The Youth Olympic Games athletics competition gets underway Today on Tuesday (17th August)with 17 Australians in action over the six days at Bishan Stadium in Singapore. Led by Australian coach and Sydney 2000 Olympian Matt Beckenham there is a sensational group of Athletes competing which are strong across the range of disciplines especially the technical events like hurdles, jumps and throws which is a credit to Athletics Australia and their focus.
Those believed to be successful based on recent performances would be Liz Parnov (pole vault), Nick Hough (110mH), Damien Birkenhead (shot put), Elliot Lang (javelin) and Raheen Williams (400m hurdles).
Parnov, 16, is the national open champion and her 4.40m clearance at nationals secured her Commonwealth Games selection. The Team flagbearer comes in ranked behind Angelica Bengtsson of Sweden who has a season best of 4.47m.
Hough qualified in the 100m, 200m and hurdles however athletes are limited to one individual event so he chose the hurdles. He has the second fastest season and personal best time (13.40) of the 17 man field and he has been in personal best shape before leaving Australia.
In the rarely run 1000m Jenny Blundell has her eye on Georgie Clarke's national record of 2:43.65 set just before Clarke made her Olympic debut in Sydney. Blundell has been running PBs in training and loving the Singapore experience.
The concept behind the Youth Olympic Games is to give athletes top international experiences in competition with the added distractions of an Olympic Village and environment.
"The key task for our athletes is to deal with competing on the world stage and produce personal best performances," Beckenham said.
Below is a list of Track & Field Athletes whom represented the Australian Youth Olympic Team and their individual result:
(Victorians are set in bold)
Damien Birkinhead (17, VIC, shot put) Qual: 3rd FINAL: 4th
Monica Brennan (16, VIC, 200m) Qual: 3rd FINAL: 8th
Jenny Blundell (16, NSW, 1000m) Qual: 4th FINAL: 5th
Brodie Cross (16, VIC, pole vault) Qual: 12th FINAL B: 3rd
Luke Greco (17, VIC, 400m) Qual: 4th FINAL C: 2nd
Grant Gwynne (17, QLD, 2000m steeplechase) Qual: 11th FINAL B: 4th
Nicholas Hough (16, NSW, 110m hurdles) Qual: 1st FINAL: 1st
Michelle Jenneke (17, NSW, 100m Hurdles) Qual: 2nd FINAL: 2nd
Kurt Jenner (17, NSW, long jump) Qual: 9th FINAL B: 2nd
Elliot Lang (16, NSW, javelin) Qual: 9th FINAL B: 5th
Demii Maher-Smith (15, QLD, long jump) Qual: 11th FINAL B: 3rd
Liz Parnov (16, WA, pole vault) Qual: 5th FINAL: 2nd
Prabhjot Rai (17, VIC, shot put) Qual: 10th FINAL B: 4th
Brandon Starc (16, NSW, high jump) Qual: 1st FINAL: 2nd
Blake Steele (17, SA, 10000m race walk) FINAL: 11th
Rick Whitehead (17, VIC, 1000m) Qual: 7th FINAL B: 2nd
Raheen Williams (17, WA, 400m hurdles) Qual: 3rd FINAL: 6th
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