Mickle Eyeing Anniversary to Remember
WAIS javelin star Kim Mickle is hoping for an anniversary to remember at this weekend’s IAAF Melbourne World Challenge.
A year on from breaking the Australian women’s record – Mickle is hoping to kick-start a 2015 campaign that has been partially hand-braked by virus and Achilles issues.
“My body is feeling much better now. As well as the few issues that I had with my Achilles, it looks like I was battling a bit of a virus that made my energy levels shocking so it was really important for my longer term preparation that I had to, unfortunately, skip some of the domestic competitions to get it all right. It has been put down to a bit of fatigue through the November and December period and just trying to push through it all,” Mickle said.
Mickle opted to miss the Brisbane and Adelaide legs of the Australian Track Classic series in order to get her body right with the Australian Athletics Championships on the horizon.
In her one Track Classic meet for the year, Mickle comfortably recorded an A-qualifier for this year’s IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing in registering a winning throw of 63.87m.
At last year’s World Challenge, Mickle achieved a career milestone by launching a personal best of 66.83m in Melbourne. This year, Mickle will pit her talents against the best of the Commonwealth region and beyond, with Australian teammates Kelsey-Lee Roberts and Kathryn Mitchell joining South African champion Sunette Viljoen and Chinese stars Li Zhang and Lingwei Li in a high calibre field.
“To have the top four athletes from the Commonwealth throwing is super exciting. I can’t think of a time when we have all medallists from a major championship throwing in the same event in Australia the summer after it happened. I can’t wait to get amongst it and defend my position at the top,” Mickle said.
“It’s crazy to think that it’ll be a one year reunion of my Australian record this weekend. To be honest I have no idea what I can throw out there considering where I am coming from injury wise, but I am so looking forward to competing in Melbourne again. I’d absolutely love to have a crack at throwing the record again and with the other girls there to push me it’ll be a great opportunity to do so.”
Of the other competitors, Viljoen is the highest ranked and has long been a sparring partner for Mickle, with the South African winning gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, and taking bronze at the 2011 World Championships. This weekend in Melbourne will remarkably be the first time she has competed in Australia.
“It will be my first time competing in Australia when I come to Melbourne and the field is awesome,” she said. “It’s the perfect way to start my season, with some strong throwers around me all pushing for the win and hopefully I can get a qualifier for the World Championships when I’m down there,” Viljoen added.
“I have great memories of Glasgow last year, sharing the podium with Kim and Kelsey. Here’s hoping I can edge them out on the weekend to come away with the win, but we are going to have to wait and see how it plays out. Any of six girls could realistically win the event which is fantastic.”
Roberts opened her season with a 63.78m throw to win at the Canberra Track Classic. The performance is her second best ever, and she has backed up the performance with two third place performances in Perth (WA) and Adelaide (SA). Mitchell was second behind Roberts in the nation’s capital with a performance of 63.70m, more than two metres beyond the qualifying mark for Beijing 2015.
The winner at the Adelaide Track Classic was Li with a throw of 63.19m. The mark was her biggest since the National Games in Shenyang (CHN) in late 2013 and is within striking distance of her personal best of 65.11m. Zhang has a career best of 65.47m from the Asian Games in 2014, where she won gold.
– with AthleticsAus