Short Track Nationals: Queen Connolly and Delta double

2 February 2025

Short Track Nationals: Queen Connolly and Delta double

The inaugural Australian Athletics Short Track Championships were held in Sydney on Saturday with the focus for many athletes the World Indoor Championships next month. A number of events attracted ‘track classic’ standard lineups, particularly over 60 metres.

Now in her second year based in Sydney, Ella Connoly looks on track for her best season yet. One of Australia’s best ever all-round sprinters with incredible range between 100m to 400m, she has started the domestic season in December with a slick 400m time of 52.94 seconds. Six weeks later she is running world class times in the 60 metres, winning the inaugural National 60 metres title. Both her heat and final times missed the World Indoor standard by 0.02 and 0.01 second respectively in times with were both under the National record before Torrie Lewis lowered it last week. Connolly clocked times of 7.16 and 7.17 seconds – top-10 in the world in 2025. Ella will need to wait a possible invitation from World Athletics to complete at the World Indoors in China in March.

With better prospects for World indoor selection, Joshua Azzopardi does have a 60m qualifier of 6.52 seconds, set in Canberra last weekend. At the National Short Track Josh placed second to world leader, Queensland’s Lachlan Kennedy. Azzopardi’s consistency has been a key feature of his form over the last year which took him to the Paris Olympics where he was the leading Australian male sprinter.

Dual World U20 Championships medallist in the hurdles and long jump, Delta Amidzovski claimed a double victory in the same two events – 60m hurdles and long jump. She was pushed to the line in both the hurdles heat and final, by 2022 World U20 Championships teammate Emelia Surch, with Delta taking the final by a margin of just 0.005 seconds. Both clocked 8.12, as they moved to equal number five Australians all-time. It was also the second fastest time in the world by a junior. In the long jump, Delta claimed another narrow win 6.25m to 6.24m ahead of Tomsyha Clark.

There was an impressive start to the season by 2023 National champion Liam Adcock with a 7.97m leap. Making consistent progress over the last six years, Aiden Princena-White, 20, again raised his pole vault PB to 5.30m, but just missed his goal of 5.40m to qualify for the World university Games.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Delta Amidzovski in the 60m hurdles (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)