Annabelle Colman

BIOGRAPHY

Melbourne teenager Annabelle Colman, a T20 classification endurance athlete, has been selected in the Australian team for the World Para Athletics Championships, her second International appearance after her international debut at the Oceania Global Games in November 2022.

Born in Switzerland and attending primary school in the UK, Annabelle’s journey in athletics started overseas when she was aged seven and ran the kids event at the Ljubljana marathon where my Dad was running. 
Her running became more serious while in high school in Melbourne, when aged 15, she ran the school cross country. She then joined Inclusive Sports Training with Liz Gosper. and then the Old Xaverians Athletics Club with Anthony de Castella. She still enjoys cross country, but the 1500m on the track has become the focus for Annabelle.

Her performances mid-COVID during the 2020/21 season were starting to impress with times of 2:36 (800m) and 5:14 (1500m). This including winning a treble at Nationals – the 400m, 800m and 1500m.

After a delayed start to the 2021/22 season, again due to COVID shutdowns, she ran a string of sub-5:05 1500m times, just missing a sub-5 at Nationals when she clocked 5:00.31. Over the half-mile she was now down to 2:32.

The season was a perfect springboard into 2022/23, when in her first major race, she went sub-5, clocking 4:59.00 in October. The next month, in her international debut at the Oceania Global Games she ran 4:51.19 to take gold. Then in February 2023, she broke through the 4:50 barrier and set a National record of 4:49.30. She was again under 4:50 at Nationals in April where she won the Open Ambulant 1500m title in 4:49.56. She was also progressing in the 800m, down to 2:25.72 in the Victorian Championships and won the National title with a 2:26 run.

The Australian under-20 800m and 1500m record holder, she has the National open 1500m record of 4:45.65 in her sights. 

Then in June she was named in the Australian team for the World Para Athletics Championships held in Paris where she placed 8th in an excellent time of 4:52.88 in the very warm conditions.

Over the 2024 Australian domestic season she make tremendous progress, slashing her PB by nearly 10 seconds, now down to 4:40.98 minutes. She was rewarded with Paralympic Games selection.

Memorable sporting achievement: twice running under the world championships standard of 4:50… Heroes: Cathy Freeman, Jess Hull and Abbey Caldwell…Most influential person: first coach Liz Gosper who got me involved in IST and running regularly…Hobbies: sport, music and drawing…Education: child care studies

@ 22 Aug 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au