Busy days ahead for Australian athletes at World University Games
Published Fri 12 Jul 2019
The day belonged to Italy, who took home two gold medals in pole vault and 100m hurdles – but Australia secured a stack of qualifications from the sessions.
Nine Australian athletes qualified in total, with Matt Denny placing first in the men’s discus, Alysha Burnett in the women’s high jump, Georgie Hansen and Georgia Griffith in the women’s 1500m, Mason Cohen and Jye Perrott in the men’s 800m, Nick Andrews and Jacob McCorry in the men’s 110 hurdles, and to finish off the night Dan Canala qualified for the final in the men’s 5000m.
But on top of that there were final performances from a few and leading the charge was Providence College student Brianna Ilarrda, who finished 5th in the 3000m Steeplechase.
Speaking after her race, Bri repeated strongly how good it was being at the World University Games in Italy and how good it was to represent Australia.
“Being over here (in Naples) has been awesome, it’s the first time I’ve worn the green and gold and the first time I’ve been on a team, away with really high calibre athletes,” Ilarrda said.
Also starring on the night was Liam O’Brien from the University of Queensland, who finished in 8th place with a 75.04m throw.
Liam said after his event that he would have liked a bit more but he will now focus on getting bigger and developing in his off season.
“It was a little bit under what I wanted, if I threw 77m plus I would have medalled and I can do that comfortable but anyway, it’s the end of my season now and I’m going to go away into the woods and lift a bunch of weights and come back and keep bringing my average up,” O’Brien said.
Australian Performances from Day 4:
Alysha Burnett (Australian Catholic University & Zsuzsanna Olgyay-Szabo) - HJ Q 1.80m
Tori West (Heptathlon The University of Queensland & Eric Brown) -
100mH 14.90
HJ 1.68m
SP 13.53
200m 25.04
Matt Denny (Griffith University & Ben Thomson) - Discus Q 61.61m
Georgia Hansen (The University of Melbourne & Stephen Ellinghaus) - 1500m q 4:23.23
Georgia Griffith (Monash University & Stephen Ellinghaus) - 1500m Q 4:20.76
Mason Cohen (University of Technology Sydney & Ben Liddy) - 800m Q 1:51.54
Jye Perrott (University of Technology Sydney & Ben Liddy) - 800m Q 1:50.77
Jacob McCorry (Macquarie University & Michael Zisti) - 110mH q 14.10
Nicholas Andrews (Macquarie University & Mick Zisti) - 110mH Q 13.76
Riley Day 200m (Griffith University & Paul Pearce) - 17th 23.56
Nana Owusu-Afriyie (Deakin University Tony Marsh) - 200m 10th 23.85
Abbie Taddeo (Australian College of Physical Education & Penny Gillies) - 100mH q 13.42
Abbie Taddeo (Australian College of Physical Education & Penny Gillies) - 100mH Final 8th 13.68
Liam O’Brien (The University of Queensland & Benjamin Thomson) Jav 8th 75.04m
Paige Campbell (Charles Sturt University & Philo Saunders) 3k St 7th 10:03.63
Brianna Ilarrda (Providence College & Ray Treacy) - 3k St 5th 9:53.23
Dan Canala (The University of Adelaide & Adam Didyk) - 5000m Q 14:11.99
Day 5 of the World University Games is underway tomorrow. To see our Aussies in action head to - the FISU Live Stream, the Olympic Channel Live Stream or on certain times on EuroSport on Foxtel.
Full results from the World University Games can be seen here.
