Athletics Australia – News – Blundell & Hogan win silver at Bauhaus Junioren Gala in Mannheim

Jenny Blundell (NSW) and Cruz Hogan (WA) have delivered podium finishes for the Australian team at the Bauhaus Junioren Gala in Mannheim across the weekend, with the talented young duo winning silver medals in the girl’s 1500m and boy’s javelin throw respectively.

Launching the green and gold campaign in style on day one, Blundell clocked 4:21.46 to narrowly miss victory behind winner Caterina Granz (GER, first, 4:20.89) in the metric mile.

Blundell’s time improved on the 4:22.27 she ran at the same event in the build-up to the IAAF World Junior Championships last year, and is quicker than her performance for bronze at the Qantas Australian Athletics Championships in April.

Hogan, who threw 68.56m on his third attempt to ensure his place on the dais, recorded a good series with six legal throws beyond 62 metres. Coached by Grant Ward, the West Australian was focused on improving his technique and opened with 65.22m before throws of 65.77m, his winning mark, a 62.74m throw, 63.98m and 62.62m to close.

Continuing a fantastic year, Hogan’s performance is his sixth best ever, with all five throws above it coming from events across the 2013 Australian domestic season.

“The performances of Jenny and Cruz were great to watch, it is always nice to see hard working athletes rewarded with positive performances in championship-style competitions,” Sara Mulkearns, Athletics Australia Junior High Performance Manager, said.

“Jenny has enjoyed previous major championship experience at the World Youths and World Juniors and her composure come race day is great. She led for much of the race, but was unfortunately unable to hold on to the line. For Cruz, this event was his first exposure to an international competition and a great way for him to develop as an athlete.”

Blundell started on track alongside her fellow Australians Abbie Taddeo (NSW), Anthony Collins (Qld) and Chloe Jamieson (NSW).

Recording a season best of 60.13, Jamieson was pleasing in the girl’s 400m hurdles, while Taddeo clocked 14.38 (w: -2.3) and Collins 14.03 (w: -1.0) to both finish 4th in the girl’s 100m hurdles B-Final and boy’s 110m hurdles A-Final respectively.

IAAF World Junior Championships representative Will White (Qld) threw alongside Hogan in the boy’s javelin with his best effort of 67.36m coming in round three. Also competing in the boy’s throws was Nathan Krepp (Vic), who in the boy’s discus managed a 52.68m throw to finish 11th overall.

Angus Gould (ACT) flew the Australian flag in the boy’s long jump. His jump of 7.43m (w: +0.4) delivered 4th place, with his performance slightly less than the 7.71m he soared at the Karlsruhe International Meet the weekend prior to competition in Mannheim.

Rounding out the green and gold contingent was multi-eventer David Brock (Vic). Competing in the boy’s long jump, high jump and 110m hurdles, the 19-year-old leapt 6.80m (w: +0.2), soared 1.95m and ran 14.84 for each event respectively.

“Every athlete on this tour have trained and prepared for this event as well as we could have hoped, and after spending time at the Australian Institute of Sport’s Elite Training Centre and competing twice they will head home having learnt a lot about the rigours of international competition,” Mulkearns added.

“My hope is that this opportunity instills each of the athletes with some confidence in their ability, and that that translates to bigger and better performances from them all on the Australian domestic season next year and beyond.”

In other results from the Bauhaus Junioren Gala, Liz Parnov (WA) soared to a meet record of 4.45m to win the girl’s pole vault. Narrowly missing an attempt at 4.60m, the IAAF World Championships A-Qualifier, the young Western Australian will remain in Europe as she pushes for selection to the Australian Flame team for Moscow.

To view and download full results from the Bauhaus Junioren Gala, please click here.

 Athletics Australia – News