Katherine Katsanevakis wins the 800m at the 2005 Australian Championships (© Getty Images)
Sydney, AustraliaThe next generation stole the show at the Telstra A-Championships at Sydney Olympic Park with nine teenagers winning titles over the weekend. Today, Sunday, was the third and final day of competition.
A youthful look to the sport
In the absence of this summer's fastest runner Jana Pittman and of seven-time national champion Tamsyn Lewis, 16 year old Melbourne schoolgirl Katherine Katsanevakis superbly won the 800m in a huge personal best time of 2:04.72.
“I think it's really good for the future of Olympic athletics,” Katsanevakis said. “If we're doing well now, maybe we'll reach elite level. I'm not elite, not yet.”
She's right of course. Brilliant juniors are forever. The challenge is to develop them from domestic into international champions.
Sally McLellan, 18, tied with fellow Queenslander Fiona Cullen in yesterday’s 100m Hurdles final in 13.41 which brought up a rare double because a day earlier McLellan won the 100m title in 11.77, with Cullen grabbing silver only 0.01sec behind.
“I'm ecstatic about the double,” said McLellan, the 2003 World Youth champion in the Hurdles. This was the first such double at the nationals since Jane Flemming in 1988. “If all the young kids who won at nationals really love the sport they have to have the dedication and motivation from everyone around them and purely from themselves to continue developing.”
Other teenage winners yesterday included Canberra's Lauren Boden, 16, who won the 400m Hurdles in 58.59 (a two second improvement this season) and Queensland junior Katrina Miroshnichenko, 19, in the Pole Vault.
On Saturday (5 March) the teenage title winners were Ben Offereins (400m), Dani Samuels (Discus Throw), Sophia Begg (High Jump), Chris Noffke (Long Jump) and McLellan (100m).
Race walkers post qualifiers
Australia's magnificent race walking medallists from the Athens Olympics both recorded A-qualifying performances for August’s World Championships in Helsinki. But the race walkers were the only athletes to reach A-standard at the nationals, with Lauren Hewitt (200m winner in 23.55, headwind -1.3m/sec) the only other automatic selection for the Helsinki team.
Sydney's Jane Saville won the 20km Race Walk title in 1:32:49, with Nathan Deakes (ACT/AIS) winning the men's 20km in 1:19:39, ahead of fellow A-qualifier Luke Adams (ACT/AIS) in 1:21:39.
“I was pretty disappointed actually,” Saville said of her time. “It was pretty slow and I've been pretty tired all week. I've been training really well and thought I'd have gone a bit faster. But this is a tough course. There are a lot of gradual hills and if you are feeling not so good then you really feel like they are Mount Everest.”
After winning his fifth consecutive title, Deakes said: “Today was more of a hit-out and my goal is my race in Tijuana (Mexico) in two weeks, so hopefully I can go there and win that and really stamp my authority on world walking.”
Batman battles the wind in 200m
Daniel Batman won the 200m in 20.76 (headwind 0.2m/sec) from Sydney training partner Ambrose Ezenwa (20.84) and 100m winner Joshua Ross (21.00) with a powerful unrecorded crosswind slowing the field in the first 100m and ruining their hopes of a qualifying time.
“It feels great because I've finally come away (from the Australian championships) with a gold medal,” Batman said in his comeback to the sport after two premature retirements before the age of 23. “I never concentrated on the nationals and then when I left the sport I was disappointed because it's still a pretty prestigious title.”
With Nick Bromley winning the 800m title, yesterday's sustained front-running 1500m by Lachlan Chisholm (in 3:45.18) delivered NSW the middle distance double.
Chisholm defeated Craig Mottram to win the Australian junior 1500m title in 1999 and this was his first win at nationals since showing such early promise.
“It's been a long time coming,” Chisholm said. “I've had a series of injuries and I've just come back from a hammy. Brent Kirkbride [the Aussie Olympic team physiotherapist] did a great job.”
After holding off silver medallist Geelong's Mark Tucker (3:45.55) in a sustained final 400m sprint, Chisholm added: “I concentrated on holding my form down the home straight. I knew if I did that nobody would catch me.”
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) and IAAF
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