PERTH SET TO LAUNCH OLYMPIC YEAR

David Tarbotton for Athletics Australia

The wait is nearly over with the first major track meet of the Olympic year just days away. The Jandakot Track Classic this Saturday night in Perth is the popular destination for high quality sprinting and jumping and has attracted strong fields as they strive for Tokyo Olympic qualification.

MEN POLE VAULT

It has been nine months since Commonwealth Games champion and local Kurtis Marschall has sprinted down the pole vault runway.

“It feels so good to finally be back competing and doing the one thing that I’m actually good at,” said Marschall.

“It’s been almost a year now of doing things that I’m no good at like weightlifting and running and correcting technique. It’s about time I get to do something that I love doing.”

After competing at the 2019 Australian Championships his season was over with two injury during the year – a stress fracture in his L5 vertebrae and a rotator cuff tendon tear in his right shoulder.

Marschall has had to be patient.

“I had to make a fair few adjustments coming back from injury to make sure that we reload correctly and don’t get an injury from ramping it back up too quickly. We have had to adjust the number of jumps I’m allowed to do per session to gradually increase the load. But it’s been a long time now, but I’m almost back at full capacity again which is really exciting.”

He is in search of the auto qualification height of 5.80m for Tokyo this domestic season and providing great competition in Perth will be his very strong squad coached by Paul Burgess.

“Angus (Armstrong) is a whole new animal this year, after a solid winter in the gym he is looking really sharp. He jumped a 12 step PB of 5.51m recently and is set to go even bigger off a full run up after transitioning to the next length of pole (5.20m). Declan (Carruthers) will be off eight steps and is using the Jandakot Track Classic as a stepping-stone before opening off full run in Canberra. Stephen (Clough) is set to go big also with it being his first full run up competition of the season also, where last year he almost cleared 5.50m.”

MEN 100M

No surprise, as it is every year, the men’s 100m is a feature event as athletes have flocked from the east coast to race in the expected ideal conditions. It looks to be a terrific battle between Rohan Browning, New Zealand teenager Edward Nketia and the inform Jack Hale.

In 2019 Nketia took the national title, while Hale is running into blistering form, over the weekend winning the ACT Championships 100m in a lifetime best of 10.14 (0.5).

“I’m wrapped with it - run with little or no wind,” said Hale in Canberra.

“I’m in for a good summer. We’ll keep doing everything right for the next couple of months. We are out here trying to chase the 10.05 so that is the perfect start to it.”

Sydney’s Rohan Browning sends an ominous warning about his current training form compared to last year when he opened his 100m season with a time of 10.08 – the fastest by an Australian for 12 years.

“This time last year, I wasn’t tracking very well at all with a few injuries and niggles and I’d barely touched blocks or run in spikes,” he told Steve Butler from The West Australian. “This year, I’m tracking much, much better and training the best I have.”

With the need to chase tough 2020 Olympic standards, Browning is ready to perform first up.

“Normally people ease into the season, but Perth has a reputation of having one of the fastest tracks in the country, especially when the Fremantle Doctor comes through. So I don’t see any reason why there won’t be some quick times and it is a pretty stacked field.”

Set to push the big three is national junior recordholders Jake Doran. The North Queensland teenager, a 10.15 athlete, is returning well from an injury at the Oceania Championships in July 2019 and ran a good series of races in Canberra to placed second to Hale in the final in 10.33. But the one to watch is definitely Matt Rizzo. The 2017 Stawell Gift winner, who surprised last summer running 10.49, but this summer has continued that progression. At the ACT Champs he ran PBs of 10.38 in the heat and 10.34 in the final to place third (& a windy 10.26 in the semi-final). He also claimed the scalps of Alex Hartmann and Anas Abu-Ganaba in the final

Local interest will be in the form of Aaron Besland who has had a few good wins this summer over 60m and 200m.

WOMEN POLE VAULT

The first feature event on the program is the women’s pole vault with locals Elizveta Parnova and Nina Kennedy, along with Queensland’s Commonwealth Games representative Lisa Campbell and NZ’s Olivia McTaggart set to battle. Australia’s equal fourth highest vaulter in history, Parnova will be searching for the Tokyo qualifier of 4.70m, within her reach after raising her PB to 4.60m last July. An athlete who has reached those loft standards is Kennedy, 22, who two years ago cleared 4.71m and will be lining up for just her second competition in 18 months.

