National Mile Championships - Women's Preview
Published Fri 02 Dec 2022
WOMEN’S NATIONAL MILE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW - ALBIE THOMAS MILE
A fantastic head-to-head between the two blue stars of NSW Women's Distance Running awaits us in this year’s National Women’s Mile Championship Race, with rising NCAA stars coming back home to race, and Olympians adding to the contenders over four laps.
The talk of the town when it comes to women’s NSW distance running right now is Holly Campbell (NSW, Jeremy Roff) – and for good reason. Not missing a beat after her first National Open Medal (Bronze, National 3000m Championships) in March, she was convincing in her NSW 3000m Championship Victory, staying so smooth whilst breaking away from her biggest competition in defending Champion, Aynslee Van Graan (NSW, Ben St Lawrence).
The match-up at the front of the field will be on again between these two, and with an additional five weeks of quality training behind the both of them, it will be another fascinating match-up of the eastern-suburbs based athletes.
Currently based 12,000km away from Campbell and Van Graan is Isabella (Izzy) Thornton-Bott (NSW, Shalane Flanagan). In her debut race tomorrow evening for the Bankstown Sports Athletics Club, she brings some great cross country strength from the current NCAA Season, where she competes for the revered Oregon Ducks, who have produced recent Australian Olympic & World Championship alumni from Jess Hull to Charlie Hunter. Placing top-40 in last fortnight’s NCAA Cross Country Championships, Thornton-Bott has also run well in recent times in Australia, taking the Open 1500m Championship the last time she appeared in an NSW Open race, and will now be determined to try and get her name etched into the back of a National Championship medal.
And then the athlete in the field who has achieved the pinnacle of our sport, Georgia Winkcup (NSW, Ben Liddy), will line up as another serious contender for the title. Well-known as a clutch performer, Winkcup doesn’t die wondering with her race plans, and will look to use her Steeplechase background to grit her way through the field when the pace inevitably heats up. Having donned the Green & Gold at the Tokyo Olympics, she’ll be looking to add an Open National Championship medal to her collection without the physical barriers in front of her this time around.
Jaylah Hancock-Cameron (NSW, Andae Kalemusic) is another top-5 1500m runner in the coutry (5th in the 2022 1500m National Final) who will once again look to mix it with the best in her first year of Open-age racing, and the World Junior 800m Bronze Medallist, Georgia Wassall (NSW, Penny Gillies) will look to use her racing experience at the top level to put together a solid mile and make her way onto the podium – her first race over 800m in 7 years. Olga Firsova (QLD, Ernie Gruhn) also adds some interstate flavour with the 39-year-old looking to break the W35 Australian Masters Record (currently 4:46) whilst also testing the endurance aspect of the race, coming off some excellent results over 5000m (16:09) and 10,000m (34:07) in recent times.
One could argue that Holly Campbell comes in as a slight favourite into this year’s Mile, however we’ve seen plenty of athletes who weren’t necessarily the number-1 pick rise to the top in this event (Whitney Sharpe over Genevieve Gregson, Jye Edwards over Oli Hoare, Keely Small over Jenny Blundell, Matt Ramsden over Ryan Gregson), and Van Graan, Thornton-Bott, Winkcup, Hancock-Cameron, Wassall and Firsova are all very good chances of repeating that feat tomorrow evening.
A fascinating Women’s National Championship Mile is ahead of us tomorrow at 8:45pm, with the Live Stream coverage of the main program kicking off at 7:00pm with all B Races, A Races and National Championship Mile races via:
Athletics NSW Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AthleticsNSW/
Athletics Australia Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AthleticsAustralia/
James Constantine, Athletics NSW.
Any media enquiries can be directed to James Constantine – jamesconstantine@nswathletics.org.au.
Cover Photo courtesy of David Tarbotton (from 2022 NSW 3000m Championships)
