Gollshewsky Shines on Day 4 in Suva | Oceania Athletic Championships

Finals action on day 4 of the Oceania Track and Field Championships in Suva, Fiji was very much focused in the field – with the star performance coming from discus thrower Taryn Gollshewsky.

Backing up from her 60m plus performance in Saturday’s Oceania Invitational Meet, the Bundaberg throws queen, again bettered the important mark securing a clear victory with 60.96m.

In four days, Gollshewsky has massively improved her chance of earning passage to Paris for the Olympic Games athletics competition in August.

Currently ranked 40th in the hunt for one of the 32 places on offer for the women’s discus throw in Paris, she now replaces the two lowest of her five ranking scores with substantially better marks.

“I’ve produced at exactly the right time. I don’t know, of course, whether it will be good enough but I have given it a real shot.

“I will head up to Townsville in a couple of weeks aiming to throw at least 60 metres again and eliminate another of my 58m scoring performances”, a clearly content Gollshewsky said after her victory.

There were also senior championship victories for Elyssia Kenshole (women’s pole vault), Todd Hodgetts (men’s para shot put), Jessee Wyatt (men’s seated para shot put) and Dalton Di Medio (men’s pole vault).

The day also found plenty of interest for Australia in the first rounds of both the men’s and women’s 100 metres.

The chase for ranking places is intense and with the contest for spots on the Australian Team in Suva equally so.

All six Aussies won their heats – with Ella Connolly topping the semi finals qualifying list with an easy 11.66 (-0.9). Ebony Lane with her trademark fast start clearly evident, qualified second with 11.69 (-1.2). The women’s trio was completed with former national champion Naa Anang comfortably proceeding with 12.08 (-1.0).

Pesky headwinds had also been to the fore as the men contested their first round in which Rohan Browning returned to form with the fastest time of the day – 10.49 (-1.2).

Sebastian Sultana and Josh Azzopardi both clocked 10.60 to win their heats and qualified third and fourth just behind Kiwi Tiaan Whelpton.

Attention will now turn to the semi finals which will begin with women’s at 1.25pm Australian Eastern time on Wednesday.

Tom Hunt, Connor Fry and Angus Proudfoot all safely passed through the 400m hurdles final (Wednesday 11.30am AEST) whilst Sarah Carli, Marli Wilkinson and Isabella Guthrie all received a free passage to the women’s equivalent (11.10am AEST) when heats were not required.

Earlier on Days 1-3 of the program, Ashley Moloney and Camryn Newton-Smith were crowned the area’s most versatile athletes, with Moloney piling on 8182 points and Newton-Smith scoring 6070 – both bolstering their Olympic-qualifying campaigns. 

For all results, click HERE.

By Brian Roe, Athletics Australia
Posted 4/06/2024