Athletics Australia – News – Top-eight trio round out world junior charge

The Australian Spark has today ended its 2010 world junior championships campaign on a high, with all three athletes in action on the seventh and final day of competition posting top-eight finishes on the world stage.

Flying the flag for Australia on day seven at Stade Moncton were 110m hurdles guns Sam Baines and Mitchell Tysoe, who placed fourth and sixth respectively, and high jump talent Amy Pejkovic, who placed eighth.

In a hard-fought race that went right down to the wire, junior national record-holder Baines was first home of the two Australians in the 110m hurdles final, where just 0.10 seconds separated first from fourth.

Two weeks after claiming the national junior benchmark with a run of 13.56 (w:0.0) in Vancouver (CAN), Baines today clocked 13.62 (w:-2.4) to take out fourth place just .03 off the time recorded by the silver and bronze medallists.

“I just had to make it to the final and then anything could happen from there. It would have been awesome to get onto the podium but I’m very happy,” Baines said.

“There was a bit of a headwind so it wasn’t as quick as I would have expected when the championships started but it was a close race so it was good.”

The Spark co-captain and winner of the gold medal in the event at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune (IND) said the step up to the world junior championships was a big leap and one he was rapt to have made.

“The Commonwealth Youth Games was nowhere near as big a competition as this so to step up to world juniors for the first time and get fourth place, I’m pretty happy,” Baines said.

In a strong showing by the Australian Spark in the sprint hurdles finale, Mitchell Tysoe clocked 13.87 to place sixth.

“I’m stoked, the race could have been better but I’m happy with that, sixth in the final, sixth in the world, I’m pretty happy,” Tysoe said.

The 2009 world youth championships semi-finalist, who landed in Moncton with the goal of making it beyond the heats, said his world junior titles debut had been the meet of his life.

“It’s been awesome, it’s been the best competition of my life, I’m so happy,” he said.

The New South Welshman, who alongside Baines will now step up to the open hurdles height, said he would return to Australia full of confidence in making the transition to the senior ranks.

“I’ve got heaps of confidence, there are guys just as short as me running the open height and I’ve just done as quick as they can do so I think I’ll be up there. Next year will just be base training and then we’ll see what happens,” he said.

In the field, 17-year-old Amy Pejkovic, the youngest athlete in today’s high jump final, placed eighth with a best leap of 1.78m.

Clearing the opening height of 1.68m on her first attempt, Pejkovic missed her opening shot at 1.73m before soaring over that height then clearing the following measure of 1.78m on her first attempt.

The 2009 world youth championships silver medallist went on to just miss all three attempts at 1.82m, ending her world junior campaign in eighth place.

“It was alright, it wasn’t the greatest but coming in I had a few things wrong, I injured my back and my run-up wasn’t working too well but that happens, you learn from it,” Pejkovic said.

“I was hoping to get a bit higher, I was hoping for a PB but I was the youngest in the field by about a year so I can come back to the next world juniors as well and it will be good next time, I’ll be older and hopefully jumping higher.”

Following the conclusion of competition at Stade Moncton today, a closing ceremony was held to mark the formal end to the week-long international track and field meet.

Across its seven-day campaign at the 13th IAAF world junior championships the Australian Spark collected one bronze medal, taken out by Julian Wruck in the men’s discus throw on day six of competition, and tallied a further 10 top-eight finishes, with Regan Lamble (eighth – 10,000m walk), Patrick Fakiye (eighth – 100m), Kim Mulhall (fourth – discus throw), Brett Robinson (eighth – 1500m), Dane Bird-Smith (fifth – 10,000m walk), Brooke Stratton (sixth – long jump), the women’s 4x100m relay team (seventh), Baines (fourth – 110m hurdles), Tysoe (sixth – 110m hurdles) and Pejkovic (eighth – high jump) all adding their names to the world junior honour roll.

The 36-strong Australian team finished 14th on the placing table with a total of 32 points, the USA taking out top spot with 183 points.

The IAAF world junior championships now move to Barcelona, Spain, for the 14th edition of the meet in 2012.

Following the close of the 2010 world junior titles the Spark will end its three-week Canadian campaign with time in Toronto, Ontario, before arriving home in Australia on Saturday, July 31.

Photo courtesy of Brent Vallance

Athletics Australia – News