Master Class from McDermott

Published Fri 26 Feb 2021

26 February 2021

Master Class from McDermott

Central Coast’s Nicola McDermott led an array of strong NSW performances at the Coles Summer Super Series in Canberra last night.

In her season debut, Nicola McDermott (Sydney Uni) was majestic. She entered the competition at 1.82m and maintained a clean sheet through heights of 1.86m, 1.90m, 1.93m and 1.96m, the later her fourth Olympic qualifier.

She then put the bar up to 2.00m, which may have seemed an unusual progression.

“I set the bar at 96 because I know I can do it,” McDermott explained. “Then went straight to 2 because I needed that intensity. If I attempted 97 or 98 I would have been so happy with that I would have stopped, but I know I’m capable of more so I pushed myself today.”

On her second attempt, McDermott came so close to clearing.

“My body wasn’t quite up to speed over the bar, but I had the clearance there. I think in the second attempt my body was just trying to navigate my way around it. I don’t think my body was ready to actually clear it.

“By the third attempt even as the technique wasn’t there, I was ready to clear it in my head and the greatest mental battle I’ve had to face ‘you can do it’.”

She can see the two metres is there.

“You know, the anticipation is there now. My third attempt wasn’t quite there as I was getting way too excited. Just excited to be in the mindset I can do this rather than overwhelmed about how high this is.”

Her training has been going well, but there was a hiccup in the leadup to this meet.
“I had a bad jump a few weeks ago and we were a bit worried about my achilles and if it would come through. I got the ‘all clear’ on Thursday last week to say you might be allowed to jump. So to jump today pain free was a miracle in in itself.”

The injury concern had set her back a bit, but she powered through that last night.

“The mental battle I have had to overcome every time I looked at a high jump bar I felt like a potential injury, so to overcome that today was a victory. The battle in your head, that you now know ‘I’m going to be okay’. Now I’ve overcome that barrier, I’m excited and ‘now let’s get jumping’.”

Also making his season debut was Brandon Starc, who had opted to jump despite the passing of his father during the week. Like McDermott he maintained a clear sheet through clearances at 2.12m, 2.16m, 2.20m, 2.24m and 2.27, before missing 2.30m. Victorian Olympian Joel Baden was second on 2.24m.

Wheelchair athlete Luke Bailey continued his progression with a personal best in the T54 100m. Clocking 14.18, he defeated a strong field to record his third Paralympic Games B qualifier.

Sydney Uni’s James Nipperess led a magnificent display of steeplechasing. He led many of the laps of a class field, but was nabbed by 2019 World championships representative Ben Buckingham on the last circuit as they clocked 8:32.39 and 8:35.48 respectively. Buckingham’s time was fastest by an Australian at home for 12 years, since Youcef Abdi recorded 8:30 in 2009. For Nipperess it was his second best time for five years and no surprise considering his great form on the track and in cross country over the last 12 months.

Another super performance by Alexander Kolesnikoff in the shot, with his third consecutive 19 metres competition. He nailed 19.44 on his second attempt, followed by four fouls, indicating there is more there from the 20-year-old Harvard student, studying at home in Sydney.

Charlie Jeffreson (Kings) lowered his 800m PB by 0.4 seconds in the biggest race yet of the career of the 16-year-old.

“I was very pumped,” he said.

He clocked 1:48.67 to record his third World U20 Championships qualifier. He edged Canberra teenager Tom Palfrey who also achieved a qualifier of 1:48.69.

“I felt a lot more in the race, it came together quite nicely.”

With Palfrey ahead of him in the home straight, he really motored home in the last 20 metres.

“I felt I had an extra gear getting to the line.”

One of the performances of the night was the continued improvement of form NSW athlete Hannah Jones. Now based on the Gold Coast under coach-Sally Pearson, Jones won the 100m hurdles, slicing 0.08 seconds from her PB. She clocked 13.03 seconds, now number nine Australian all-time. She relocated to Queensland in December 2019 after a couple of visits where she chatted to Sally Pearson about potentially coaching her. So what has coach-Pearson been able to draw out from Jones?

“Definitely the confidence, she has really been selling that head space,” explained Jones. “Just to have that self belief. I’ve really been modelling off her. She has been able to show as well as tell. So it has been awesome for me to learn.

“I definitely been put through my paces with Sal. I didn’t realise how hard a fulltime athlete worked, but physically and mentally so it has been exceptional that step up from the junior to senior, it has taken me a couple of years but now I understand that difference in mentally and in training.”

Other NSW highlights:

Tay-Leiha Clark (ILL) was back to her best of two years ago, clearing 6.26m for second in the long jump. There appears certainly more there as she had four fouls in her series.
Lianna Davidson (ASW) nailed her first World U20 Championships qualifier for the postponed Games. She hit 51.29m on the last attempt to surpass the mark of 50.50m, a standard she has passed in the previous period for the 2020 Games.
Karlee Symonds (WOL), and her guide Matt Rawlings, broke the Oceania T12 (visually impaired) 100m recording 14.31 seconds.
NSW went 1-2 in the 110m hurdles with Nick Hough (SYU) 13.72, holding off Nick Andrews (CHE) 13.78.
In a high class 800m field, Izzy Thornton-Bott (UTN) smashed her PB by over three seconds to run 2:03.30 and move into the Australian top-60 all-time.