Australia’s Track and Field Stars Compete in Perth
Australia’s best track and field talent converged in Perth on the weekend for the 2013 Perth Track Classic.
Highlighting results out of the Western Australian Institute of Sport, was another win in the javelin for Kim Mickle, a season’s best in the pole vault for Liz Parnov and a huge personal best for Cruz Hogan in the men’s javelin.
Having thrown a World Championship A-Qualifier last week in Sydney, Mickle backed up with a comfortable win in the women’s javelin in front of her home crowd, taking victory with her third throw, with a distance of 60.11m.
“Any competition with a six as the first number is a good result. We’ve taken the foot off the pedal these past two comps and to see some bigger throws as a consequence is a good result,” Mickle said.
“Sydney last week was better than I could have expected at this time of the year, that was where I wanted to find myself at Nationals and that’s exciting. The Nationals is the next stop for me and hopefully my throws after some tough training will be out somewhere around my PB.”
Mickle’s young training partner Cruz Hogan had a night to remember, heaving a massive new personal best of 73.27m – registering over two and half metres on top of his previous mark.
The Grant Ward trained athlete finished fourth overall, with Tasmanian Hamish Peacock victorious via a 76.31m throw.
Liz Parnov stepped up her preparations for this year’s national championships, after clearing 4.40m in the women’s pole vault – a season’s best for Olympic and Commonwealth Games representative.
Parnov’s former WAIS training partner Alana Boyd registered a B-Qualifier of 4.50m in taking victory, whilst Vicky Parnov and Nina Kennedy of WAIS finished fourth and fifth respectively following clearances of 4.10m
Boyd admitted she’d hoped to jump higher in familiar conditions, but suggested better form was not far away.
“It’s another B-Qualifier but I wanted more, it was a little bit rusty to be honest. My preparation hasn’t been great considering tough training conditions at home but I felt good on the runway and I’m sure my velocity and other factors will come together in the next few weeks,” Boyd said.
“Theoretically what I have done to date and a win at Nationals would be enough for selection to Moscow. That’s not good enough in my opinion though, I jumped higher last year and I am in no way worried that it isn’t around the corner.”
There was disappointment for the Perth crowd in the men’s long jump, after the much hyped show-down between last year’s Olympic gold and silver medallists failed to properly materialise.
Great Britain’s Greg Rutherford – who won gold in London – took victory at the WA Athletics Stadium with a leap of 7.89m, but Mitchell Watt – Olympic silver medallist – was forced to withdraw with calf soreness, following a red flag on his first and only attempt.
There was further GB success in Perth, with Steve Lewis winning the men’s pole vault with a 5.60m jump. US athlete Brad Walker claimed second position in 5.50m, whilst 2008 Olympic Champion Steve Hooker of Australia cleared 5.35m for third.
– with Athletics Australia