PREVIEW | Festival of Athletics

Townsville Sports Reserve will become the home of the Festival of Athletics this weekend, as track and field athletes across the country travel north for what will be one of their final opportunities to compete ahead of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The pressure is on for many to impress, with most competing aiming to improve their world ranking points or meet the Olympic and Paralympic qualifying standards before the end of the qualifying period.  

A few events to look out for:

Women’s High Jump

Nicola McDermott (Matt Horsnell) will be back in action at Townsville, with a goal of bettering her Australian record of 2.00m.  McDermott will be looking to build on her form that has seen her dominate the domestic season, before she gears up to take on some of the world's best in Europe and at the Tokyo Olympics.

While she wasn’t able to clear 2.00m last week on the Gold Coast, she comfortably jumped the Olympic qualifying standard of 1.96m on her second attempt after eight weeks without competition, highlighting how much more she has to give.

Men’s 100m

One of the highlights on the Townsville program will be the men’s 100m, with Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning (Andrew Murphy) making his return to the track after cementing his spot for Tokyo at the Australian Track & Field Championships. Browning clocked 10.09 (0.4) in bitterly cold conditions in the final and will be looking to see if a new personal best is on the cards in a much warmer climate after a substantial break from competition.

Australia’s next highest ranked male sprinter Jack Hale (Adam Larcom) has recently fallen down five places in world rankings, and with the men’s 4x100m relay team not qualifying for Tokyo last week, it's make or break time for the 23-year-old. This season saw him run 10.21 (1.0), but he’ll need to watch out for Jake Penny (Matt Wade & Mandy Cole), who clocked a season’s best of 10.28 (1.8) two weeks ago, and Jake Doran (Paul di Bella) who has steadily improved his times throughout the domestic season.

Men’s & Women’s Discus

Off the back of his 66.15m PB and qualifier last week, Matt Denny (Ben Thomson) will step back into the throwing circle this weekend. Having battled injury throughout the domestic season, Denny said his qualifier came as a relief last week but he’ll no doubt be looking to see if he can replicate his result again further up north.

Paralympic hopeful Daniel Kirk (F44, Steve Larsson) has amounted seven B qualifiers, putting himself in a good position for selection to his first Australian Paralympic Team, and will be looking to improve on the 51.67m result from the Athletics South Australia Championships in February this year.

Let’s not forget Tokyo-bound Dani Stevens (Denis Knowles) who has been consistently performing this season, following a year of rehabilitation and recovery after a gym accident threatened her career. She has not thrown further than 63.36 since her comeback, but each competition improves her chances of building back towards her 69.64 personal best thrown at the London 2017 World Championships.

Women’s 400m Hurdles

Not once this season have our top 400m hurdlers been able to compete together, but watch out for 13-time national champion Lauren Boden (Matt Beckenham), Sara Klein (Lindsay Watson) and Tokyo qualified Sarah Carli (Melissa Logan) who is returning to competition after suffering a debilitating injury in the gym late last year.

Carli ran the qualifier of 55.09 late last year, but the injury put a startling halt to her Tokyo campaign. She’ll be looking to dust off the cobwebs and show off the work she has put into her recovery and fitness ahead of selection, while two-time Olympian Boden and Olympic hopeful Klein will be looking to bolster their world rankings - 37 and 39 respectively. Boden’s season’s best came in March with a time of 56.20, while Klein will be looking to return to improve upon her season opener of 57.03 after a checkered season.

Men’s & Womens 3000m Steeplechase

Matthew Clarke (Adam Didyk) will be making an attempt here to move back up into a quota qualified position in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase, and with training partner Max Stevens in front of him as pacer, he has his best chance of success.

In the women’s event, a battle will ensue as Paige Campbell (Philo Saunders), Georgia Winkcup (Ben Liddy) and Cara Feain-Ryan (Ben Norton) all push hard for the win. Two weeks ago at the first Oceania Athletics Invitational meet, the three faced off for the first time since the Australian Track & Field Championships, with Feain-Ryan defeating Winkcup, and Campbell unable to finish the event.

Winkcup and Campbell remain within the quota qualified positions for Tokyo but won't be resting on their laurels, with Australian record holder Gregson already selected, and US-based Amy Cashin running a qualifier a few weeks ago at the Stumptown Twilight Meet in Portland. While Feain-Ryan has fallen outside of a quota qualifying position, the second-place getter at the Australian Track & Field Championships has produced the best result of the three over the season, with a speedy 9:38.39, showing that anything is possible once she is on the start line. 

Women’s 100 & 200m

After impressing last week in both the 100m and the 4x100m, sprinter Riley Day (Paul Pearce) will be back racing down the front straight as well as in her pet event, the 200m, where she will look to make a move towards her goal of running 22.5 at the Olympics.  

Others to watch in both races are Monique Quirk (Mark Ladbrook), Bree Masters (Ryan Hoffman), Nana Owusu-Afriye (Tony Marsh), Maddie Coates, and Isis Holt (T35, Paul Pearce) who last week, equaled her world record of 13.37 in the 100m, although in very windy conditions. Naa Anang (Gary Bourne) will also make an appearance in the 100m. 

Men’s & Women’s Javelin Throw

Last weekend on the Gold Coast, Kathryn Mitchell (Uwe Hohn) pulled out a season’s best throw of 63.50 – just 50cm off the automatic qualifier for Tokyo. Her results over the domestic season have been consistent, but she will find herself up against Mackenzie Little (Angus McEntyre) who has been hovering around 60m throughout the season, with a best throw of 60.09 at the Australian Track & Field Championships.

Both Mitchell and Little are firmly in contention for Tokyo, alongside Tokyo-bound world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, all ranked comfortably within quota qualifying positions.

Some big names in javelin line up for the men’s event, with world champion and world record holder Corey Anderson (F38, Des Davis), former junior world champion Nash Lowis (Leslye Muller) and up-and-comer Jackson Hamilton (F13, Morgan Ward) all contesting in Townsville. Anderson has been selected for his first Paralympics already, but will be aiming to near his 58.18 world record, while  Hamilton as thrown a season’s best of 56.04 at nationals, with his next best throw at 54.50 and 53.70.

Women’s Long Jump

A mix of experience and fresh young talent will make this a particularly exciting event. Brooke Stratton (Russell Stratton) will compete for the first time since reaching the qualifying standard of 6.84m at the Australian Track & Field Championships, and while she has had continuous niggles this year stopping her from coming close to her Australian record, she has improved at almost every meet.

Oceania record holder Sarah Walsh (T64, Matt Beckenham) will also make an appearance this weekend, after notching 15 B-qualifiers following her bronze medal at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. Her best performance since has been the 5.49m jump that secured her the record at the Canberra Track Classic and will be looking to near that once again ahead of selection for the Tokyo Paralympics.  

Look out for Tomysha Clark (Renae Clark) who will compete again after representing the Australian Under 20 Team at the Oceania Athletics Invitational Series. Last week she took out the long jump with a leap of 6.49m securing a 20cm personal best and elevating her to fourth on the Australian Under 20 all-time list, only behind three athletes who all proceeded to become Olympians.

Women’s 100m hurdles

Two weeks ago Hannah Jones (Sally Pearson) ran a personal best of 12.91 (0.5) – which was only the second time she ran sub 13. The result moved her to fourth on the Australian all-time list as she aims to clock the qualifying time ahead of Tokyo.

Up against Jones will be some of Australia’s fastest ever hurdlers, Brianna Beahan (Ryan Purcell), Abbie Taddeo (Penny Gillies) and Celeste Mucci (Darren Clark) who are all ranked closely on the world rankings list.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 18/6/2021