Complete Madness Sports @ Australian Olympic Trials

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Complete Madness Sports - Press Release

Sydney, Australia – February 28th-29th , 2003

Australian National Championships results and report

Feb 28th – Under 20 Men

Competing in the Under 20 Men’s competition CMS assisted athlete Neil Joubert (16) was aiming for a medal position and was ranked 3rd coming into the competition. However, the athletes all had problems with run-ups, winds and poles, resulting in a most interesting result where 4 of the 6 competitors failed to clear an opening height. The competition was won by Box Hill’s Joel Pocklington (17) with a clearance of 4.80m. Joel is coached by super coach Mark Stewart (more on this later!).

Neil was unfortunately one of those athletes who narrowly failed to clear his opening height.

Feb 28th – Open Women

CMS women’s record holder Irie Hill competed in the open women’s pole vault, along with CMS assisted athletes Jacinta Lynn and Sarah Wiltshire.

Sarah is a fellow Melbourne University athlete, coached by Michael Bucovic, Jacinta is a member of Ivanhoe Harriers, coached by Peter Rule.
The competition started at 3.20m, with the action for the CMS team starting at 3.40m with a first time clearance for Sarah at this height. At 3.55m Jacinta also elected to joint the competition and both she and
Sarah were successful at this height first time, moving into equal first place.

3.70m brought Irie into the competition, competing on 12 steps Irie is using the same poles at present she used off her full run last season, so clearances are a bit hit and miss as she gets used to the dynamics of the jump right now. She negotiated 3.70m at her second attempt. Jacinta and Sarah bowed out at this height, to both their frustrations.

At 3.85m Irie went up to the next pole and went clear again on her second attempt, along with Sophie Chiet of New Zealand. Melina Hamilton, Rosanna Ditton and Wendy Young all entered the competition at this height, and all went clear first time.

4.00m proved to be the undoing of Irie, jumping on the biggest pole she has ever used flex wise in her life she was not able to get the timing of the jump right until the final jump. Unfortunately, getting the jump right meant the stands were slightly out, despite a coach/athlete discussion before hand where the coach (who always knows right!) decided not to move the stands and the athlete (who is never right) would have been right on this occasion… such is the life of a pole vaulter!

Also failing at this height was Olympic Silver Medallist Tatiana Grigorieva, who now has to post a qualifier in the next few weeks and hope that she will still be selected.

The competition, which was possibly the most exciting since the Olympic final in Australia, moved on to the point where at 4.25m just 2 athletes were competing for the chance of a guaranteed spot on the Olympic team. Rosanna Ditton who was the defending champion (coached by Super coach Mark Stewart) and Kym Howe the Commonwealth Games silver medallist (coached by Vault guru Alex Parnov). Both athletes went clear first time at this height, leaving Rosanna ahead on count back from an earlier height. This was an Olympic ‘B’ qualifier and an equal personal best for Rosie.

4.30m came up, with Kym first to jump. Both athletes had narrow failures on the first and second attempts. To guarantee a place at the Olympics the athletes had to clear the ‘A’ qualifier of 4.40m, so the pressure was on. Kym sailed over 4.30m at the third attempt, putting all the pressure back on Rosie. Rosie followed up by an equally good clearance, setting a new personal best and taking back first place.

4.35m on the scoreboard, and all the athletes and fans (the stands around the vault were packed by this point), getting nervous. 2nd attempts, Kym clears, Rosie narrowly fails. Rosie elects to pass her last jump and the bar goes up to the Olympic qualifier height of 4.40m.
Kym jumps first, sailing over at the first attempt with her cleanest jump of the night. Rosie barrels in, rocks back, flies up and just tips the bar on the way over, a couple of bounces and down it falls.

Kym has one jump at 4.45m and then calls it a night, Rosie lives to fight another day and has until July now to cement her place on the team.

Results.

Finals
1 Howe, Kym WAIS 4.40m OL A
4.10 4.25 4.30 4.35 4.40 4.45
XO O XXO XO O XXX
2 Ditton, Rosanna VIS 4.30m OL B
3.85 4.00 4.10 4.25 4.30 4.35 4.40
O O O O XXO XX X
3 Hamilton, Melina NZL 4.15m
3.85 4.00 4.15 4.25
O O XO XXX
4 Young, Wendy SASI 4.00m
3.85 4.00 4.10
O XXO XXX
5 Chiet, Sophie NZL 3.85m
3.40 3.55 3.70 3.85 4.00
O O O XO XXX
6 Hill, Irie VIC 3.85m
3.70 3.85 4.00
XO XO XXX
7 Draisey, Emma NZL 3.70m
3.70 3.85
O XXX
8 Beckman, Amy QLD 3.70m
3.55 3.70 3.85
O XXO XXX
9 Wiltshire, Sarah VIC 3.55m
3.40 3.55 3.70
O O XXX
9 Lynn, Jacinta VIC 3.55m
3.55 3.70
O XXX
11 Claffey, Juliet IRL 3.40m
3.20 3.40 3.55
XXO O XXX
-- Grigorieva, Tatian SASI NH
4.00
XXX
-- Lucock, Charmaine QAS DNS

U20 Women

CMS junior record holder Adele Holland, along with her Melbourne University colleague Sarah Riseley both competed in the under 20 competition, along with CMS assisted athlete Jacinta Lynn, who was backing up from the night before.

With her lower back problem still not at 100% Sarah had to make the decision during warm up as to compete or not, and felt that the back was not so bad to warrant pulling out, and thanks to some sterling work from the Western Australian physiotherapist, she lined up with her team mate.

During the warm-up it was obvious that the problem was going to cause a challenge, so Sarah tried off 8 steps with the 12’ poles which we had brought along “just in caseâ€Â