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News14 Apr 2002


Eagles sets Commonwealth hammer record and receives Australian athlete of the year award.

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Eagles sets Commonwealth hammer record and receives Australian athlete of the year award.
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) for IAAF
15 April 2002 - In clinching $22,000 in prize money as the Telstra Australian athlete of the year and overall best thrower, Bronwyn Eagles, the women's World championships bronze medallist confirmed herself as one of Australia’s most consistently brilliant competitors ever.

On her first attempt at Brisbane's QEII stadium, the young hammer thrower from Campbell town in western Sydney equalled the Commonwealth record of 69.85m she set last month in Adelaide, which she had upped from the 69.38m record she set in February.

Eagles has now thrown 69m 12 times this season, and has compiled more than 40 throws over 68m in the last 12 months.

``We don't count them anymore,`` her coach, Ernie Shankleton, said when asked how many times Eagles had landed the steel ball in the 67m zone where Commonwealth title-holder Debbie Sosimenko had anchored the Commonwealth record before Eagles' arrival only last season.

``The 70m is an elusive mark, but that's what I really want and when I want something, I don't just get it: I'll go 71m or 72m,`` said Eagles, 21.

In other results from the final day of the nationals which doubled as selection trials for the Manchester Commonwealth Games:

Tim Parravicini clinched his selection by winning the long jump with a fine leap of 7.94m (tailwind 0.2m/sec). He also had two other jumps over the B-qualifying distance of 7.80m, a mark second-placed Shane Hair (7.72m) was unable to exceed, so he cannot be picked in the team of around 80 to be announced on Tuesday.

Paul Burgess won his second national title in the pole vault with 5.55m in strong, flukey wind which proved too awkward for Viktor Chistiakov, Olympic 5th placer who surprisingly no-heighted at his entry mark of 5.30m. Chistiakov, who has previously achieved A-standard jumps, will be a
discretionary choice but is sure to join his wife, Tatiana Grigorieva the women's Olympic silver medallist, in Manchester.

Welsh World record-holder (at 12.91sec) Colin Jackson won his third Australian 110m hurdles crown in 13.71sec (headwind 1.1m/sec), but the national title goes to Tim Ewen who relocated from Adelaide to train with fellow Aboriginal Kyle Vander Kuyp.

Ewen had bettered the Games B-qualifying time of 14.04sec once coming into the nationals and needed one more to fulfill the minimum selection criteria, but after clocking 14.05sec in his heat, he won the final in another 14.05sec to deny Vander-Kuyp his 10th title.

Jacquie Munro, 20, who travels 1000km every week from her home in the township of Medowie (north of Newcastle) to Sydney for coaching from USSR-born Esfir Dvioskina and Michael Khmel, won the 100m hurdles in 13.31sec (headwind 1.3m/sec) narrowly from Brisbane's Fiona Cullen (13.40sec).

Category award winners for the season announced at a banquet for 350 on Saturday night include: Eagles as female athlete of the year - a title carrying $10,000 – with Geelong's 1500m and 5000m titles winner Craig Mottram the men’s category winner. Mottram also won the Zatopek 10,000m title.

Event group winners were: Throws - male: Andrew Currey (NSW), female: Bronwyn Eagles (NSW) $12,000 each; distance - male: Craig Mottram (Vic), female: Tamsyn Lewis (Vic) $12,000 each; walks - male: Nathan Deakes (Vic), female: Jane Saville (NSW) $5000 each; jumps - male: Andrew Murphy (NSW), female Bronwyn Thompson (Qld) $12,000 each; sprints/hurdles - male: tie David Geddes (NSW) and Clinton Hill (NSW) $9000 each, female: Jana Pittman (NSW) $12,000.

International athlete of the year (2001) went to World pole vault champion Dmitri Markov and his trainer Alex Parnov won coach of the year. But coach of the nationals was arguably veteran Queenslander Pat Clohessy who had three title winners in Peter Nohill (steeplechase), Nick Hudson (800m) and Shaun Creighton (10,000m). Although Victoria's Eric Hollingsworth must have had his hands full coaching Claire Thompson (heptathlon) and Scott Ferrier (decathlon) who both scored their first Games qualifying marks.

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