Athletics: Sydney Track Classic
Summer Series
On a hot and humid Sydney evening, some of Australian athletics’ biggest names and rising stars continued their preparations for upcoming events with impressive performances, including a couple of Australian records.
Paris teammates Sarah Carli and Alanah Yukich both featured in one of the first major races of the night, the 400m hurdles. It was the Wollongong veteran Sarah who put on a show in front of her home crowd, running a Meet Record of 54.86, just 0.2 outside of her PB. Sarah was ecstatic with her performance,
“Obviously being a season opener, you have no idea what shape you’re in, but I’m super happy with that.”
Carli suggested she’s got room for improvement, saying, “My stride pattern wasn’t smooth, so there’s still things we can work on.”
Another exciting event on the schedule was the 400m, a field stacked with young talent, and they didn’t disappoint. Headed to China this week as teammates in the 4 x 400m Relay at the Indoor World Championships, Jemma Pollard and Bella Pasquali went head to head, and it was the former who held on to win by 0.01 of a second (pictured below).
Pollard, Pasquali, plus the next two all ran PBs in a high quality race.
“[I’m] absolutely ecstatic. To get a PB is just awesome - I knew it was in there somewhere. You always want a PB, but I can’t say it’s something I totally expected, but I’m so happy.”
Despite being pipped at the line, an out of breath Pasquali - the 2023 Stawell Gift winner - was also happy, telling HER WAY,
“I’m just over the moon, ecstatic with that. Amazing.”
The women’s javelin was a fascinating contest, featuring 2 x World Champion Kelsey Lee-Barber, World Champs and Diamond League medalist Mackenzie Little in her first outing of the season, as well as a couple of internationals.
Coming into her final throw of the competition, Mackenzie Little was sitting in fifth place, before launching a throw of 59.77 to edge out New Zealand’s Tori Moorby by 12cm. Mackenzie was a little sheepish afterwards, happy to take the win but acknowledged she was far from her best.
“It wasn’t my most consistent performance at all, it’s probably representative of where I am at training. Tori called me a ratbag, and I think that’s really appropriate because this was not a technically good performance I don’t think, but I did get something done at the end.”
The 800m is one of the higher quality fields in Australia at the moment, and last night the defending national champion Claudia Hollingsworth showed her class to break the two minute barrier in a time of 1:59.30.
“Super exciting to be back out here. I just wanted to test my fitness tonight and just front run and see where I’m at.”
Shortly after the race, Hollingsworth was among a group of athletes who were officially recognised on the track for having made their senior international debuts in the past 12 months.
After an incredible 12 months which has seen her becoming National Record holder in several events, Georgia Griffith dominated the 3000m to add the Australian title to the Australian record she set last year. It was solid field of runners which included Olympian Cara Feain-Ryan and Sarah Billings, but Griffith ran a strong race to win by over five seconds. Having broken the National Mile Record just over a week ago, HER WAY asked Georgia to what she attributes her form at this early stage of the season:
“I’m definitely doing the best at this point of the year that I have in ages, and I think a big part of that is just having a really consistent last year with no injuries.”
Olympian Kristie Edwards backed up being part of the 4 x 100m win earlier in the evening to run a 100m PB in the final women’s event of the evening, claiming that title from Chloe Mannix-Power. 4 x 100m squad member Ella Connolly was fourth.
In the 100m Para MultiClass race, Paris Paralympics medalist Mali Lovell broke the National T36 Record on her home track in a time of 14.36s, while the men’s 4 x 100m relay National record was also broken.
Emily Whelan won the Hugh Jump event, clearing 1.85m, while Desleigh Owusu broke the Meet Record to win the Triple Jump.
The Australian Summer Series comtinues in a couple of weeks with the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, followed by the National Champs.