Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Alana Boyd and Family Carving History at the games
New Delhi – After winning women’s pole vault, Alana Boyd from Australia has succeeded in carving out a unique piece of history at Delhi Commonwealth Games. The success at women’s pole vault has made 26 years old Alana Boyd join her mother, Denise who bagged
gold in 200m in 1978, and her father and former coach Ray, as individual commonwealth games champions. This happened for the first time in the history of the commonwealth games that two parents and their daughter won the feat in track and field while competing
at a major international sports event.
The victory achieved by Boyd in women’s pole vault with 4.40m while outdoing Marianna Zachariadi from Cyprus contributed one of the three gold medals that the Australian contingent claimed on Tuesday. Besides Alana Boyd, it was Jarrod Bannister, the self
coached athlete who succeeded in making it to the gold for his best men’s javelin throw of 81.7m. The last gold of the day came to the Australian side when its team succeeded in setting a new record in the men’s 4x400m relay, the team was defending its title
which it achieved in Melbourne four years ago.
For Australian side, on Tuesday’s play, a dramatic episode was observed as Sally Pearson who had won her gold in 100m hurdle race was eventually drafted into women’s 4x400 relay for running the anchor leg. However, amid crossing the finishing line in fifth
place, the girl collapsed on the track in agony. She had to be helped by her rest of the team members before getting the medical treatment. Pearson, while commenting over what she did in the relay said that it was perhaps the most bizarre feeling she had ever
felt in her life. Sharing a somewhat similar incident in the past, she said that she had had lactic acid before, but the girl felt ridiculous about that too. She further said that at Delhi commonwealth games, it was perhaps the hardest event for her to compete
in.
Completely contrary to what Pearson did, Boyd made the pole vault look rather easier for a tight competition. She easily managed to clear her initial three heights of 4.10m, 4.25m, and 4.40m right at the first attempts and felt no difficulty in bagging the
gold. However, Boyd and her rival Zachariadi both could not make it at 4.55m in three consecutive attempts made by them.
For bronze medal in pole vault, Kate Dennison of England and Carly Dockendorf and Kelsie Henry from Canada tied with 4.25m on countback.
To see their daughter joining them as commonwealth games title holders, both Boyd’s parents were present at Delhi Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. With context of her parents watching her performance, Alana Boyd said that the gold medal certainly was there for
the taking. She further said that in order to make it to the gold, she had to have a really good month of preparation which was, according to her, probably the best month of preparation she had ever had.
Boyd told the media that though she remained unable to transfer herself into the height that she wanted to, but she was happy that she had finally done what she had to do, she cleared the first attempts and went back to countback and that was it, she won
the gold medal.
On other hand, for Bannister the javelin star, being without a coach for several months did not worry him at all as he completely dominated the competition from start to end. His initial three throws were huge as they could have been enough to bag the gold
medal against Stuart Farquhar from New Zealand and Kashinath Naik from India.
Commenting upon his success, Bannister said that he had been suffering from the back injury which was causing fair bit of pain for him throughout the whole camp, however, he said, he was happy with the results. He further said that he was not trained for
last two weeks and had been literally on ice to get ready for the competition.
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