WAIS Track and Field Athletes Star on Home Soil

WAIS national champions Ben Offereins and Kim Mickle headlined the WA action at last weekend’s Australian Athletics Tour Final in Perth, with wins in the men’s 400m and women’s javelin respectively.

Offereins geared up for his Australian championship defence with his first sub 46 second run of the season, after stopping the clock at 45.85 to win comfortably ahead of Sean Wroe (46.26) and Kevin Moore (46.76).

Offereins has been improving with each competition over the domestic season and is considered a warm favourite to win a third national crown at this month’s national titles.

Kim Mickle showed no signs of relinquishing her vice like grip on the Australian women’s javelin crown after winning at Perth’s Tour Final and collecting the throws division championship ahead of Australian Flame teammate Danny Samuels.

Mickle’s best throw of 59.46m was more than enough to secure top billing in the javelin field but the 25 year old predicted even bigger things for Melbourne.

“I was feeling amazing coming into tonight and although the big throws didn’t come I felt awesome and think big things will follow at Nationals in Melbourne,” Mickle said.

“I’m not in it for the money but the $10,000 (prize money for Tour Championship win) tonight is a real bonus, it gives me a chance to build as well as I can in a world champs year and fingers crossed some big results will follow.”

Boasting a final point score of 25, Mickle’s performances were enough for the West Australian to defeat world discus champion Dani Samuels (second, 23 points) and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dale Stevenson (third, 22 points) for the title.

With Athletics Australia