PREVIEW – Day of the Australian Track & Field Championships

Competition is set to turn up a notch as the country’s Open age athletes descend upon Sydney Olympic Park for the pinnacle event in Australian athletics.

For our able-bodied athletes, the Australian Track and Field Championships will be of the utmost importance as a crown could represent a ticket to the World Athletics Championships and an automatic nomination for the Commonwealth Games, while some of our Paralympic athletes will use this as an opportunity to strengthen their preparation for Birmingham.

Wednesday’s Key Events:

TRACK:

1500m – Qualification

Jye Edwards rattled cages last year when taking out the men’s 1500m in qualifying time to sky rocket himself to the Olympics, but as much as last year most would have predicted Stewart McSweyn to take the crown, this year will be even tougher to predict. While McSweyn will not contest this year’s Championships, Edwards will come up against US-based Olli Hoare – the strongest in the field with three qualifiers to his name, as well as Matthew Ramsden. As the only Australian athlete to set an Olympic qualifier and miss out on selection, Ramsden is looking to ensure he doesn’t miss out on a spot on either team by grabbing the title.

Look out too for the women’s 1500m as Linden Hall is back in action after the World Athletics Indoor Championships last week. Linden had a bumpy road to get there, facing niggles holding her back on the World Indoor Tour and in Belgrade but placed a triumphant sixth. She’s back in form and she’ll be out to defend her first national title.  

400m – Qualification

It’s a stacked field for today’s women’s 400m qualifiers, but with reigning national champion Bendere Oboya switching focus to the 800m earlier this year, the crown

is certainly up for grabs.  Oboya’s 4x400m relay teammates Kendra Hubbard and Ellie Beer will take to the track as well Rio Olympian Jessica Thornton and Angeline Blackburn, who had a breakthrough year selected for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

10,000m Race Walk

Arguably one of the most important events on the program today, the 10,000m race walks acts as the Commonwealth Games trials for our elite race walkers. Athletes have so far focused on their longer distance this year, the 20km ahead of the Australian Championships and the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships, but have had plenty of practice on the track at their camp at the AIS earlier this year.

In two 10,000m hit outs on the race, Kyle Swan and Jemima Montag registered hand-timed qualifying times but to get the automatic spots, they’ll need to walk under 39:30.00 and 44:30.00 respectively to achieve the criteria needed for automatic nomination to Commonwealth Games Australia for selection.

FIELD:

Discus – Ambulant – Final

Paralympic bronze medallist Sarah Edmiston will line up for the first final of the day, as she looks to unleash in the women’s discus (ambulant). At 45 years of age, Edmiston is showing no signs of slowing down and has been setting new personal, Australian and Oceania bests through out the summer. As the current number one in the Commonwealth, there’s hardly a doubt of her selection later in the year but we can still expect big things from the Western Australian come tomorrow.

Javelin - Qualifications

Women's javelin in Australia is at an all time high, and we can expect some world-class competition today, with Olympic bronze medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber, and Tokyo finalists Mackenzie Little and Kathryn Mitchell all vying for a spot in this weekend's final. While we haven't seen Mitchell perform since last year, Little has been on a steep trajectory off the back of her Tokyo victory, going so far to defeat reigning world champion Barber at the Melbourne Track Classic last week with a mighty 61.13m throw on her last attempt. The two will go head-to-head but if Mitchell's form is anything like last year where she threw a season's best of 63.50m, Little and Barber will need to put their best foot forward.

Pole Vault – Qualifications

Western Australia’s Nina Kennedy and Liz Parnov will be the first Tokyo Olympians to compete at the Championships when they battle for glory in the qualifying round of the Women’s Open Pole Vault. Kennedy broke the Australian record at Sydney Olympic Park 12 months ago with a 4.82m jump, and will be aiming to emulate her success on Thursday, while Parnov will be eyeing off her fourth Commonwealth Games start.

Hammer Throw – Qualifications

Alex Hulley narrowly missed out on Tokyo selection last year after slipping just outside of the world ranking selection criteria, but with the countdown to the World Championships and Birmingham, Hulley is leaving no stone unturned to wear the green and gold, and we’ll see the preliminary results of this as she takes on the hammer throw qualifiers.

Long Jump – Ambulant - Finals

Two events taking place for our Paralympic athletes will be the long jump ambulant events. Though these athletes aren’t working towards a major championships in 2022, their 2023 World Athletics Championships campaign in Paris will begin today.

With a best of 5.49m, Oceania record holder Sarah Walsh will put her ground work following Tokyo into action, but she’ll also come up against Kailyn Joseph, who has been working closely with renowned sprinting/jumps coach Andrew Murphy since. Rio bronze medallist Taylor Doyle will also compete after some time away in the sport.

In the men’s event, Paralympic bronze medallist Nicholas Hum will be back in action, looking to emulate his successful 7.12m jump from Tokyo in Sydney.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 30/3/2022