Commonwealth Games Field Preview | Field of Dreams Awaits In Birmingham

On the track and field, or the field and track - whatever you want to call it - the week ahead in Birmingham is going to be big. With three medals won across jumps and throws at the World Athletics Championships last week, Australia’s field athletes are on track to clean up at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Read below our must-watch field events:

Vertical Jumps
High Jump

There’s an undeniable spring in the step of Australia’s jumpers, as eight of our greatest ever athletes leap into Birmingham for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

Australia’s first ever high jump world champion Eleanor Patterson heads to England after setting the world alight with her extraordinary gold medal performance in Eugene, USA. Completing a first attempt clearance of 2.02m, Patterson’s performance was the culmination of an incredible streak of recent results for the 26-year-old, who has produced four of her five best ever results in the past six months.

But in Birmingham, the top step of the podium will be a fiercely fought affair, as Gold Coast 2018 bronze medallist and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers enters the Games having finished fifth at the world championships with an equal season’s best jump of 1.96m. Patterson, the Glasgow 2014 champion, will fly alongside Olyslagers as they push each other to new heights. The pair share the Australian record of 2.02m and currently hold the top nine spots of the Australian all time list combined.

At Alexander Stadium they take on the likes of Jamaican Lamara Distin who boasts an impressive personal and season’s best of 1.97m, as well as hometown hero Morgan Lak who has cleared heights of 1.93m this year. 

Men’s High Jump

In the men’s high jump, Gold Coast 2018 champion Brandon Starc will give it his best shot despite a limited preparation due to a pre-existing foot injury acquired earlier in the year. Starc pulled out of the Eugene world championships but will be giving himself every opportunity to defend his title and follow in the footsteps of 1966 and 1970 Commonwealth champion Lawrie Peckham.

Starc, who placed fifth at Tokyo 2020, has cleared heights of 2.26m this year, but will face athletes who have surpassed his personal best, including Bahamian Donald Thomas, and three other athletes who have cleared heights higher than him this year such as England’s Joel Clarke-Khan (2.27m), Nauraj Singh Randhawa (MAL) and trans-Tasman rival Hamish Kerr, who with a season’s best of 2.31m, is the current favourite for gold. 

Women’s Pole Vault

Nina Kennedy goes into the Commonwealth meet as the World Championships bronze medallist, and will be looking to retain her status as the highest ranked Commonwealth Games athlete in the field. 

The Gold Coast bronze medallist recently soared to 4.80m in Eugene, just shy of her own Australian record, but will be ready to aim for new heights against a slick field which includes Canada’s Alysha Newman, Englishwomen Holly Bradshaw and Molly Caudery, as well as New Zealand’s Olivia McTaggart who will all be gunning for gold. 

Men’s Pole Vault

Australia will be sending two male pole vaulters into battle, with defending gold medallist Kurtis Marschall and 2018 compatriot and fellow Western Australian Angus Armstrong. 

Though he goes in as one of Australia’s strongest medal hopes, Marschall was unable to produce near his best in Eugene, despite a strong European season that saw him clear 5.76m in Paris in July. Out for redemption in Birmingham, a performance that strong would secure another gold medal in all past Commonwealth Games, minus Steve Hooker’s 5.80m clearance in front of a rowdy home crowd in Melbourne in 2006.

As the depth of pole vault increases worldwide, Marschall will be up for a challenge against Englishman Harry Coppel who has also cleared 5.75m this year, as well as 20-year-old rising star from South Africa, Kyle Rademeyer, who has impressed with his form this year, clearing 5.60m.

Armstrong will join Marschall for the second time at a Commonwealth Games, entering with a personal best of 5.65m and a season’s best of 5.40m.

Horizontal Jumps

Women’s Long Jump

World lead Brooke Buschkuehl, who bettered her Australian long jump record last month and narrowly missed the Eugene podium by 2cm, will look to compliment her silver from the Gold Coast in Birmingham. Buschkuehl’s leap of 6.87m (+0.8) in Eugene, was her fifth best of her career, and 26cm shy of the 7.13m (+1.8) she produced in Chula Vista, California two weeks earlier.

A clutch performer under pressure, Buschkuehl will be joined by 2022 Australian long jump champion Samantha Dale, who will make her Games debut in Birmingham.

They’ll be right up against some of the world’s best in Birmingham such as the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist from Nigeria, Ese Brume, Canadian Christabel Nettey, Ghanian Deborah Acquah and hometown hopefuls Jazmin Sawyers and Lorraine Ugen. 

Men’s High Jump

In the men’s long jump, Chris Mitrevski enters Birmingham ranked #1 in the Commonwealth. His 8.21m (+0.8) at the 2022 Australian Championships was the fourth time he’s legally leaped over the eight metre mark in the past 12 months. It’s a mark well visited by teammate and Gold Coast 2018 silver medallist Henry Frayne.

Set to jump in his third Commonwealth Games, Frayne placed 12th in Eugene in what was his fourth appearance in a Olympic Games or world championships final. 

