Oceania Championship Day 1 Review: Hometown Hero Wins

The four-day 2019 Oceania Athletics Championships began today in perfect conditions in Townsville. There was much to cheer about for the locals as hometown hero Nash Lowis used any pressure to his advantage to defeat a strong field in the javelin. There were also a few surprises, while some others confirmed they are in good form ahead of the World University Games.

It has been an extraordinary 12 months for teenager Nash Lowis. Twelve months ago he was likely to withdraw from the World U20 Championships due to a hamstring injury, but he recovered to go on an win in the junior global title and add five metres to his PB. Three weeks ago he added another five metres to his PB to surpass 80 metres. Today in Townsville he backed up his recent PB with a quality series of throws including marks of 79.10m and 78.74m to be crowned Oceania champion.

How did his 79m throw feel?

“I didn’t feel overly great. I knew there was more,” he said. “Then I backed it up. My coach and I were very happy about that because last week I was sick. I have better rhythm down the runway now and I think the strength work we have started, is slowly coming out.”

Today’s win was over two 80 metres throwers. Liam O’Brien was second with 77.32m, NZ’s Alex Wood third 71.44m and Hamish Peacock fourth with 70.69m.

“It was a quality comp. The boys I was throwing against today - I know they are very capable.”

As a local you would expect added pressure.

“Yep, I live across the hill so could stay at home and enjoyed my own bed. It was only a 20min drive to get to the track and lots of family and friends came and watched. Having the support there always pushes me to throw further. Some people would crack under that but I like to rise to the occasion.”

The conditions for the women’s walk were warm and windy, less than ideal, but that didn’t stop Commonwealth Games champion, Jemima Montag setting a PB of 43:50.84, to take the 10,000m track walk title.

“I think it was a sneaky PB but only by a about a quarter of a second,“ said Montag who would later realise it was a nine second PB.

“Each race has a different focus, and today was more about winning to get the most points as possible on the IAAF Walks Challenge. I think I was about ninth on the rankings and hopefully this will boost me up to about fourth.”
The performance in the warm conditions also confirmed that Montag’s training preparation for upcoming races in hot conditions at the World University Games (Naples) and World Championships (Doha), were on the right track.

“At the VIS I have been using the heat room about twice a week. It is generally cranked up to about 36-37 degrees with about 60% humidity.”

Second in the walk was teenager Katie Hayward who has enjoyed a breakthrough year, jumping to number three Australian all time in the 20km walk. In Townsville she clocked 45:35.81, with Claire Woods third in 47:16.28.

“Because I have World Uni’s, and that heat, in my legs, trying to put the speed on today, my legs just did not respond,” said Hayward. “You can’t always do an amazing race every time. At the end of the day we are human beings, not robots. There’s always going to be that race that just doesn’t come together, and I will learn from it.”

Currently based in Japan, Melissa Duncan looked strong over the later stages to take the women’s 5000m race after her and Paige Campbell had shared pacing duties for the previous 10 or so laps. Duncan clocked 15:41.44 to Campbell’s 15:46.25.

Did they pre-organise shared pacing?

"It wasn’t planned or anything like that. I didn’t really care about the time. I thought the win was really important and that was all I really wanted. When Paige went out hard, I wasn’t really sure if she was going to be able to hold that. And then she peeled off and I took over.”

Duncan is feeling positive about her current form.

“It is really nice to be fit and at a point where running that pace feels easy - just comfortable. The first kilometre was 3 something, and I was like “wow, that didn’t feel hard”.

Even when you’re fit, you don’t always run well. I actually did a race a couple months ago and I didn’t feel right. We ran 3.07 for the first km and I remember thinking that felt so hard! It doesn’t always come together in races. So tonight is a nice feeling.“

The decathlon is as expected a close and high-quality event. After day one, Ash Moloney leads Cedric Dubler 4293 to 4210 points. At the recent competition in Gotzis, the difference was nearly 200 points between the training partners. Dubler’s day one score is just 41 points below his recent total of 8185, which left him 15 points shy of a Doha World Championships qualifier.

Today Moloney was very solid, particularly in the long jump with 7.52m (2cm from PB) and an amazing 400m PB of 46.75. Dubler climbed over 2.13m in the high jump – his equal second best ever height. He can improve on his Gotzis day two marks so a Doha world champs qualifier is on the cards for him.

In Brief:

• Angus Armstrong cleared 5.40m to take the pole vault title, missing three attempts at a PB 5.53m
• In heavy training, Chad Perris won the men’s para 100m in 11.18
• Tokyo Olympic qualifier Rhydian Cowley won the men’s 10,000m walk in 41:57.57 from WA’s Declan Tingay 42:42.44.
• There was a surprise result in the women’s long jump with PNG’s Rellie Kaputin (6.50m) defeating Brooke Stratton (6.49m) and Naa Anang (6.44m).

David Tarbotton for Athletics Australia