Australian Championships Day 8: McDermott and Hull, Worlds and Commonwealth bound

2 April 2022

Australian Championships Day 8: McDermott and Hull, Worlds and Commonwealth bound

On day eight of the Chemist Warehouse Australian Track and Field Championships NSW pair Nicola McDermott and Jessica Hull won national titles and secured their selection for the World Championships and nomination for the Commonwealth Games.

Women’s 5000m – simply the best

In probably the race of the championships, but certainly the highest standard event statistically of the Australian Championships, Jessica Hull sprinted home for a comfortable win in the women’s 5000m championship. (see below for the race statistics).

The race was paced by NSW’s new marathon star Eloise Wellings to 2200m reached in 6:20 minutes. As Eloise retired from the race, the lead pack of eight athletes quickly became four comprising Jessica, Izzy Batt-Doyle, Carli Thackery (GBR) and Rose Davies. But at the bell Jessica made a decisive move, clocking 66 seconds for the last lap and going on to win in 15:06.13 minutes. Rose, seeking to add a 5000m title to her 3000m and 10,000m wins in 2022, ran a 66 seconds last lap herself, and won the silver medal in a PB and world championships qualifying time of 15:07.49 with GBR’s Calli Thackery third and Victoria’s Natalie Rule fourth in 15:10.24.

Jessica’s time was her first Commonwealth Games and World Championships qualifier, securing her automatic team selection. Rose’s time was also a qualifier, the second only athlete to qualify and both NSW athletes. Natalie Rule (third 15:10.24) and Izzy Batt-Doyle (fourth 15:10.97) came agonisingly close to the 15:10 standard.

Unfortunately, we are unable to give you any athlete reaction to this great race.

The quick race shattered records galore:

-Six athletes ran under the race record

-two achieved Worlds and Commonwealth standards, 1 auto selection

-they clocked the fourth, fifth, seventh and nineth fastest times by Aussies at home

-only Jess Hull herself has run this fast in Australia for the last 16 years.

-Nat Rule moved from 48th to 10th Australian all-time.

-There were 10 PBs from Rose Davies (1 second), Natalie Rule (29 sec), Leanne Pompeani (26 sec), Emily Ryan (5 sec), Jess Noble (5 sec), Olga Firsova (2 sec), Abigail Norberg (18 sec), Brooke Williams (9 sec), Regina Jensen (17 sec) and Helena Eastham (10 sec).

Nicola secures ticket to Worlds and Commonwealths

Nicola McDermott returned to the scene of her historic two metre jump last year and successfully defended her national title with a clearance of 1.94m. With a less than ideal leadup it was still a respectable height and importantly booked her place in the Australian team for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Dale delivers on the national stage

After two major leaps forward in recent weeks in the long jump with distances of 6.70m, then 6.72m, Samantha Dale was up to the challenge under pressure of the national championships. Despite a little foul trouble in the windy conditions, she still recorded marks of 6.49m and 6.34m, capped off with a windy 6.64m. Behind second placed Jessie Harper (Qld), four NSW athletes, including two sisters, battled for the bronze medal with just 6cm separating them. The younger Clark sister, Tomysha, nailed the bronze with a leap of 6.26m, on countback from Brittany Carroll also with 6.26m. In fifth just 1cm back was the older Clark sister Tay-Leiha with 6.25m, while in sixth was junior Katie Gunn with a best of 6.20m.

Carli wins first national title

After a dramatic year, Sarah Carli was still able to win the national 400m hurdles title. She drove hard at the end, to defeat NZ’s Portia Bing 56.70 to 57.13. Sara’s training partner Brodee Mate continued her rise. Regularly around 61-62 seconds, over the last 12 months Brodee has brought her PB down to 58.29 and won silver in the national title. She attributed the progress to a great squad and coach (Mel Smith). In third was 18-year-old Bella Guthrie clocking her fifth sub 59 seconds 400m hurdles.

Silver Diamond Decathlon

Another magnificent decathlon by Alec Diamond saw him set a 2-point PB score of 8002 points, break his own NSW record and claim the national silver medal. He started with a tremendous day 1, just outside his 100m and 400m PBs. His shot was a little down, high jump solid, but set a windy long jump best of 7.83m. He was confident going into day two, as although he was about 30 points behind his PB day one score, he knew he had improved in the hurdles to start day two. Which he did, clocking 14.59, just outside his PB, but a decathlon 110m hurdles best. A tremendous discus (47.42m) followed, then an equal pole vault lifetime best of 4.80m. An okay 48.28m javelin left him requiring a 1500m PB to go over 8000 points, which he achieved by just two points by clocking 4:45.49.

In Brief

• In a terrific men’s long jump competition, NSW’s Will Fryer was always in the medal mix from his third jump of 7.76m. After being shuffled back a spot, he responded on the last round to take the silver medal, on countback, from two-time Olympian Henry Frayne, with a wind-legal long jump of 7.82m. The gold went to Victorian Chris Mitreveski who moved from 13th to nineth Australian all-time with a wind legal jump of 8.21m.

• top results by NSW’s 100m hurdlers. Behind ex-NSW athlete Liz Clay who won in 12.71 – 0.01 seconds behind her PB, Michelle Jenneke placed third in 13.05 – a tremendous return to great form. In fourth, with the same time, Abbie Taddeo ran another great race, just outside her recent PB of 13.02.

• Nick Hough won his fifth consecutive and seventh overall Australian 110m hurdles title clocking 13.68 seconds. He overcome the challenge of Australia’s two indoor 60m hurdle representatives Nick Andrews and Chris Douglas, along with young Queenslander Sam Hurwood making the transition to seniors. Nick Andrews clocked 13.75, ahead of Chris Douglas on 13.76 and Sam Hurwood who ran 13.84 in the heat, then 13.83 in the final. Four athletes under 13.85 was record depth for the event.
• Cameron McEntyre was very pleased with his win in the national javelin championship. However it was close with less than a metre between the gold and silver medallists. Cam defeated WA’s Cruz Hogan 78.06m to 77.34m.
• NSW Olympian, Charlie Hunter, pushed Tokyo finalist Peter Bol all the way to the line finishing a close second in 1:49.31 minutes. In a dramatic finish line dive, NSW Jye Perrott shared the bronze medal with SA’s Dylan Stenson in a time of 1:49.61.

Para-athletics and U18/17 wrap-up in a couple of days.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Jessica Hull leads the women’s 5000m (image courtesy of Fred Etter)