipation is there, but at the same time a lot of people are ready to rock, and as the days tick over more people will be ready to go!”
Co-Captain Steven Solomon (400m & 4x400m) said: “We can’t wait to get going. It’s a young squad and there’s a real excitement and positivity amongst the team ahead of these Champs. Everyone just can’t wait to pull on the Green and Gold and do Australia proud.”
Kicking things off on Friday for Athletics Australia will be Henry Frayne, Henry Smith and Darcy Roper in the long jump; Catriona Bisset, Morgan Mitchell and Carley Thomas in the 800m; Elizaveta Parnova in Pole Vault; Rohan Browing in the 100m; Nicola McDermott in the High Jump; Genevieve Gregson, Georgia Winkcup and Paige Campbell in the 3000m steeplechase; Stewart McSweyn, Morgan McDonald and Pat Tiernan in 5000m; with Rochelle Rodgers finishing off the day in the midnight (local) marathon.
The action is being broadcast live and exclusively on Eurosport Australia (Foxtel) with coverage starting at 11.25pm (AEST).
The full schedule for Day 1 events can be seen here.
Eurosport Australia is broadcasting the event live and exclusively (11:25pm – 4:15am AEST).
