Riley's Big Day | Day Four Review
Published Mon 02 Aug 2021
The day after Sunday is normally Monday but today it was Riley Day as the ‘Beaudesert Bullet’ served it up to the world’s best over 200m, whilst Hall and Hull put on a clinic and Steve Solomon was valiant in defeat.
Riley Day (Paul Pearce) made her Olympic debut in the heats of the 200m where she ran 22.94 to progress to the semi-finals, with the race taking its toll on the 21-year-old who appeared exhausted post-race.
But her plan for the semi-final was simple.
“Just floor it,” she said.
Floor it she did. Day stormed home to cross fourth in her semi-final, clocking a new personal best of 22.56 in the process to finish 12th overall at her maiden Olympic Games. The performance also saw her eclipse the great Nova Perris as the eighth fastest Australian woman in history over the distance.
“Twelfth overall is not too shabby for my first Olympics at 21. I’m really happy with it overall but it is a bit of a punch in the guts,” she said.
“It’s a massive confidence booster knowing that I can be up there with the best girls in the world, it’s really promising for the future and it makes me really want to work hard for next year.”
Day stayed relaxed throughout the encounter and executed her race plan to perfection, demonstrating her trademark strength over the final 50-metres to topple some of the strongest women in the world over the distance – including the USA’s Jenna Prandine.
Although satisfied with the performance, the driven sprinter says that coming within reach of the Olympic final at such a young age has only increased her motivation going forward.
“I want to be the best and I’m going to stop at nothing to be the best. My coach Paul and my strength coach Chris work tirelessly to get me to be where I am so everything goes to them here,” she said.
“The support has been overwhelming. I am so grateful for everyone that has wished me luck or congratulated me, it’s just been incredible,” she said.
Australian co-captain Steve Solomon (Penny Gillies) was set the challenge of backing up his blistering 400m personal best of 44.94 from the heats in the semi-final – a challenging prospect considering his interrupted preparation.
Solomon stopped the clock in an exceptional 45.15 to finish in third place of his semi-final and 13th place overall, a performance that he says he is happy with despite conceding his goal was to make the final.
“I wanted to make the final and I believed that I could. I executed well I just needed to run a little harder into the top turn but I’m still very happy to be in personal best shape,” he said.
Widely considered a great leader and contributor to Australian athletics, Solomon was quick to turn the attention to the team’s performance in the early stages of the athletics program at this year’s Olympic Games.
“We are having a phenomenal championship as a team, which is tremendously rewarding. I think it’s the right momentum that our team needs – it’s our largest team and it’s a very young team and we’re going to have great results which gives me a lot of joy,” he said.
“It’s got a great feel to it. We’re now looking for those medals; seeing is believing and the more times we can see it as a group, the more belief we can have in ourselves,” he said.
Earlier in the day it was the dynamic duo of Linden Hall and Jessica Hull (Pete Julian) who delivered clinical performances in their respective 1500m heats, both progressing through to the semi-finals.
Hull was particularly impressive when safely navigating her heat to finish in second place and a time of 4:05.28 – a tactically perfect performance during which she covered the moves of her competitors to qualify with ease.
Hall raced in her preferred position near the lead of the race to clock 4:02.27 to be the third women across the line, with the first six through to the semi-finals. The Australian record holder was forced to work over the final lap after being pressured by some of the world’s best metric milers, mustering enough over the final 200-metres to find her way to her second Olympic semi-final.
Georgia Griffith (Stephen Ellinghaus) made her Olympic debut in the first heat of the 1500m, finishing in 14th place in a time of 4:14.43. Griffith endured a wretched lead-up to the Games to earn her position in the team – a testament to her character and resilience.
The rain made it a challenging night for the women’s pole vault qualifying, with Nina Kennedy (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) and Elizaveta Parnova (Paul Burgess and James Fitzpatrick) braving the conditions.
Kennedy delivered a clutch third attempt clearance at 4.40m to survive an early scare, before failing to clear 4.55m as her maiden Olympic campaign drew to a close. Parnova suffered a similar fate after clearing 4.25m but unable to rise over 4.40m.
TUESDAY 3rd AUGUST:
Morning session -
10:05am: Men’s 1500m Heat 1 - Oliver Hoare
10:16am: Men’s 1500m Heat 2 - Jye Edwards
10:20am: Women’s Javelin Qualifying Group A - Mackenzie Little
10:27am: Men’s 1500m Heat 3 - Stewart McSweyn
10:53am: Women’s 400m Heat 2 - Bendere Oboya
11:50am: Women’s Long Jump Final - Brooke Stratton
11:50am: Women’s Javelin Qualifying Group B - Kelsey-Lee Barber, Kathryn Mitchell
Night Session -
8:20pm: Men’s Pole Vault Final - Kurtis Marschall
8:26pm: Men’s 110m Hurdles Heat 2 - Nick Hough
8:56pm: Men’s 5000m Heat 1 - David McNeill
9:16pm: Men’s 5000m Heat 2 - Morgan McDonald, Patrick Tiernan
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 2/08/2021