WOMEN 400M HURDLES

Australia’s growing depth in women’s 400m hurdles will be on show at the WA Athletics Stadium. World Championships representatives Sarah Carli and Sara Klein will be joined by World University Games representative Genevieve Cowie. Klein, the Oceania champion recently opened her season with a strong 57.89 in Wollongong, then 56.99 in Canberra last weekend. However, world championships semi-finalist, Carli, who missed the Tokyo Olympic standard by just 0.03 seconds, will be the one to watch.

“Perth will be my first hurdles race of the season. I would love to start with a sub-56, but not too worried about chasing times right now,” said Carli.

“I trialled a new stride pattern in Doha so would be happy to just get my rhythm back early and start the season with that same pattern.”

Carli’s improvement is such in the 400m hurdles, her personal best in the 400m is only marginally quicker.

“Since Doha we have really been focusing on my flat running. I only started hurdling again in the new year so I'm hoping I can transition that into my hurdles as the season progresses.

MEN LONG JUMP

The men’s long jump will be one of the best competitions on the program. Australia has just 19 eight metre jumpers and four will line-up here with their PBs current. Henry Frayne’s best was in 2018, while for Darcy Roper, Henry Smith and Chris Mitrevski lifetime bests were achieved in 2019.

The event also sees the anticipated clash between the two leading Australian’s Henry Frayne and inform Darcy Roper, who leapt a PB 8.20m in Canberra, a World Indoor qualifier, but just short of the Olympic standard.

Frayne and Roper have rarely meet ever in long jump competitions. They were in different qualifying pools in Doha, only Frayne progressed from the qualifier at the Commonwealth Games trials, so we have to go back to two competitions in 2015 and 2016 to find their head-to-head which is 1-1. At the 2015 nationals Roper was third (7.91m) and Frayne fourth (7.88m), while at the 2016 nationals Frayne won silver with 8.16m and Roper was sixth (7.71m).

While Frayne, Smith and Roper were in Doha, Mitrevski was home preparing for the 2019/20 season and opened in the best possible style clearing a personal best of 8.05m in November.

The support cast in this event is not shabby, with Brisbane-based Western Australian, Jeremy Andrews obviously keen to impress back home. The Gary Bourne-coached athlete who owns a PB of 7.75m, leapt a windy 7.85m in Canberra last weekend. NSW’s William Freyer has been going under the radar for a couple of years. The 20-year-old recently leapt 7.59m early this summer and improved that to 7.66m (& two windy 7.71m jumps) in Canberra. He is a product of The King’s School in Sydney, who have in recent years developed Nick Hough, Nick Andrews, John Gikas and Josh Clarke.

Other feature athletes and events:

• Commonwealth Games long jump medallist Brooke Stratton returns to the scene of her national record, set four years ago. She opened her summer in Canberra with a strong series topped by two 6.67m jumps, just short of her 6.74m best in 2019. She will also be hunting the Olympic standard of 6.82m.

• Two internationals highlight the women’s discus field with local World Para Athletics Championships medallist Sarah Edmiston (F44 class) and dual Commonwealth games representative Taryn Gollshewsky competing. Sarah will be chasing a distance of 35.21m - Athletics Australia's A standard for the 2020 Paralympic (F64, includes F44).

• After missing the world championships with injury, Riley Day returned to the track last weekend in Canberra with some sharp performances in the 100m and 200m. She will race national 200m champion Nana Owusu, who also ran in Canberra with her highlight a 11.44 (2.2m/s) windy 100m.

• World Championships 110m hurdles semi-finalist, Nick Hough was pushed domestically in 2019 by his big improving NSW team mates, Nick Andrews and Jacob McCorry. This season McCorry has sought out the coaching of Sally Pearson and Andrews has been training in America, so both should be on the improve again.

• The women’s 800m looks a match between Australia and New Zealand with four from each nation on the start line. Despite the impressive Kiwi pair – Katherine Camp (2:02.63 in 2019) and Angie Petty (PB 1:59.06 – 2015, 2:02.33 in 2019), Victorian Morgan Mitchell is the overwhelming favourite. Her breakthrough 2019 season over 800m was outstanding, including a PB of 2:00.06 and semi-final in Doha the first Aussie to achieved this in 16 years at the world championships and just the second to do so behind Tamsyn Lewis-Manou.

Local interest will be following the rise of 15-year-old Kayla Van Der Linden (PB 2:05.56) who has been regularly running under the standard for the 2020 World U20 Championships (2:06.00).

• A big field of spear throwers hit the javelin runup in Perth. There are three 80 metres throwers in Ben Langton Burnell (NZL), Hamish Peacock (TAS) and Luke Cann (WA), but major interest will be if 20-year-old Sydney-sider Cameron McIntyre can join the 80m club, after he launched the spear to 78.85m last month.