The 2010 World Junior Championships recently concluded in Moncton, Canada, with Australia finishing the Championships with one medal (a bronze collected by Julian Wruck in the men’s discus throw) and a further ten top-8 performances.
Australia finshed 14th on the official placing table, behind the United States, Kenya and Germany, and left Canada with some exciting athletic performances both on the track and in the field. One of those athletes who has an exciting future in the world of track and field is an athlete who we were lucky to catch up just prior to the Championships – 400m runner Anneliese Rubie.
Although it wasn’t a perfect Championships for the 18 year-old from Sydney, NSW, Rubie did manage to finish in the top-16 and most importantly walked away from Canada with some fantastic experiences.
Enjoy Rubie’s blog from the World Junior Championships below, as she talks about the lead up to the Championships and her experiences gained from running in the heats and semi final of the 400m and the heats of the 4x400m.
Anneliese Rubie – 2010 World Junior Championships
The whole experience started off at Sydney airport on the 8th of July where the Australian Sparks met up fully kitted out in their new Asics Australian uniforms and we set off on the 14 hour plane flight across to Vancouver. Once we arrived in Vancouver we were all exhausted but it was only 9am, so there was a lot of team support getting everyone to keep their eyes open until at least 9pm to minimise jet lag. We stayed at the University of British Columbia which is an amazing campus, it’s huge!
We competed the next day and it took me a while to get used to the 30 degree heat having just come from Sydney’s torrential rain and 15 degree weather, but many thanks to 2XU compression gear for helping us come off the flight relatively un-swollen.
I ran a 400m in the Kajaks International Track Classic against a few American and Canadian girls. I came 2nd and managed to pull out a 53.9! I was really happy with this having just come off the plane and still adjusting to time zones and weather etc…The next two days we went to a smaller comp (it was similar to little athletics, or an all comers meet so I think we broke a few meet records!) and we ran our 4x400m team against the boys team which was fun and good to get more racing in. I had a bit of a scare because I left my spikes on the bus coming back to the university, the whole night and next day I thought I’d lost them so I freaked out a little bit! Eventually we got them back from the bus company but definitely taught me a lesson about international competitions and looking after ourselves…
The next week was all about training, getting over any jet lag and preparing ourselves for World Juniors which was getting really close! I think after the excitement of being in another country wore off we all got a bit of cabin fever and began to get really anxious to leave for Moncton, so we had to keep extra focused and disciplined.
Then the day finally came to pack up and fly to Moncton. It was an early flight because we went through Toronto so we left the university at 4ish in the morning. Not fun! (especially when the coffee is horrible…)
The whole competition was at the Université de Moncton (which is in a predominately French speaking town) and we were lucky enough to get accommodation at the University. We spent 3 or 4 days there before the opening ceremony to adjust to another time zone change! It hit everyone pretty hard here for some reason though, so most of the team was on sleeping pills for the first few nights.
Unfortunately I woke up 2 days before my heat and couldn’t get out of bed…My back had locked up and all the muscles were in spasm mode, I think it was from the dodgy beds we had and sitting in the planes for so long. I had the physiotherapist and doctor working around the clock getting it back into order before I ran, but it was mentally exhausting trying to stay focused on competing when I couldn’t even walk properly!
So along comes the day of my 400m heat……… (Part 2 coming soon to RT)
