Parnov to Lead Athletics Atars to Youth Olympics

Australia’s track and field athletes have certainly been producing on the world stage in recent years. The four medals (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were backed up with a record 2 gold and 2 bronze at the 2009 World Championships.

The future continues to look bright, with the Australian Olympic Committee today confirming the selection of 10 outstanding athletes for the first Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore in August.

The five boys and five girls nominated by Athletics Australia are all under-18 national champions in their events and have demonstrated great form and champion qualities this season.

Pole vault prodigy Liz Parnov will lead the Australian athletics charge in Singapore and later in the year she will also compete at the Commonwealth Games in India. The 16-year-old won the National Open title with apersonal best of 4.40m in April.

Parnov comes from amazing pole vaulting pedigree and is surrounded by it everyday. She is the daughter of Alex who himself was an outstanding jumper and now better known as the coach of world, Olympic, world indoor and Commonwealth Games champion Steve Hooker.

Her older sister Vicky is also an Australian pole vaulter, her aunt is Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva and her grandmother is Natalya Pechonkina who won Olympic bronze for the USSR in the women’s 400m at the 1968 Games. She and her family moved from Russia to Australia in 1996.

– AOC