Athletics Australia – News – Oceania Athletics Championships to heat up Cairns

Three-hundred of the region’s best athletes have descended on Cairns this week, Australia’s gateway to the Great Barrier Reef playing host to the Oceania Athletics Championships from Thursday, September 23.

Attracting 22 nations for three days of competition, the Championships will welcome an Australian team of 50 which, excitingly for the host city, includes nine athletes from the Cairns area.

Joining them on the start list are 12 athletes bound for next month’s Commonwealth Games, the Delhi-bound contingent acclimatising to Indian conditions thanks to the area’s heat and humidity ahead of their departure for the Games on October 1.

One such athlete is Sean Wroe, the Berlin world championships 4x400m relay bronze medallist looking to claim the Oceania title in the men’s 400m.

“The Championships this weekend will be a good hit out, tomorrow in the heat I’ll be working on a few tactics and then in the final I’ll be giving it a real crack,” Wroe said.

Most recently stopping the clock at 46.27 (2^nd) in Kawasaki (JPN), the 25-year-old was only last week elevated to the individual 400m spot adding to his previous selection in the 4x400m relay alongside national champion Ben Offereins, Olympic semi-finalist Joel Milburn, 400m hurdler Brendan Cole and international debutante Kevin Moore.

Meanwhile in the throws cage, hammer thrower Karyne Di Marco will be joined by team mates Gabrielle Neighbour and Bronwyn Eagles as she prepares to compete at her fourth Games.

“Cairns was always the plan for athletes competing domestically before the Games, and to have a Championships like this to compete at is just great because it gives us a real hit out heading into Delhi,” Di Marco said.

Rounding out Commonwealth Games athletes donning the green and gold in Australia’s north are Jeremy Roff (800m, 1500m), Jeff Hunt (5000m), Dale Stevenson (shot put), Simon Wardhaugh (hammer throw), Tim Driesen (hammer throw), Pirrenee Steinert (400m), Hayley Butler (100m hurdles), Ellen Pettitt (high jump) and Joanne Mirtschin (shot put).

Eight of the 11 selected athletes with a disability at the Commonwealth Games will also take to Barlow Park, Paralympic gold medallist Heath Francis joining fellow sprinters Gabriel Gole, Simon Patmore and Jodi Elkington and secured shot putters Damien Bowen, Hamish MacDonald, Louise Ellery and Brydee Moore.

Started in 1990 and held biannually, the Oceania Athletics Championships are the area meet for the 22 IAAF member federations located in and around the Pacific Ocean.

Stay tuned to athletics.com.au for daily reports from Barlow Park.

IAAF Oceania Championships
September 23-25, 2010
Cairns, Qld

Men (17)
100m: Liam Gander
200m: Gander
400m: Jay Stone, Sean Wroe
800m: Cameron Clayton, Jeremy Roff
1500m: Roff
5000m: Jeff Hunt
110m hurdles: Greg Eyears, Daniel Small
400m hurdles: James Roff
High jump: Josh Hall
Pole vault: Matt Boyd
Long jump: Julius Nyambane, Stone
Shot put: Michael Day, Dale Stevenson
Discus throw: Thomas McGuire

Women (20):
100m: Jacinta Bopyd, Sarah Busby, Laura Whaler
200m: Kendra Hubbard, Whaler
400m: Alice Platten, Pirrenee Steinert, Cara White
800m: Platten
1500m: Lara Nicod
3000m steeplechase: Nicod
100m hurdles: Hayley Butler
400m hurdles: Lauren McAdam, Lisa Spencer, White
10km walk: Nicole Fagan
High jump: Ellen Pettitt, Tara Strano
Triple jump: Katie Cox
Shot put: Joanne Mirtschin
Discus throw: Karen Clarke
Hammer throw: Karyne Di Marco, Bronwyn Eagles, Gabrielle Neighbour
Javelin throw: Clarke

Junior Men (8):
400m: Matt Bailey
800m: Bailey, Matt Werner
1500m: Rorey Hunter, Werner
3000m steeplechase: Billy Bragg
400m hurdles: Mark Edgerton
Triple jump: Alex Ypinazar
Hammer throw: Robert Johnson, David Rakoci

Junior Women (5):
800m: Chelsea Dartnell
400m hurdles: Emily Keehn
High jump: Teagan Harris
Triple jump: Kerri Tibbs
Hammer throw: Annalisa Geraghty

Athletics Australia – News