WEEKEND REVIEW | Mitrevski leaps forward in Hengelo for a podium finish
Published Mon 07 Jun 2021
Just 22 days separate Australia’s Olympic hopefuls from the end of the Tokyo qualifying period, and while our home-based athletes took advantage of the Oceania Athletics Invitational Series on the Gold Coast, our track and field stars abroad pushed their cause at the FBK Games in Hengelo and at the Music City Distance Carnival in Nashville.
In The Netherlands, Chris Mitrevski (John Boas) impressed with a season’s best performance of 8.04m (2.0) in the men’s long jump, finishing third behind Frenchman Augustin Bey (8.16m) and South Africa’s Ruswahl Samaai, landed a jump of 8.10m.
While Mitrevski's jump is still short of the 8.22 needed for automatic qualification, the result will significantly boost his ranking points average as he looks to move himself into a quota qualified position before the end of the month. Mitrevski will compete again in Turku this week and will be aiming for consistency, with another 1220 point jump to keep his Tokyo dreams alive.
Catriona Bisset (Peter Fortune) toed the line in the 800m, to produce a 2:01.85 for a fifth place finish. While Bisset’s season’s best sits at 1:59.12, the result is consistent with her times over the 2021 domestic season, reflecting much promise as she dusts off the cobwebs and warms up for more competition in Europe ahead of her first Olympics in Tokyo.
Continuing his progress towards Tokyo was Brandon Starc (Alex Stewart) who cleared 2.20m for a second place finish, behind Belarussian Maksim Nedasekau, won with a result of 2.24m.
Also in Hengelo were Genevieve Gregson (Nic Bideau), Isobel Batt-Doyle (Nic Bideau) and Rose Davies (Scott Westcott) racing in the 10,000m, each with high hopes to meet the Tokyo qualifying standards of 31:25.00. While the event saw Sifan Hassan break the world record on home soil, strong results did not follow for the Australian trio who all found themselves in a compromising position after officials left the world record time on the clock during the race, and lap counter at zero as other athletes attempted to finish the race.
With the lap counter reading nil, each of the Australians stopped racing for almost 30 seconds, before realising the mistake. Gregson was able to finish the race in 9th position, with a result of 32:11.89, while Batt-Doyle finished 12th with 32:52.25. Davies did not finish the race.
While the blunder damaged any chance of success for Gregson, the 2019 Australian Team captain was on track to finish the race with in approximately 31:45; a significantly lower time than her personal best of 32:06.32 from Zatopek:10 earlier this year.
All the way in the US, the rising stars of Australian middle distance continued to shine at the Music City Distance Carnival in Nashville.
Heidi See (Terrence Mahon) demonstrated consistency in the 1500m, with a result of 4:08.54 for a new season’s best, while Lauren Ryan clocked 4:14.21 to finish 10th.
Ed Trippas (Jason Vigilante) continued his quest to rise the ranks of Australian steeplechase, finishing first on the podium with result of 8:30.89, just over four seconds short of the personal best he set last week in Portland.
Jack Anstey placed fifth in the 1500m, crossing the line in 3:40.34.
By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 7/6/2021
