Teenagers dominate 123rd NSW Open Championships
Published Mon 09 Mar 2020
9 March 2020
Teenagers dominate 123rd NSW Open Championships
The 123rd NSW Championships, held over the weekend at Homebush, were dominated by teenagers with 11 juniors winning titles. The competition produced two new NSW World U20 Championships qualifiers - triple jumper Desleigh Owusu and javelin thrower Lianna Davidson, while there were two attempts at Tokyo Olympic Games qualification by Nicola McDermott in the high jump and South Korean Minsub Jin in the pole vault.
All season juniors Lianna Davidson (ASW) and Desleigh Owusu (UTN) had been recording performances close to the World U20 Championships standard, but in their last competition ahead of the Australian U20 Championships and World U20 trials, they nailed qualifiers. Both athletes have now moved into the top-10 Australian juniors all-time.
Davidson surpassed the javelin standard of 51.10m with two marks of 52.89m and 52.57m. She was in a battle to win the title from training partner Katrina Blackett (SYU) who reached a PB of 52.21m.
After a sluggish start to the season Davidson had made some technical modifications.
“The run up felt really nice and it is what I’ve been struggling with. I pushed my runup back and that felt really good today. I didn’t start the season how I wanted too, so it has been great to get back up there.”
A Year 12 student at St Mary Senior School, Davidson is now the second Australian to achieve the javelin standard.
“There are a couple really close but having the qualifier that really helps going into the nationals where I will try and get that automatic selection. Obviously going into nationals I will feel more confident. It is exciting knowing that is it possible now. This has been my biggest goal for the last four years so to get to the position I’m in now, I’m really happy.”
Desleigh Owusu started her triple jump competition as the favourite, but looked in trouble early.
“It was really nerve racking trying to ‘get one in’ as I fouled the first two jumps. So, I had to get a safe one in, and I did, and it put me in the lead,” said Owusu who leapt 12.57m in round three. “My fourth jump was 12.91m, so that was good then finally on the last jump I did it.” She leapt 13.05m, becoming just the tenth Australian junior over 13 metres.
“Since I’ve started training with Murph (Andrew Murphy) everything is different my running technique is better and I understand the sport more.”
She is confident she can now confirm her place on the World U20 Championships team.
“I’ve got to place top-two at nationals which I can do so it is fine.”
The field was where there was more great action, from high jumper Nicola McDermott (SYU) and hammer thrower Alex Hulley (SUT).
McDermott who has this summer leapt 1.96m, 1.94m, 1.96m, cleared 1.92m to take the title, then immediately pushed the bar to the old Australian record height of 1.98m.
“We did a big training week this week, so after the 92 (1.92m clearance), I thought let’s not waste any more time, let’s try 98 and I was quite excited to see that the consistency over the bar is there and it is getting better and better in each competition.”
On Sunday, Alex Hulley nailed her second longest throw of her career, 68.67m, only surpassed by her amazing 70.55m throw two weeks ago in Sydney where she defeated world number three, American Gwen Berry. It was Hulley’s seventh consecutive national title.
There were also terrific performances on the track. Two Doha world championship hurdlers, Sarah Carli (KEJ) and Nick Hough (SYU) were outstanding. In the 400m hurdles Carli ran a strong time of 56.52, to defeat her world championships team-mate Sara Kelin (ASW) who ran 57.24. In the men’s high hurdles Nick Hough clocked a season best of 13.67 to defeat former Kings school-mate Nick Andrews, who was hoping to add the hurdles to his impressive 100m win in 10.40. Abbie Taddeo (ILL) was able to complete the sprints/hurdles double taking the two events in times of 11.76/13.39. She had earlier run a quick heat time of 13.29.
World Championships 400m finalist, Bendere Oboya (UTN), clocked her third sub-52.5 time of the summer, winning in 52.47, from Rebecca Bennett (SYU) in 52.98, clocking just her second sub-53 seconds time ever.
Following his World U20 Champs qualifier last week, 17-year-old Jono Titmarsh (TRI), claimed the open high jump title with a strong 2.15m clearance.
“It is very exciting (to win) and after last week I was just trying to back it up,” said Titmarsh referring to his World U20 qualifier of 2.16m. “I’m a tiny bit disappointed as I expect a lot of myself and it is very competitive to get into World Juniors, especially this year in high jump, there is another boy from Queensland and another one from Melbourne. You’ll probably need 2.25m to win nationals and obviously that is the goal.”
It was just his second competition this summer.
“I was in a boot in December and a bit of January with a stress fracture in my fibular. I know every time I get injured I comeback stronger.”
Incredibly last week in his return competition he added 5cm to his PB and qualified for the World U20 Championships.
“After I cleared 2.16m I stopped as a precaution from the previous injury.”
The NSW senior championships under lights was a new experience got Titmarsh.
“I don’t think (the 2.18 attempts) were as strong as my 2.16m last week and what I could have potentially cleared last week, however I’ve never really competed at night.”
The competition was won by visiting South Korean, Sanghyeok Woo who cleared 2.24m, after equalling his PB of 2.30m in Canberra last week. Another visiting Korean is terrific form is pole vaulter Minsub Jin, who cleared 5.50m, but missed a new Korean record of 5.81m. He had set the national record of 5.80m last week at Bankstown.
