The 93rd Australian Athletics Championships brought to a close the Australian Athletics Tour and what an event it was. The level of performance at the championships followed on from great results across the course of the domestic athletics season, and it is with great pride that I reflect on what has been an exciting start to 2015 for athletics in Australia.
This season has been a very busy one, but week-after-week we have had the privilege of witnessing the very best our country has to offer competing on the track and in the field. The depth of talent at the resoundingly successful Australian Athletics Tour Finals in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as impressive head-to-head battles for coveted medals at the Nationals, has ensured that this season has been one of the best in recent memory.
In recent days, many of these high-performing athletes have been rewarded with selection to the Australian Flame team bound for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China. The announcement of this team sits alongside the selection of squads for the IAAF World Youth Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games, and the upcoming confirmation of some of those that will compete at the IPC Athletics World Championships and the Summer Universiade.
The initial contingent confirmed for Beijing 2015 is impressively strong. It features Olympic medallists Sally Pearson and Jared Tallent, Commonwealth champions Eleanor Patterson, Alana Boyd, Kim Mickle and Dani Samuels, national record holders Melissa Breen and Alex Rowe and Australian champions including Jeff Riseley, Nicholas Hough, Brandon Starc, Julian Wruck and Ella Nelson.