The podium could well be a wide open affair, with Mitrevski and Frayne set to mix it with Bahamian Laquan Nairn, India’s Sreeshankar Sreeshankar and South African duo Cheswill Johnson and Jovan van Vuuren.

Men’s Triple Jump 

Making his Games debut, West Australian triple jumper Julian Konle rounds out Australia’s hopefuls in the jumping events. With a PB of 16.66m (+0.7), Konle will be looking to become Australia’s first triple jump medallist at the Commonwealth Games since Alwyn Jones’ bronze at Melbourne 2006.

Watch for the 17-metre-plus Indian pair of Abdulla Aboobacker Narangolintevid and Praveen Chithravel in the final.

Throws:

Women’s Discus F42-F44

Sarah Edmiston enters her maiden Commonwealth Games as one of Australia’s strongest medal hopes as the number one Women’s Discus F22-F44 athlete within the Commonwealth. The 42-year-old grandmother has won a medal at every major championships she has competed in thus far, and will be looking to add her first Commonwealth gold to her glittering collection.

This year Edmiston soared to stardom, bettering her own Oceania and Australian record by two metres when throwing 39.13m at the WA State Championships but has not been able to hold that form at her subsequent competitions. Either way, she goes in having thrown six metres further than Nigeria’s Goodness Chiemerie Nwachukwu who this year has thrown a lifetime best of 33.35m.

Women’s Javelin

Two weeks after becoming the first ever female athlete to defend her Javelin world title, Kelsey-Lee Barber makes her third Commonwealth Games appearance in Birmingham. 30-year-old Barber rewrote the history books with her third round throw of 66.91m, but passed on her fifth and final attempt in Eugene, wanting to respect her body with rest ahead of the Commonwealth Games following her medal winning launch. 

While the two-time world champion feels like she has much more to give, there will be two other Australian athletes on the field with much to prove as they aim for a podium finish in their second of two major championships this season. Kathryn Mitchell, who won gold on the Gold Coast, makes her record-equalling fifth appearance and will be seeking redemption after fouling three times in the qualification round in Eugene. While Mackenzie Little, who finished fifth and only 5cm off the podium in Eugene, rounds out our Australian javelin trio and will be looking to further her personal best for the fourth time this year.

Men’s Javelin 

Australian champion Cameron McEntyre has bounced back from his heartbreak at Hayward Field and will be looking to progress much further into Commonwealth competition this week. Having joined the 80-metre club with a throw of 81.96m earlier this year in the USA, McEntyre can go into this week with confidence knowing what he is capable of.

The 23-year-old will use these championships to build his experience on the international stage, and will be pushed by the likes of Grenada’s Anderson Peters and Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott who have both thrown further than 90m this year.

Men’s Discus

Four years ago Matt Denny claimed silver in the Hammer Throw and this year he’ll be looking to go one step higher on the podium in his pet event, the Men’s Discus. Denny most recently took to Hayward Field at the World Athletics Championships, where he placed sixth with a throw of 66.47m - just shy of his 67.07m personal best.

Though he missed the medals by just over one metre, Denny was the highest ranked Commonwealth athlete in the field, and has now reset in his quest to claim the top spot of the podium. The Queenslander will need to rise above a strong field, with Englishman Lawrence Okoye, who boasts a personal best of 68.24m, and Samoa’s Alex Rose who’s standing in Denny’s way.

Women’s Discus

Taryn Gollshewsky makes her return to international competition for the first time since the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Gollshewsky, a now three-time Commonwealth Games representative had a stellar year in 2021, where she threw 61.05m at the Australian Track and Field Championships to set a new personal best. The 29-year-old has had a streak of wins since this year’s edition of the national championships, taking home the title at the Festival of Athletics in Townsville as well as the Oceania Athletics Championships.

Although there will be a mix of youth and experience on the field, there are some strong contenders for medals, with six athletes having thrown further than the Bundaberg athlete this year. Gollshewsky will need to be throwing closer to her personal best to find herself on the medal dais. 

Women’s Hammer Throw

Before the World Athletics Championships, Alexandra Hulley waited four long years to wear the green and gold, and will be relishing the opportunity to don the uniform for the second time in a month at Alexander Stadium. 

The ever-consistent Hulley launched a best throw of 68.83m in Oregon, but it was not quite enough to land her a spot in the final. The standard of Hammer Throw has improved greatly over the past four years, with a stacked field that features four athletes that have thrown 70m or further this year. 

Women’s Seated Shot Put F57

Australian team debutant Julie Charlton comes in with a personal best of 6.43m in the Women’s Seated Shot Put - an event she has contested in since she was 9-years-old. This week, the 23-year-old will compete against some of the heavyweights of the Commonwealth countries.

Charlton will face off against Nigerian duo Eucharia Njdeka Iyiazi who has been known to throw up to an astounding 11.11m and Ugochi Alam who sports a lifetime best of 9.94m, a distance she threw earlier this year.

By Jake Stevens and Sascha Ryner for Commonweatlh Games Australia
Posted: 31/7/2022