WEEKEND REVIEW | Hale launches Olympic year with a new Australian record

After a turbulent 2020 the athletics action has returned in 2021 with a series of impressive performances across the country to begin the Olympic year. 

Jack Hale (Adam Larcom) launched into his 2021 campaign in the David Baxter 100 Yards Championship when bolting down the straight in a time of 9.43 (+2.0), eclipsing Gary Eddy’s Australian record of 9.52 (-0.8) from 1966. 

The Denise Boyd 100 Yard Championships was taken out by Ebony Lane (Matt Carter) in a time of 10.59, ahead of Celeste Mucci (Darren Clark) (10.73) and Mia Gross (Joe Gulli) (10.77). 

Rohan Browning (Andrew Murphy) also kick-started his season when competing in Illawong, clocking 10.23 (-1.1) for the 100m and 20.77 (NWI) over 200m. 

Western Australia’s Go For 2 and 5 series rolled on with a program that featured Australia’s premier pole vaulters. 

The women’s pole vault saw Nina Kennedy (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) improve on her personal best when clearing 4.75m to surpass her previous mark of 4.72m. This adds to a sequence of consistent performances, with her last three competitions witnessing clearances of 4.70m or above. 

Kennedy finished ahead of fellow Western Australians Liz Parnova (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) and Lauren Hyde-Cooling (Paul Burgess) who cleared 4.30m and 3.80m respectively to round out a first-class field. 

In the men’s competition Kurtis Marschall (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) took home an emphatic victory with a performance of 5.80m, narrowly falling short of his personal best of 5.81m. 

The performance sets up Marschall well for 2021 - a year in which the 23-year-old’s experience on the world stage should serve him well. 

In second place was Angus Armstrong (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) with a clearance of 5.30m - a solid performance to open his account and one that the talented pole vaulter will be looking to build on. 

At the Hunter Pure Track Challenge it was T54 athlete Luke Bailey (Andrew Dawes) who impressed when taking out the 100m Para event. 

Bailey stopped the clock in a blistering 13.88 seconds (+3.1) - a time that serves as a firm indicator that the 23-year-old is in career best form and well on track for Tokyo, despite the wind assistance falling outside the legal range. 

The performances came as a welcomed start to 2021, and with more quality competitions on the horizon Australian athletics should continue to thrive ahead of Tokyo in 2021. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse
Posted: 11/1/2020