Bronze for Morse in Australian University Games Hammer
30 Sep 2008
Eastern Suburbs athlete Stuart Morse has kicked off the 2008/2009 track & field season with a last ditch effort to take bronze at the Australian University Games in Melbourne today.
Representing the University of Tasmania, Morse was sitting in 6th place going into the final round, before he let fly with a competition best of 41.29m, enough to elevate him into the bronze medal position. The effort was 99cm short of his personal best, set only last month in a local winter competition.
"I went into the competition with the goal of achieving a medal, I wasn't happy with 4 consecutive out of sector throws after the first and knew that I had to get one out there to come up from sixth spot on that last throw to achieve my goal. I was pleased to snatch a medal position on my final throw," Morse said.
Morse wasn’t the only Tasmanian in action today at Olympic Park. Three athletes toed the line in the Men’s 1500m, with Athletics Tasmania board member Sam Morey the pick of the bunch, running a new personal best of 4:23.50 in his heat. Fellow board member Aaron Humphrey had his first race after returning from a stress fracture, to run 4:24.50. Clearly losing a large amount of his fitness from the injury, Humphrey ran on memory for the first kilometre, mixing it with the best university students in the country, before fading in his heat. North West athlete/student Daniel Reeves ran 4:25.00 in his heat.
The three 1500m runners will next combine with Ben Groom to form a medley relay team (200m (Reeves), 200m (Humphrey), 400m (Groom), 800m (Morey).
Humphrey will return to the track tomorrow to compete in the 5000m race walk, an event that he is a former national medallist in. While Kristin Legrand will compete in the 5000m run later today.
Over 40 universities from Australia and nearing nations are participating in the annual Australian University Games which began yesterday.
