Fantastic fourth for Montag at Oregon World Championships
Published Sat 16 Jul 2022
Australian race walker Jemima Montag has achieved the fastest time by any Australian woman at a World Championships or Olympics, placing a triumphant fourth in the Women’s 20km Race Walk on Day 1 of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA.
The 24-year-old medicine student showed off her impressive form throughout the event, placing herself firmly in the lead pack as the starter’s gun went off. While beginning her race conservatively, Montag made her presence known, moving from sixth place to fourth in the final kilometres, as she tried to keep pace with eventual gold medallist Kimberly Garcia Leon from Peru and China’s Shijie Qieyang.
As Leon maintained her position throughout the 10-loop race, Polish walker Katarzyna Zdzieblo pushed ahead, placing Qieyang in third. Though Montag worked to close the gap between herself and Qieyang, she ultimately finished 21-seconds behind the bronze medallist in 1:28:17.
Despite narrowly missing the podium, Montag was proud to step up from her sixth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics to fourth, knowing that a podium finish is in sight at her next global event.
“In Little Athletics years ago, there was a saying that ‘fourth sucks’ and they even used to print it on t-shirts. Humans have just decided that 1-2-3 get medals and fourth is one spot away from that,” Montag said.
“I think that fourth rocks, it doesn’t suck.
“I’ve been working this year on being aggressive in the second half instead of slowly fading and I think if I had another couple of laps, I would have got that third girl but ran out of time. It feels good to slowly pick people up and grit my teeth.
“My legs were dying but when you can’t walk with your legs anymore, you can walk with your heart and I had so much family on the sidelines this time which was really special after last year, with everyone missing out. They were with me every step and that made it doable.”
21-year-old Rebecca Henderson placed 20th in the same event with a time of 1:34:38, continuing her upward trajectory from Tokyo where she placed 38th.
In the Men’s 20km Race Walk, Declan Tingay placed the best of an Aussie trio, consisting of himself, Rhydian Cowley and Kyle Swan, placing 17th; equal to his finish at the Tokyo Olympics last year. Although the Western Australian found himself in the lead pack until the final 5km, Tingay found himself without enough in the tank to breakaway from the pack, and instead fell back in the final two laps to clock 1:23:28
Olympic 50km race walker Cowley placed 19th in the shorter distance in 1:23:37 – his best result in the event at a World Championships, and Kyle Swan crossed the line in 1:28.43 to place 33rd.
Australian pole vaulter Nina Kennedy finds herself at her first global final at a major championships since competing at Hayward Field in 2014 at the World Junior Championships. Kennedy passed in the first two opening heights (4.20m and 4.35m) and joined in on the action at 4.50m, which she cleared in one attempt to secure her spot for Sunday’s final.
With the door wide open in the Women’s Pole Vault, Kennedy believes she has what it takes to find herself on the podium.
“The competition right now is at an interesting place where on the day it could be anyone’s gold, silver or bronze medal. I am quietly confident going into the meet and I’m excited to see what happens,” Kennedy said.
Olympic finalist Henry Frayne has qualified for his first world championships final as a long jumper after leaping to 7.99m (0.0) on his first attempt. After fouling his second attempt, the experienced campaigner made a quick decision to pass on his third attempt; a calculated risk that will put him in good stead in tomorrow’s final.
Frayne, who has competed for Australia for more than a decade in both the long jump and triple jump events said:
“I’ve been up and around doing this for a decade and 7.99 always gets through. I was half checked out after the first one because statistically I knew I would be fine. It’s less than a 24-hour turn around and I want to minimise injury.”
Australian champion Chris Mitrevski missed out on a place in the final by 11cm, with his best jump of 7.83m (+1.4)
The Men’s High Jump Qualification round came with mixed results for the Australians, with Rio Olympian Joel Baden advancing to Monday’s final and Yual Reath ending his debut World Championships campaign after clearing one jump.
Baden finished his opening round clearing 2.28m; high enough to place him firmly into the top 12 for the final. The 26-year-old Victorian cleared all attempts up to 2.25m, and exceeded his previous season’s best of 2.27m on his third and final attempt.
Unable to wipe the smile off his face, Baden said he had achieved his goal for the meet.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but the goal was to make the finals and see what happens. To have made the goal and to have made those clean attempts early on was ideal,” Baden said.
“Because I’m managing a bit of a knee injury, I had to control the amount of jumps I had so I didn’t inflame anything so one jump in the warm up and then thankfully, my early jumps followed through. When it got to 28, I didn’t care. I was so happy to had done what I had done there. It was a step up from my previous Championships.”
Nerves got the better of Australian champion Reath, with the Ballarat boy only able to clear the opening height of 2.17m on his third attempt. Reath became unstuck on 2.21m – below his best of 2.25m – but will use his Australian debut as a learning experience as he aims for the Budapest World Championships next year.
Australia's three fastest women across 1500m have qualified for the semi-finals in the Women’s 1500m at the World Athletics Championships, with Jessica Hull, Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith all placed within the top 3 within their heats.
Hull placed the highest out of the trio, finishing second in her heat behind Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon in 4:04.68, while Hall, the fastest of the three stretched her legs to cross the line in 4:03.21. Griffith finished behind Tokyo silver medallist Laura Muir in 4:07.53, but demonstrated her class when beating USA’s Sinclaire Johnson who has run sub four minutes this year.
All three will race in tomorrow’s semi-finals, with preview details to come.
Australia’s fastest men tested themselves on the world stage but were unable to mix it with the world’s best on this occasion, with both Rohan Browning and Jake Doran run out in their heats. With a season’s best of 10.08, Browning was the favourite of the pair to progress to the semi-finals, but his performance of 10.22 for a fifth-place finish in his heat was not enough to secure his position. Doran’s run of 10.29 saw him cross the line in sixth place in his heat.
Tokyo Olympians Ben Buckingham and Ed Trippas made an attempt to advance to the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase final however were unable to progress. Trippas, the fastest of the pair, ran 8:23.83 to finish 20th overall, while Buckingham’s 8:29.15 saw him finish in 26th place. Both will now turn their attention to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Alexandra Hulley made history as the first Australian female to compete in the Hammer Throw since 2003. While she did not advance to the final, she placed 10th in her pool and 18th overall in the qualifying rounds, throw 68.83.
The Australian action will continue tomorrow at the World Athletics Championships, with the first Australians in action for the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase heats beginning at 10:35am Pacific Daylight Time (3:35am AEST). The World Athletics Championships can be viewed on BeInSports and SBS on Demand.
By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 16/7/2022
