Meet records fall on Day 1 of Australian Track & Field Championships
Published Sat 26 Mar 2022
Australia’s junior athletes have impressed on Day 1 of the 99th edition of the Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney, with the some of the names of tomorrow edging closer to selection to the Australian team travelling to the World Athletics Under 20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
With 11 athletes having already meet the qualifying standard for the women’s Under 20 100m, pressure was on for athletes to win the title to secure selection. After breaking the meet record (11.52) in her heat earlier in the morning, 17-year-old Torrie Lewis prevailed against West Australian Taylah Cruttenden in 11.59 (-0.9), but the reigning champion Cruttenden put up the fight of her life, holding form to cross the line in 11.62.
“It’s definitely a relief to win this. I’ve had a lot of races in the last couple of weeks so to come ut, win it and get the title was such a good feeling,” said the prodigious sprinter.
“The Under 20 girls are very strong. We have a great relay team and all really like each other, it’s really good being able to race each other and push each other – you know you’re always going to have good competition.”
Despite regularly mixing it with her Open age counterparts, and proving competitive amongst the best of them, Lewis will focus her attention on preparing for the World Athletics Under 20 Championships in Cali, now that her place on the team will soon become official after achieving automatic selection in securing the title.
“The plan is definitely still World Juniors because I will be able to run individual events, but moving forward hopefully I’ll make a relay team.”
Lewis will skip out on contending for the senior title, instead attending to much more important business – her school formal.
A three-way battle ensued between the nation’s best female Under 20 pole vaulters as Cassidy Bradshaw, Ellie Parsons and Georgia Tayler found themselves in the most uncommon of situations, where after all three cleared 3.95m on first attempt, but each of them failed to achieve the next height of 4.05m on their third attempt.
The men’s pole vault too saw Victorian James Woods claim his spot for Cali, clearing 4.85m to take the win away from Queensland’s Liam Georgilopoulos who placed 2nd, clearing 4.75m.
Without a countback rule for the age group, the bar was lowered to 4.00m for sudden death to declare a winner. Bradshaw, who has secured the World Athletics Under 20 Championships qualifier of 4.05m this year, was the only athlete of the trio to clear 4.00m and was declared the winner, with Taylor and Parsons sharing the silver medal.
“It was really intense when we were all on the same height, so the jump off was really hard. We had a few jumps and were still tied but we got through it eventually,” Bradshaw said.
“I’m really excited for World Juniors in Colombia. That was the goal this season to have consistency and we have definitely achieved that, along with the National title.”
All three medallists will compete again in the Open event, with Tayler and Parsons aiming to clear the 4.05m needed to achieve discretionary selection to the team travelling to Columbia.
“I have the Opens later this week, along with Ellie and Georgia. They’re both so close to the world junior qualifier, so I’d love to see them clear it then.”
Victorian Archie Noakes impressed over 5000m, recording a time of 14:15.73 to confirm his start for the Australian Under 20 team. The race over 12.5 laps was one not to be missed, as Noakes and Charlie Sprott, both with qualifiers under their belt, push hard to punch their tickets. Though Sprott notched a swift time of 14:27.96, it was Victorian Logan Janetzki who charged ahead of him to take the silver medal in 14:22.36.
Another top performance of the evening was the Queensland men’s Under 20 4x100m relay team proving that the future of Australian sprinting is in good hands. The team consisting of Ashley Wong, Jai Gordon, Lachlan Kennedy and Calab Law placed first with a meet record of 39.90.
The 2022 Chemist Warehouse Australian Track and Field Championships will continue tomorrow from 8.30am, with the Championships streamed from 11.15am AEDT on Athletics Australia’s Facebook and YouTube, as well as on the Seven Network’s digital platform, 7Plus.
Full results from Day 1 can be found here.
By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 26/3/2022
