WAIS Stars Shine Bright Under Lights of New Stadium
Western Australian Institute of Sport athletes have enjoyed a highly successful weekend of track and field action after the Australian Athletics Championships were held in Perth for the first time since 1988.
WAIS athletes secured national titles in the 400m, 200m, pole vault and javelin with eight athletes named in the Australian Commonwealth Games team at an official team announcement in Perth today.
WAIS sprinter Jody Henry was the first to earn her place in the team for New Delhi after burning out of the blocks in the women’s 400m. Henry rounded the final bend ahead of her competitors and controlled the final 100m to finish second behind Ireland’s Joanne Cuddihy, claiming her first national championship in the process.
In a superb showing from the Lyn Foreman coached dasher, Henry added the 200m national title to her collection showing no signs of fatigue from her efforts in the 400m.
Henry’s WAIS training partner and fellow Foreman coached athlete Ben Offereins prevailed in the men’s 400m sprint in one of the events of the meet. Offereins was too quick off the mark in setting an A-Qualifier of 45.17secs and claimed his second national title after beating the likes of John Steffenson and Sean Wroe to the finish line.
“It’s exactly what I wanted, I’m pretty happy with the time, it’s my second fastest ever so I can’t complain,” Offereins said.
“I knew that the guys would be inside me so the best thing I could do was to go out as hard as I could and hopefully change their race plan and make them come with me.”
Offereins, who won his maiden national 400m crown in 2005, said missing last year’s national championships through injury and going on to score a berth on the Berlin world championships 4x400m relay team had turned his career around.
“I was starting to waste my years, I’d won nationals at 18 and I’d been another five years without doing anything so I really changed my mindset then,” he said.
“I was actually sitting at work and I saw that they had left a spot open for the world champs relay so I just messaged (my coach) straight away and said, ‘world champs relay, let’s do it’ and she said, ‘if you’re ready to do the work, do all the one percenters, then I’m there behind you,’ so I committed to her, she committed to me and from there it’s just been a progression.”
Offereins will contest his first IAAF Diamond League meet in Shanghai, China on May 23, 2010.
Steffensen was full of praise for the new national title-holder and predicted big things were ahead for the green and gold 4x400m relay team.
“I told my coach (Ben’s) one to watch, he’s a wicked kid and a great runner. I’m looking forward to racing with him and giving those Americans hell,” he said.
The women’s pole vault competition had the crowd on edge, with 15 year-old WAIS athelte Liz Parnov making history by claiming victory on count-back over training partner Alana Boyd – who also cleared 4.40m.
In encouraging signs for the future of the program, Amanda Bisk has also been named on the Commonwealth Games team, after she finished third with a best clearance of 4.20m. Fellow WAIS scholarship holders Vicky Parnov (4.10m) and Ellen Pearce (4.00m) were also in action under the stadium lights.
“I can’t even describe it, I’m just so overwhelmed and happy and grateful to my family and my coach, I don’t know what to say,” Liz Parnov said.
“It’s always been one of my goals and dreams and… once I jumped 4.30m the first time I just knew that it was in me.”
WAIS athlete and 2009 Berlin World Championships team member Kim Mickle stamped her authority on the javelin event, picking up a fifth national title with an A-Qualifying throw of 60.66m, to secure her ticket for this year’s Commonwealth Games.
Mickle who is training by WAIS field coach Grant Ward, produced a consistent performance, gaining further distance with each throw as she continued her comeback from injury, which plagued much of the summer athletics season for the 25 year-old.
Reigning Commonwealth, Olympic, world and world indoor champion Steve Hooker added national honours to the list of current titles in his collection, taking out gold in front of his home crowd with a leap of 5.80m.
Despite all the talk being of Hooker’s bid to break the world record of 6.14m, Hooker was unable to pass his final height attempt at 6.01m, but the 27 year-old will have the Commonwealth Games to look forward to in October and a string of IAAF Golden League meets before hand to try again for Sergey Bubka’s record.
“It was good conditions to jump high today so I’m a little bit disappointed that I didn’t jump as high as I maybe could have,” Hooker said.
“Every time I go out there I’m trying to jump as hard as I can, I’m not worried about who I’m jumping against, it’s just trying to do the best jump that I can do and hopefully that gets me to big heights.”