Connolly and Azzopardi crowned Oceania's fastest athletes | Oceania Championships Day 5

Day 5 of the Oceania Track and Field Championships in Suva, Fiji brought the much-awaited semi-finals and finals of the 100 metres but the best results were arguably once again in the field.

Both Ella Connolly and Josh Azzopardi turned their Nationals silver medals into Oceania gold in the blue-riband sprints with victories in 11.41 (0.1) and 10.33 (-0.9) respectively.

Azzopardi said he had achieved exactly what he had set out to do.

“The aim was to grab gold – the area championships are so important. I didn’t want to worry about time at all,” the Sydneysider said after an impressive victory over national champion Sebastian Sultana (10.35) and Tokyo Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning (10.40).

Connolly appeared not to be fazed by the usual fast start of eventual silver medallist Ebony Lane (11.53) and powered to the line unchallenged.

Meanwhile the action had begun to heat up in the men’s high jump where the Australian trio of Yual Reath, Roman Anastasios and Joel Baden fought it out in an enthralling contest. Reath emerged victorious with a second time clearance at 2.28m whilst Anastasios trumped training partner Baden on countback with a personal best successful third attempt at 2.25m.

The area championships points winner’s bonus of 170 on top of the standard score for 2.28m should lift Reath to tenth in the order of qualifying for the 32 places available in the Paris men’s high jump final.

The Sudanese-born rising star who migrated to Ballarat with his family at the age of seven has been the revelation of the Australian season – which included a personal best of 2.30m in the Tokyo World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Meet on the day after his 24th birthday last month.

Reath will bank his Suva result and won’t compete again until July after the Olympic qualification window closes at the end of this month.

More field gold for Australia came courtesy of Samantha Dale (women’s long jump with 6.47m) and Darcy Miller (men’s discus with 52.27m). Matt Sheppard (F56) and Sam Paech (F37) became the champions in the seated and ambulant men’s para discus events. 

Sarah Carli is one of the country’s most reliable performers and showed her consistency with a composed victory in the 400m hurdles in 56.52 – her only race at the championships after the heats were cancelled.

The men’s race had a less predictable outcome with Angus Proudfoot running a powerful race from the gun to win in 50.64 – his second fastest time ever – over Connor Fry and Tom Hunt who had stood higher on the Nationals dais in Adelaide in April. 

The Aussie threesome of Jenny Blundell, Holly Campbell and Maudie Skyring sensibly engaged in some team running in the initial stages of the women’s 5000m before first Campbell and then Blundell delivered crucial surges of pace.

Blundell’s burst as the bell sounded for the final lap was the move that sealed the gold medal in 15.26.29 from Campbell (15.31.88) and Skyring (15.49.39)

The experienced Dave McNeill took a similar approach in the men’s equivalent – prevailing in 14.02.23 over countryman Haftu Strintzos who had earlier picked up the 10000m gold in a championships’ record on Monday evening.

Ákeesha Snowden (class T37) and Jackson Love (T35) will take home gold for Australia after taking the baseline table wins in the multi-class para 100 metres.

In first round action for the 400 metres, Queenslanders Ellie Beer (52.42) and Alex Beck (46.42) were the top qualifiers after each going all out in their heat runs to maximise world ranking points accruals.

By Brian Roe, Athletics Australia
Posted: 5/6/2024