World U20 Team Profile: Olivia Rose Inkster

8 July 2022

World U20 Team Profile: Olivia Rose Inkster

Today’s junior profile, in the leadup to the World U20 Championships, is sprinter Olivia Rose Inkster who switched events and still managed to earn selection for the 2022 World U20 Championships.

In 2021, Olivia Rose Inkster was the leading under-17 400m athlete in Australia. You would expect she would be a good prospect to secure selection in that event or the 4x400m relay for the World U20 Championships the following year, but Olivia Rose decided to follow the love of the 100m, to chase selection for the World U20 Championships in the short sprints and relay. Determined to improve, she made dramatic progress in the 100m to secure a place in the team for the 4x100m relay.

Olivia Rose Inkster is a rare talent in a number of sports. It was by luck that she tried athletics.

“I joined Manly Warringah Little Athletics by fluke really. One of my school friends' parents at Kindy was registering their daughter, and so I asked mum if I could join. I started Little A’s in the U7s, Soccer in the U6s, I was playing touch footy in the U9s when I was only aged 7, I was also involved in netball, Nippers and swimming. I wanted to give every sport a go.”

Olivia was not just participating, she was very competitive. In swimming U10s she was fourth at Nationals in Breaststroke, at state nippers she won sprints and swim events, she reached regional level at touch football, played state age netball between U12-U15 and later U23 Premier league.

During the Little Athletics years U11 to U13 she would occasionally making State and achieve a rare podium finish. But in the U14s State in 2019, she started to shine with podiums in all three sprints. Through these years she was still participating in a number of sports, particularly netball.

Olivia Rose was also managing a family challenge.

“The biggest challenge for me wasn’t in sports, it was when Mum had Breast Cancer in 2018. I wanted to be with her all the time, but Mum always said it was going to be alright. I was really challenged to train and compete because I wanted to be with her. Mum managed our Junior touch footy team, and even though she was going through chemo and not well, she worked full time, organised our touch footy rep side and every day she was there cheering me and my team on.”

By the end of 2019 Olivia Rose’s sprint times were strongest in the 200m (24.24) and 400m (56.77). Her 100m improved in 2020 (to 12.13), while her 200m and 400m plateaued at the start of COVID where much competition was cancelled.

In 2021, now down to impressive times of 23.82 (200m) and 56.35 (400m), she was solely focused on the long sprints. Competing in the U17s at the April 2021 Nationals, she was second to Torrie Lewis in the 200m, but won the 400m by nearly one second.

For her crack at selection in the 2022 World U20 Championships team, it looked obvious that she would focus on the same two long sprints.

“Early in this season, my plan was to compete mainly in 200m and 400m however, I found that I was also loving 100s and wanted to give them a crack.”

Her 100m times started to tumble. In late January in Canberra she recorded her first 200m World U20 qualifier and lowered 100m best to 12.08. But it was just the start.

“Competing at 2022 NSW Open Championship (mid-February) was very much not on the radar.” But she was required to run opens as NSW juniors clashed with Touch Footy state cup, so to qualify for the NSW team for Nationals she competed at State Opens. Her coaches wanted her to run the 400m.

“I really wanted to run in the 100m because it is such a fun event, so I ended up competing in 100, 200 and 400.”

Over 24 hours at the NSW open championships, Olivia Rose smashed her PB in all three rounds, taking the title in a stunning 11.70 - a 0.38 second improvement. She followed coach Melinda Gainsford-Taylor who was a 7-time winner. Melinda’s first win in 1992 was in a time of 11.90, slower than Olivia Rose.

“After I ran my first 100m World U20 qualifier in the semis, I was super pumped for the final where I had no expectations and came away with a joint gold win and a massive PB.”

A place on the Australian team for the World U20s would probably have been easier in the longer event, but Olivia Rose was now locked in for a tilt at the 100m, 200m and 4x100m. In the Juniors, Australian short sprinting (100m, 200m) was at record levels, with 11 100m qualifiers and 14 in the 200m. The trials were going to be epic.

“Competing in my first U20 National championship, was nerve-wracking, but fun. It was such a good experience to be racing against other girls of such good calibre. The commentators noted nearly every athlete had run a World U20 qualifier.“

But Olivia Rose was up for the challenge, placing fifth in the 100m and third in the 200m. It was a nervous wait for two weeks to see if she had earned a relay berth. She did, and was off the World U20 Championships in Cali, an event she is young enough to compete at again in 2024.

Olivia Rose is inspired by her two coaches Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and Katie Edwards. “Mel has a beautiful family and shares her athletic knowledge and passion through coaching, bringing up the next generation of athletes. Katie is an amazing coach, and she just gets me, she understands when I need her to be tough, kind or loving. I know that I can tell Katie how I am truly feeling whether that be with sports or academics, which is very much a quality that I cherish. I know that Katie will always do what's best for me and that she cherishes my opinions and takes everything into account when making decisions regarding me. I am so very lucky to have Katie and Mel in my life.”

Olivia Rose also has scoliosis, which provides challengers as she has to combine regularly visits to a physiotherapist and chiropractor, long travel to school and playing various sports.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Olivia Rose Inkster at the ACT Championships (courtesy of David Tarbotton)