Australian Junior Athletics Championships underway in Sydney
The city of Sydney, Australia saw the start of the Australian Junior Athletics Championships on Thursday, 10 March at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre. The five day event had its opening ceremony on 10 March and will conclude tomorrow on 14 March. Approximately
2000 local junior athletes have participated from all over Australia.
The well organized and advertised event has had a boon in attendance and the number of spectators has tried to make it the largest national track and field gathering. Australian Athletics Transition Manager, Nick Bowden, said when asked about organizing
the arrangements, “The Australian Junior first and foremost celebrate the burgeoning depth of talent in athletics across the county.” He further added, “they also provide a clear link between underage competition and senior representation because all those
taking part are members of clubs in their home state and that’s great news for the continuing growth of the sport.”
The junior athletes were divided into categories based on their age. The groups went from under 14 to the age of 20. All school champions were allowed to participate but athletes who had performed well at the Western Australia All Schools Championships in
October last year, had an advantage in qualification for the event because they face no further inquiries. All contestants are placed in groups according to categories like age, distance, height and other organization policies.
In the junior championship, 17-year-old Nicholas Hough broke the record in the 110 metres hurdles by finishing in 10.40 seconds. He has broken the record set by Mitch Tysoe. Hough expressed his delight after the victory, “Although not technically very sound,
my race was fast, it was the first time I have gone sub-14 seconds and that was the aim for this season.” He also shared his experience, “I’ve only run about seven or eight races at this height so I’ve been getting used to them, but I think after this race
I can say that it is starting to work.”
Dane Bird-Smith also breaks the record of Nathan Deakes in the Under 20 10,000 metre race, where he clocked 41:02:08. He said after his achievement that, “Getting Australian record tonight was my goal, to be honest at 7 kilometres I thought I would miss
it but I picked up my pace towards the end and came away with a ripper result.”
In the Under 20 womens 100 metre race, Carla Williams covered the distance in 11.76 seconds and won the gold. She has been trained by her father and she commented, “That was so cool, my Dad is my coach and we have trained so hard for so long and to now head
home with gold is awesome.”
Today is the second last day of the Australian Junior Athletics Championship and will conclude tomorrow. Please stay tuned to bettor.com for more results.
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