Weekend Review | Records, titles and a Tokyo qualifier

Australia’s domestic athletics season is entering its prime for the 2020/21 season, with the competition heating up across the country ahead of the business end of the season. 

Hobart’s Run The Bridge hosted a number of Australia’s elite distance runners, with Jack Rayner (Nic Bideau) and Genevieve Gregson (Nic Bideau) both scorching their way around the challenging 10 kilometre course, breaking the men’s and women’s course records en route to victory. 

Rayner was challenged by Liam Adams and Joel Tobin-White (Nic Bideau), before an injection of pace saw the renowned road runner run away from the field in a time of 28:28, with Adams and Tobin-White finishing in second and third place respectively. 

Just a few minutes down was Gregson who finished in a slick 32:21 ahead of Ellie Pashley (Julian Spence) - clocking 32:26 to edge out Sinead Diver (Nic Bideau) in 32:29. The hotly contested finish was a strong showing for Australian distance running in the women’s ranks - with all three putting in improved performances since Zatopek:10 in January. 

Also running 10km this weekend was Lisa Weightman (Dick Telford), who finished the Sole Motive Sandy Point race in a staggering time of 31:39. The result was a 9 second personal best for the two-time Olympian.

The action also rolled on at Weekend 2 of the Victorian State Championships, rounding out a successful meet. 

Dhruv Rodrigues Chico has made himself a household name on the domestic sprinting scene this season, taking the scalp of Jack Hale (Adam Larcom) over 200m after already claiming the 100m title in a time of 10.45 last week. What brewed as one of the races of the day did not disappoint - with the pair locking horns down the home straight and finishing in 20.85 and 20.96 respectively (-0.9). The win capped off a rich vein of form for Rodrigues Chico, featuring two personal bests and two wins in state championship finals. 

The photo finish technology was required to separate competitors in the finish of the Women’s 200m, with Monica Brennan (Chris Brennan) being crowned Victorian champion in a time of 24.07 (+1.6) in front of Ebony Lane (Matt Carter) in 24.09 and Alexia Loizou in 24.10. Brennan proved too strong in the home straight for the Mornington Peninsula duo, taking home her fifth state title. 

Michal Burian (Nick Baltas) launched the javelin 63.02m in what was a significant personal best and Paralympic A-Qualifier, with the F44 athlete showing no signs of an achilles injury in his first competition back. Burian took out the Men’s Javelin to etch his name into the history books as the 2020/21 Victorian Champion. 

Alex Gruen (Tim O’Shaughnessy) stormed home in the final stretch of the Men’s 800m to secure his first state title, after a third place finish in last month’s Victorian Mile Championships, it was. Gruen bided his time behind the leaders before bursting to the front to clinch an emphatic victory in a time of 1:52.14. 

The Women’s 800m witnessed a tight finish Box Hill’s Ellie Sanford and South Melbourne’s Gigi Maccagnini (Peter Fortune) - with Sanford eventually prevailing by 0.03 seconds and claiming the state title in a time of 2:06.45. 

Declan Tingay (Steven Tingay) and Jemima Montag (Brent Vallance) stole the show in the 5000m walk at the Victorian Championships, with Tingay flying around the 12.5 laps to clock 18:56.77 and move his way into eighth position on the Australian all time rankings. Montag walked a 41 second personal best in a time of 20:51.03 to become the second fastest Australian of all time. Will Thompson (Brent Vallance) also put in a strong showing, clocking 19:42.42 to narrowly miss the Australian U20 record. 

It was another good week for World U20 Qualifiers, with Amy Bunnage (Tim O’Shaughnessy) clocking 9:19.00 over 3000m, meanwhile  in Adelaide it was Mackenzie Mielczarek and Salumi Roberts who registered World U20 Qualifiers on Sunday - throwing the javelin 51.91m and 51.11m respectively. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse
Posted: 1/3/2021
Photo with thanks to Hobart Run The Bridge and Epic Events Marketing