Big Moments and Moves | Weekend Recap

The pressure of the looming Olympic qualification deadline brought out the best of Australia’s Olympic bolters over the weekend, headlined by Peyton Craig and Bendere Oboya's qualifiers, and bold efforts from Tori West, Alanah Yukich, Nash Lowis and Jenny Blundell.

After knocking on the door of the 1:44.70 Olympic 800m standard with six 1:45 runs this year, 19-year-old Peyton Craig (Brendan Mallyon) kicked it down in the eleventh hour of the qualification window with a run of 1:44.12 to break the tape at On Track Nights Vienna, finishing ahead of Australian record holder Joseph Deng (Samuel Sepeng) in fourth with 1:46.41.

Rising to number three on the Australian all-time list and nailing his third Australian Under 20 record this season, Craig took strides towards his Olympic dream having already been selected for the World Under 20 Championships in Lima this August, while teammate Bendere Oboya (Craig Mottram) also impressed.

Oboya made it an Australian double with 800m victory in a time of 1:58.56 to bolster her case for an Olympic berth with her second qualifier, followed by Claudia Hollingsworth (Craig Mottram) in third in 2:00.02. Meanwhile, Jenny Blundell (James Fitzgerald) became the seventh Australian woman in history to shatter 15 minutes over 5000m with a breakthrough performance of 14:59.84 for 10^th place.

Momentum is a wonderful thing and few athletes have more than Alanah Yukich (Rose Monday) right now, with the 400m hurdler delivering times of 55.15 on Friday (Madrid), 55.94 on Saturday (Switzerland) and 55.40 on Sunday (Poland). The results are expected to propel Yukich into Olympic contention via world rankings, with her late but strong run for a Paris berth marking her as an Olympic bolter.

Heptathlete Tori West (Eric Brown) continued to keep her Paris dream afloat with a score of 6235 points in her fourth heptathlon since April, a narrow 10 points off her personal best. In a desperate bid, West produced one final push when returning over the 50m marker in the javelin with a 51.74m effort on day two, before posting a 2:15.92 personal best over 800m to leave everything on the track for third place in Ratingen.

Earlier in the weekend at the Irena Szewinska Memorial, Linden Hall (Ned Brophy-Williams) posted an impressive 3:58.96 run over 1500m to be the first Australian home ahead of Sarah Billings (Nic Bideau) in 4:00.45 and Abbey Caldwell (Gavin Burren) in 4:05.45.

Australia’s hurdlers led the way at the Motenet GP in Kuortane, with Michelle Jenneke (Bronwyn Thompson) racing to a seasons best of 12.69 (+0.3) for second place in the equal third fastest time of her decorated career, closely followed by Liz Clay (David Reid & Sharon Hannan) in fourth place in 12.78 – the strongest result of her comeback season to date.

Rounding out the action in Finland were triple jumpers Desleigh Owusu (Andrew Murphy) and Aiden Hinson (Chloe Stevens) who leapt to marks of 13.33m (+1.0) and 16.08m (+0.9) for fourth and third placings respectively.

Australia’s sprinters enjoyed favourable conditions in Sestriere as Mia Gross (John Nicolosi) blasted a career-best 200m performance of 22.81 (+1.3) in a dominant display for first place, while teammate Sam Geddes (John Nicolosi) bolted to a time of 11.15 (+2.8) in the 100m, closely followed by Gross in 11.18. Also enjoying the conditions was Jacob Despard (Rolf Ohman) who continued his quiet but strong Paris preparations with a 10.17 (+2.3) run for the win.

Setting a new personal best down the straight in Geneva was Josh Azzopardi (Rob Marks) in 10.14 (+1.2) for third place, building on his consistent season to date and finding form at the right time, while Luke van Ratingen (Ben Liddy) took out the 400m in 45.57 and Jessica Hull (Simon Hull) added sub two-minute 800m credentials to her illustrious resume with a run of 1:59.99 for first.

2018 World Under 20 champion Nash Lowis (Lukas Cannon) keeps finding metres when it matters, improving on his career-best to land the javelin at 82.40m for the win in Geneva to boost his Olympic hopes – his second personal best in the one week after a four-year drought.

Competing in Guadalajara, triple jumper Connor Murphy (Andrew Murphy) leapt to the farthest distance of his career with a showing of 16.90m (+3.1) for third place, with the 22-year-old improving on his all-conditions best, while Luke Boyes (Ben St Lawrence) raced to fifth place over 800m in a time of 1:45.13 as he chases Olympic qualification before the June 30 deadline.

Ellie Sanford (Ned Brophy-Williams) added to the middle-distance action with a run of 2:02.23 for fourth place, while sprinters Chris Ius (Andrew Murphy) and Kristie Edwards (David Reid) showed strong form with performances of 10.28 (+1.8) and 11.34 (+2.0) for third and sixth placings respectively.

Taking to the runway in Chula Vista, Brooke Buschkuehl (Russell Stratton) flew to a seasons best of 6.63m as the two-time Olympian builds nicely into form ahead of a third Olympic berth in Paris.

Rounding out the action for the weekend in Poland, Calab Law (Andrew Iselin) added another performance to his consistent season with a 20.75 (+1.4) showing over 200m for fourth place, while Cara Feain-Ryan (Ben Norton) posted a time of 6:09.50 in the 2000m steeplechase for fifth place and Tayleb Willis (Kyle Vander-Kuyp & Sam Leslie) clocked 13.55 (+1.4) for second place in Montreal.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted 24/06/2024