Peacock Pride of Pacific
05 Dec 2008
Huw Peacock produced a personal best, Pacific School Games record and brought home gold in the 16 years boys hammer this morning in Canberra.
The AT/TIS Development Squad member had the competition won after his second throw of 68.14m, but then his final throw of 69.88m broke the previous record of 65.79.
The performance was also his third world youth qualifier in less than a month, which shows the awesome form the dynamo is in. His third round effort, although a foul, was unofficially around the 71m mark, which shows a 70m+ throw is imminent this season.
His older brother Hamish took his second silver medal of the Championships, also in the hammer, which made it two medals from two evens. Yesterday, he won Tasmania’s second silver medal in the nations capital.
Competing in the 18/19 years discus, the TIS athlete threw 49.29m to finish 2 ½ metres short of Shane Loveridge from NSW. Peacock, the ever perfectionist was dissatisfied with his efforts, given his personal best would have won the competition.
“I didn’t throw as well as I would have liked today, but discus isn’t my main event, so given that, silver isn’t so bad,” he said.
Hamish Peacock will next compete in the hammer, after the unfortunate news that he was forced to withdraw from his preferred event, the javelin and shot put. An elbow injury sustained at the world junior championships in July hasn’t repaired quickly enough, requiring the team flag bearer to withdraw from the high velocity events.
The following occurred yesterday
Natalea Smith smashed her 800m personal best to clock 2:17.58 to comfortably place second in her heat of the 14 girls and automatically qualify for the final. Her training partner and silver medallist in the steeple also produced a massive PB in the 800m, clocking 2:18.87, in the under 15 girls 800m, but it wasn’t enough to progress to the final.
Our state will be represented in the 18/19 year mens 400m final, thanks to Callum James producing a solid 51.31sec in heat two. The Launceston College student has run faster this year and a new personal best in the final will have him battling out for a podium finish.
Prospect Highs Joseph Lowe ran a sensational new personal best in the 200m, clocking 22.64sec, making the 15 year old the third fastest Tasmanian over half a lap in 2008. Later in the day he lined up in the semi final, finishing third and qualifying for the final, before an official revealed he had stepped on the line and he was consequently disqualified. The youngster handled it well and has now shifted his focus to the 100m in which he will chase another slick time today.
The 17 years boys 4 x 100m executed a sensational race and thanks to a fast finishing James Hay who caught a fading New Zealand team in the final 20m, took second behind China in their heat to progress through to the final. The team of Cameron Cranfield, Chris McConnell, Jarred Gilroy and Hay, ran 43.84sec to be the 5th fastest qualifiers from the heats.
After a re-programming of the timetable, the final was then scheduled for 8:25pm last night, where the boys replicated their efforts from the heat to finish 5th in the final.
The 16 year boys team of Tyler Heron, Shaun O’Boyle, Joseph Lowe and Tyler Bailey also qualified for the final, where they finished 8th in 45.49 after a slightly faster heat time of 45.06sec.
Max Waldron had a good day out in his first Tasmanian team representation, qualifying 5th fastest for the 200m final after clocking 23.57sec.
Tasmania’s track & field medal tally midway through day 6 is 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze.
Live results are online at http://www.athletics.com.au/community/statsdata/live_results
Competition continues until Saturday.