Javelin thrower Cameron McEntyre (SYP) has made significant progress this summer.
“Two 78s and a 75, I’m happy with it,” said McEntyre who 12 months had a PB of just 70.80m. His eight-metre improvement has seen him elevated from 47th to 15th best Australian ever. On Saturday night he won his first NSW title with a modest mark of 73.70m.
“A win is good, but I wanted to work more on the technical stuff. It is a little frustrating as I know there is more in the tank, which is a good thing leading up to nationals.”
What does he consider has been the difference this summer?
“The main goal has been remaining injury free. I’ve been having problems with that in the last couple of years. Doing a lot more stretching and rehad work now.”
Next stop is a packed field for the Queensland Track Classic, then back to Sydney for the nationals.
“It will be a little tight with Brisbane than nationals five days later.”
And his goal?
“I want to break that 80m barrier and for nationals to be on the podium would be nice.”
In the walks, two internationals dominated their events. London Olympian, Beki Smith (ASW) clocked an impressive 22:32.03. After placing third a month ago at the Olympic 20km walk trials, hopes are high she can become a dual Olympian. In the men’s 5000m walk Mingara’s Tyler Jones clocked a 32 second PB time of 20:05.20 and moved from 40th to 25th on the Australian all-time list.
Six para athletes continue to push towards qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. The closest was Marli Lovell (UTN) in the 200m, clocking 32.58. The T36 class athlete, was within one second of the 31.60 seconds standard. Rio Paralympian Tamsin Colley (HIL) continues to chase the T36 100m qualifying standards of 14.82, winning the NSW 100m Ambulant title in 15.81. The 400m winner, Stephanie Schweitzer (HIL) clocked 62.86 seconds and is targeting the T20 standard of 59.24. Central Coast’s Rae Anderson (MIN) is hoping to qualify for her second Paralympics, is showing good form in the shot and discus. She put 9.67m, in reach of the 10.18m F37 standard, while in the discus she threw 27.75m within two metres of the 29.46m standard. In the javelin, Isabelle Hampton (WOL) threw 30.26m, chasing the T12 34.74m qualifying mark.
Canberra visitor Keely Small clocked a World U20 Champs qualifying time of 2:05.30, her fastest for 18 months to win the 800m. She defeated former world junior championships 800m bronze medallist Georgia Wassall (SYU) who won the NSW title with 2:05.85 – her fastest for three years.
“I know it has been awhile and I’ve never been state champion for the eight, just in the 1500m in 2014, so it has been a long time since I’ve even been on the podium,” said Wassall.
“I surprised myself a little bit. I know I’ve been training well and feel good in training. I’d run a few races this season and the finish hadn’t been quite there. I’ve just been waiting for it to come. I felt really strong and having Alicia right until the end, and Keely as wel,l I really had to fight for it, so It was really good to have that competitive instinct back that I used to have a long time ago.”
Proving his coaching with Nicola McDermott is no fluke, Matt Horsnell added a few more medals to the squad tally. In the long jump, 20-year-old Bethany Kranendonk smasher her PB of 5.88m to win with a leap of 6.04m. She surpassed her PB on three occasions in the competition and survived a late charge by teenager Tomysha Clark with 6.03 in round five. Behind McDermott, Fiona Whelan took silver with a jump of 1.82m, following on from her 1.85m last weekend.
Commonwealth Games heptahlete, Alysha Burnett (CHE) won the shot and in her debut, placed second in the pole vault with a clearance of 3.70m.
More World U20 Championships hopefuls action:
Youth Olympic Games medallist, Jaylah Hancock‑Cameron just missed the World U20 standard of 4:20.20, winning the senior 1500m in 4:20.91.
In the discus, another Youth Olympic Games representative, Sally Shokry (SUT) threw 47.40m defeated World U20 Champs qualifier Ashlyn Blackstock (EAS) 46.56m.
Two World U20 Champs hopefuls Tomysha Clark (ILL) and Katie Gunn (GOS) finished on the podium in the long jump. Clark, who has the standard, leapt 6.03m, while Gunn compiled a series with five 5.90m jumps, topped by her fifth attempt measured at 5.98m.
World U20 Champs prospect Keegan Bell (HIL) continued his strong form of 47 second 400m running, placing third in 47.58, after a semi-final time of 47.33. He needs to improve his 47.07 Pb to just 46.90 to achieve the standard.
Another chasing the standard is half-miler Anthony Vlatko (RBH) who won the 800m in 1:51.29. He needs to lower his PB of 1:50.02 to 1:49.20 to press his claims for selection.
Teenager Ethan Princena-White (BAN), who two weeks ago vaulted a PB 5.00m, won the NSW senior title with a 4.80m clearance, before passing 4.90m, 5.00m and 5.08m to attempt a World U20 Champs standard of 5.13m, which he unfortunately missed.
Full results: http://www.nswathletics.info/liveresults/2020/nsw_open/
David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Lianna Davidson (courtesy David Tarbotton)
