World U20 Team Profile: Bella Guthrie

10 July 2022

World U20 Team Profile: Bella Guthrie

Today’s junior profile, in the leadup to the World U20 Championships, is hurdler Isabella Guthrie who after missing the team in 2021, ensured she was selected in 2022 with a series of outstanding performances to guarantee selection for the 2022 team.

After just missing the Australian junior team in 2021, this year 400m hurdler Isabella Guthrie made sure of her selection in 2022, breaking the qualifying standard every time she competed, winning the National junior title and moving to the eighth fastest U20 400m hurdler in Australian history.

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Soccer and athletics were Isabella Guthrie’s sports for a decade from U7 Little Athletics and soccer in Kindergarten. She also played a few years of touch football, but at age 16 decided to focus exclusively on athletics.

Competing for Northern Districts Little Athletics in the U13s at State she was a finalist in the 400m and 200m hurdles, but outside selection for the State team. By her U15 year at Little Athletics she was on the 400m podium with twin Jasmin, and won the 300m hurdles in an Australian Best on record performance of 44.10. Later in the year she was down to 56.52 over 400m and now a 62 second 400m hurdler. She returned to competition in early 2020, but the season was cut short by COVID cancelling events. When she resumed racing in the summer of 2020/21, she was down to an impressive 60.13 in the 400m hurdles and National junior champion. But she was just outside the World U20 Championships qualification standard of 59.95.

In pursuit of World Junior selection, in early 2022, Isabella was precision like, breaking the World Junior standard in every race – 10 in total. By late January she had run 58.42 and March 58.08. She was now the eighth fastest ever Australian junior and had clocked the fastest time for 10 years. She defended her National U20 title to secure automatic selection for the Australian junior team for the World U20 Championships in Cali in August.

As a twin to 400m athlete Jasmin, she finds the obvious comparisons a challenge.

“A big challenge has been competing against my twin sister, and having that comparison between us both, with people placing high expectations on my performance due to my sister winning, and expecting me to do the same. Also people deciding who the fastest twin is, or who is the better athlete based off our results. It used to place a lot of stress on me trying to live up to the expectations that people had for me as I never used to achieve as well as my sister.”

Despite the twin comparisons, Isabella regards Jasmin, along with her coach Angus McEntyre, among the most influential people in her career.

“My family and especially my twin, have played an integral role in my career as they have been by my side through all the highs and lows and have believed in my talent and always strive for me to do my best. My Coach Angus McEntyre has pushed me to believe in myself and my potential. He has been at every race and training session pushing me and encouraging me to be the best athlete I can be and wouldn’t be at the stage I am now if it wasn’t for him.”

The selection of Isabella and twin sister Jasmin is the first-time twins have been selected for Australia for a global meet. The only previous occurrence was the selection of twins for the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games.

Education: Part-time 1st year Exercise Sports Science student at Newcastle Uni in 2022…Idol: American Sydney Mclaughlin. She has achieved such amazing results as a 400 hurdler which I aspire to become, she is such a humble and down to earth athlete who lets her running do all the talking. Her dedication to her athletics and spreading love and kindness to the world is so inspiring…Advice to your young self: Trust the process and believe in yourself, your ability and your training. Don’t let a bad race define who you are or how well everyone else is racing as your hard work will be pay off eventually just keep striving for your goals as they will start to become a reality.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Bella Guthrie (Image courtesy of David Tarbotton)