#AthleticsGold: Crombie closes in on 16m with shot put gold

Cameron Crombie showed he was on target for the Commonwealth Games during Saturday morning’s session of day three of competition at the 2018 Australian Athletics Championships & Nomination Trial.

Canberran Crombie claimed a gold medal in the shot put ambulant final, his throw of 15.77m not far off his world-record mark of 15.95m

The F38 world champion said that he expects to continue improving in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games.

“Technically, [I’m] not 100 per cent where we’d like to be at this time of year but it’s pretty hot out there,” he said, with his selection for Gold Coast 2018 already confirmed. “A few things worked, a few things didn’t but otherwise I’m pretty happy.

“For me it’s all about recovery. It’s staying out of being too busy and running around too much. Letting my body recover and try and get to a peak. Hopefully that means a few more centimetres and if we can break that 16-metre mark that will be where we’re aiming for.”

Jayden Sawyer (ACT), finished in the silver medal position of 13.48m followed by Marty Jackson (Vic) after his mark of 12.82m

The morning session saw a further five national ambulant titles decided, with current T38 World Champion and World Record holder Deon Kenzie (Tas) winning the men’s 1500m after 2017 Australian Flame World Championship representative Sarah Edminston (WA) had won gold in the women’s discus throw.

The women’s 1500m title was won by Victorian T38 runner Kirstie Newcombe, which followed presentations to F34 athlete Michael Fawkner (Vic) who claimed victory in the men’s secure javelin throw and F33 talent Maria Strong (Vic) who picked up gold in the women’s final.

In the preliminaries of the ambulant 100m sprint, Isis Holt (Vic) gave notice of her strong form with the top qualifying time of 13.67secs for the women’s which was followed by Matthew Guild’s (Qld) effort of 11.54secs in the men’s.

A tight battle is emerging in the men’s long jump ahead of Sunday’s final. Queensland’s Thomas Soliman the leading qualifier with a 7.81m (1.3m/s). Defending champion Chris Mitrevski (Vic) is next best just one centimetre in arrears. Henry Frayne (Qld) made his first forays into competition since the 2017 world championships, qualifying fourth with 7.67m (0.6m/s).

In a busy morning for Lauren Wells (ACT), she qualified third in the women’s long jump (6.43m 0.5m/s) behind leader and defending champion Queensland’s Naa Anang (6.50m 1.8m/s) and Victoria’s Brooke Stratton (6.47m -1.2m/s). Wells then went on to be second-fastest qualifier (57.99) in the 400m hurdles for tonight’s semi where she’s a 10-time national champion, behind Daniela Roman (57.23).

New 100m champion Riley Day (Qld) was back in action in the preliminary rounds of the 200m. Day coasted over the finish line to qualify fifth fastest in 24.09 (-1.8m/s). New South Wales’ Larissa Pasternatsky fastest in 23.47 (-1.4m/s). Dual men’s 100m champion Trae Williams (Qld) was a non-starter, as was Rohan Browning (NSW). Alex Hartmann (Qld) chasing a fourth Australian title in the 200m was the fastest of the morning heats in 20.98 (-1.2m/s).

After seven events in the gruelling two-day decathlon, Cedric Dubler (Qld) maintains he lead and continues to track towards 8000 points - a mark he has achieved twice in 2016. After running a fantastic personal best of 13.86 in Perth recently, he had to battle a 1.4m/s headwind in the Carrara stadium to post a time of 14.21, quicker than his PB or Rio performance. In the second event of the day, the discus, he hit 41.03m, to progress to a points total of 5959, just 53 points behind his personal best. Second position is being maintained by Alec Diamond (NSW – 5707 points), just ahead of NSW team mate Kyle Cranston (5587 points).