National under-18 pole vault champion Phillipa Hajdasz (VIC) has produced a personal best of 4.05m to claim silver at the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 in Cali, Colombia.
“It’s all I wanted, I didn’t even think I’d get that,” Hajdasz said.
“I was so nervous, every jump I felt so sick, I looked at all the others and that calmed me down”, Hajdasz said.
Much like the qualifying round Phillipa Hajdasz (VIC) cleared her first three heights of 3.70m, 3.85m and 3.95m before surpassing her previous lifetime best of 4.00m.
“I didn’t expect that, I thought I might crack under pressure, obviously not.”
The clean jumps made the difference for Hajdasz who claimed equal second on the night with Qiaoling Chen (CHN) who also jumped clean until missing out at 4.15m.
Sweden’s Elienor Werner was the standout in the pole vault, taking gold with a final clearance of 4.26m.
“She’s so nice, I wanted her to win,” Hajdasz said.
Townsville North Star athlete Brenton Foster (QLD) finished eighth in the final of the high jump with a clearance of 2.07m.
“I didn’t even realise… cause it was on count-back, I looked up at the board and realised I was top eight and was absolutely ecstatic, it’s amazing, top eight in the world is ridiculous”, Foster said.
University of Queensland walker Clara Smith (QLD) was the best-placed Australian in the 5,000m walk in the morning session on day four of competition, finishing seventh in a time of 23:22.36.
“I’m not used to the races like this, the start was fairly slow and, I think we can learn from it, train and come back stronger,” Smith said.
Fellow 5,000m walker Jemima Montag (VIC) finished 11th in a time of 23:46.57 after spending the first half of the race in the lead pack.
“I tripped so many times, the experience was overwhelming, you know they start off slow and that’s different, we usually start off nice and just keep it, where this was like 4.40 and, as prepared as you are there is nothing you can do,” Montag said.
QEII athlete Conor Warren (QLD) made easy work of qualifying for the javelin final, with a first up attempt of 77.03m well over the 72.00m automatic qualifying mark.
“I’m stoked, it’s really good, there was going to be pressure if I didn’t, it’s nice to get it on the first throw,” Warren said.
With the third best qualifying mark Warren heads into Sunday’s final with plenty of confidence.
“I’m going to put everything into it, this one I had to relax, I’m too stiff sometimes and this one I was relaxed; in the final I’m really going to give it my all,” Warren said.
It wasn’t to be for Australia in the10,000m walk final on day four, Victorian Kyle Swan finished 33rd in a time of 50.42.45 and, unfortunately Tyler Jones (NSW) didn’t finish the race after pulling out at the half-way mark.
Queanbeyan athlete Andrea Thompson (NSW) jumped a competition best of 5.71m, but, it wasn’t enough to progress through to the final of the long jump finishing 17th overall.
Sydney Pacific athlete Cameron McEntyre (NSW) failed to progress to the final of the javelin after two fouled attempts and a final mark of 54.00m.
It was a disappointing finish to Jack Hale (TAS) world youth campaign, breaking in the 200m semi-final round.
