Michal Burian has been obsessed with throwing the javelin since his early days when witnessing world record holder and Olympic champion Jan Železný throwing at his local club in the Czech Republic – so obsessed that decades later he finds himself just eight weeks out from his Paralympic debut in Tokyo.
A group of Australia’s top Paralympic sprinters and long jumpers are completing their final preparations ahead of this year’s Tokyo Games, lifted by a high-performance training camp on the Gold Coast.
With the Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, Australia’s athletes have turned it up a notch with national records tumbling and qualifiers rolling in on as the nation’s best time their run for glory in Tokyo.
Townsville Sports Reserve will become the home of the Festival of Athletics this weekend, as track and field athletes across the country travel north for what will be one of their final opportunities to compete ahead of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Athletics Australia is aiming to fast-track the development of a new generation of world-class coaches, with the launch of its new Athlete to Coach pathway program.
All that separates our Olympic track and field athletes from the end of the Tokyo qualifying period is 15 days. 15 days for athletes to make their last attempts of meeting the Olympic qualifying standards and 15 days to boost themselves up the world rankings list and impress selectors.
It was a day of qualifiers, historic performances and personal bests at the Oceania Athletics Invitational Series on the Gold Coast, headlined by Queensland discus thrower Matthew Denny all but booking his ticket to Tokyo in the men’s discus.
The countdown to the end of the Tokyo qualifying period is well and truly on for Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic track and field athletes, but each have a unique opportunity to meet the standards and improve their ranking points at the second meet of the Oceania Athletics Invitational Series on the Gold Coast this Saturday.
It has come down to the wire for both the Australian men and women’s 4 x 100m relay teams, who have one last chance to prove themselves worthy of Olympic competition.
All eyes were on Usain Bolt in anticipation of witnessing the world’s fastest man strut his stuff at 2017’s Nitro Athletics, but Australians couldn’t help but notice the young girl in the lane to his right sporting green and gold - Riley Day.
Victoria’s Peter Bol has one foot on the plane to Tokyo, after clinching the qualifying standard in the 800m at the first meet of the Oceania Athletics Invitation series on the Gold Coast this evening.
Australia’s top distance runners and racewalkers have taken the next stride in their marathon journey to the Tokyo Olympics, being announced to the Australian Olympic team for Tokyo today.
In a sign of unity, Athletics Australia and Coles Little Athletics Australia have today announced they will host a joint 2021 Australian Cross Country Championships.