By 
Athletics NSW
On day two of the 53rd Australian Junior Championships, being held at Homebush this week, two NSW athletes, Annabel McDermott and Samantha Peace achieved automatic selection for the IAAF world youth championships to be held in Cali, Columbia in July.
Competing in the under-18 discus, Pearce was first to confirm, but it was a nervous time.
“Going into the competition I felt the pressure of having to win to get automatic selection. I went straight from getting sized for the Australian uniform to my warm ups, so I was hungry for a win, but it did increase the nerves a little,” recalled the Nowra athlete..
Peace was the only athlete with qualifiers and the required two, so the scenario for her was she needed to win the event to achieve automatic selection.
“Going into the competition I knew the girls from the younger age group coming up would be my biggest competition,” she said.
She started nervously with throws of 44.08m, 41.86m and 43.89m. All well below her five qualifying marks and personal best of 48.12m. Worse still she was in second place.
“Sitting behind them going into the final made me realize that I needed to change my approach. Luckily my good friendPhoebe Carter had come to watch, so instead of going to the gate to see my coach, I went to have a good laugh. After this my muscles were relaxed and my mind was clear.”
The result was a 46.79m throw, her sixth qualifying mark and she moved back into the lead which she held until the end of competition.
Read the full story on the Athletics NSW website
Athletics Victoria
Ringwood sprinter Danielle Shaw added a second qualifying time of 13.70 seconds in the heats of the 100m hurdles on day two of the Australian Junior Athletics Championships to go one step closer to securing a spot on the plane to Columbia for the world youth championships in July.
Shaw agonisingly missed the qualifying standard by point zero one of a second on two occasions in Melbourne and can guarantee automatic selection by winning tomorrows under 18 final.
Once again Shaw will go head-to-head with Williamstown’s Celeste Mucci who qualified second fastest in 13.98 seconds.
Maccabi athlete Jemima Montag claimed silver in the 5000m race walk in a time of 24:10.16 behind Queensland’s Clara Smith who gained automatic selection and the gold medal with a time of 23:08.42.
Yarra Ranges Lateisha Willis’s dominance in 2015 continued with victory in the women’s under 16 200m hurdles with a time of 27.78 seconds, well clear of Queensland pair Camryn Newton-Smith (29.05) and Tamara Hotten (29.36)
Box Hill’s Nana-Adoma Owusu-Afriyie was the first Australian across the line in the women’s under 17 200m to claim the national title in 24.51 seconds. Athletics Essendon’s Cameron Searle continued Victoria’s strong performances in the 200m taking honours in the under 17 men’s event with a time of 22.17 seconds.
Collingwood jumper Timothy Dodd claimed gold with a clearance of 1.81m to win the under 15 high jump ahead of New South Wales pairAngus Clark (1.79m) and Harrison Menin (1.75m).
Casey Cardina’s Rebecca Henderson won gold in the women 3000m race walk in a time of 14:20.37 minutes ahead of fellow VictorianJemma Peart (14:48.40).
Read the full story on the Athletics Victoria website
Athletics Queensland
The second day of competition was a big day filled with many medalists, personal bests and meet records set by the Queensland team. The day ran much smoother without any weather interruptions allowing the athletes to focus on their events better. We came away with one Australian Record set by Matt Denny and four meet records set by Clara Smith, Matt Denny, Rochelle Vidler and Katie Hayward. There were so many high achievers across the fields and we’ve highlighted them below, clearly the field eventers are the over achievers of day two.
Read the full report on the Athletics Queensland website
Athletics WA
Day Two saw #TEAMWA2015 collect a massive seventeen medals and a Youth Qualifier in the women’s high jump for Claire Gibson.
Following last night’s electrical storm, the 5000m walk was run this morning with Declan Tingay collecting Team WA’s first Gold medal of the day in a new personal best of 21:35:85. Fellow walkers Zac Newton and Tiahna Ruane both finished with bronze in the U15 men and women’s 3000m Walk.
In the jumps, Clare Gibson took out the U18 national title in a World Youth Qualifying jump of 1.77m.
‘I was really happy with the competition because I’ve been trying to get 1.77m all season. It’s a big relief to jump it, a season best for me. Hopefully I can do it again on Sunday, get a World Youth qualifier again and get in the team.’ said Gibson.
Having won the national title, Gibson now only needs to register one more jump at 1.77m to ensure her selection in the World Youth team heading to Cali.
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