Laman, Blundell and Simpson impress on day one of All Schools

Anna Laman (NSW), Jenny Blundell (NSW) and Katelyn Simpson (QLD) have delivered the biggest highlight on day one at the Australian All Schools Championships today, as athletics returned to the University of Queensland Track for the first time since this year’s devastating floods.

 

Crossing the line in the girl’s under 18 1500m in 4:20.55, 4:21.06 and 4:21.80 respectively, the trio all posted IAAF world junior championship qualifiers in the process. Laman’s winning time was also a meet record.

 

“I led out from the beginning, at what was a pretty slow pace to start to be honest, but the girls out front stuck together and it felt really strong,” Laman said.

 

“I need to stay injury free and just keep building on this time to keep myself in the mix for world juniors next year. Jenny, Katelyn and I all now have qualifiers and it’s going to be a great battle across the summer.”

 

Equally impressed was Athletics Australia Junior High Performance Manager Sara Mulkearns.

 

“It was just great to see kids race like that,” Mulkearns added.

 

“You don’t always see such a competitive event at junior age nationals and all the girls will benefit from it.”

 

Over in the boy’s event, Kyle Martin-Alcaide (VIC) dominated the under 18 1500m to lead by more than 50 metres for almost the entire race. Martin-Alcaide went on to stop the clock in 3:54.20, just outside the world junior championships qualifying mark and more than seven seconds quicker than his nearest rival.

 

The star of the sprints today was Abbey de la Motte (TAS), who in the girl’s under 18 400m won gold in a world junior championship qualifying time of 54.95 ahead of Jacarna Bain-Fenton (NSW, second, 56.40) and Rebecca Luke (VIC, third, 56.65). Peter Fortune, the coach of Catherine Freeman to her Sydney glory, coaches de la Motte.

 

“Wowee. I knew I could eventually run the qualifier but I didn’t think it would come this early,” De La Motte said.

 

“I wanted to work it through the first 200m and then bring it home as best I can. There’s no way I would have got the qualifier without Jacarna (Bain-Fenton) pushing me all the way to the line.

 

“Fort (De La Motte’s coach) and I have the best relationship, he tells me how it is and does everything possible to get me to the line the best I can be.”

 

Action in the field, meanwhile, delivered both meet records and IAAF world junior championship qualifiers.

 

Matthew Denny (QLD), a graduate of the Athletics Australia Under 17 Development Squad, heaved 72.05m to win the boy’s under 16 hammer throw by more than ten metres and eclipse the meet record of 2010 Commonwealth Games representative and Australian Flame Tim Driesen.

 

Fouling twice in his four throw series, Denny opened with his winning mark, before hitting 71.26m in round two. His performance falls just 80 centimetres shy of the national record, also held by Driesen.

 

“You can never be disappointed by a meet record and gold medal,” Denny said.

 

“I was chasing 72.85m because I have been consistently throwing well in training, hitting PB marks, but there’s always next time.”

 

Competing in the girl’s under 18 high jump, Australian representatives Kaitlin Morgan (TAS) and Emily Crutcher (NSW) sailed over 1.80m to record qualifying marks for the 2012 IAAF world junior championships in Barcelona (ESP).

 

Both girls opened their accounts at 1.65m, with first attempt success at 1.70m and 1.75m. Crutcher cleared 1.80m before stumbling at 1.83m to win silver, withMorgan, who had three qualifiers coming into today’s event, jumping 1.83m to win gold.

 

“The start to the year has been so good, I am jumping well at home and I did here again which is awesome,” Morgan said.

 

“I want to consistently jump 1.80m this season and so far I have been, I just really want to carry similar results through to the Australian Juniors.”

 

“I wasn’t very happy after not making the final at world youths, that’s competition though so I have been working really hard on settling my nerves and taking each event as it comes.”

 

“This is probably my first ‘real’ jump for the year so to get the qualifier is pretty great,” Crutcher continued.

 

“A win today would have been nice, but knowing that I can hit the height needed is exciting and now its back to training, working on my technique, to make sure that it continues.”

 

Competition continues tomorrow, with highlights including Elliott Lang (NSW), William White (QLD), Luke Cann (VIC) and Cruz Hogan (WA) battling it out in the boy’s under 18 javelin throw, before the Schools Knockout on Monday, December 5.