Summer Olympic Sports in between Olympics thread.

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On the weekend in Sydney the 4x100m women's relay team broke the oz national record. It was set in South Africa in March 2000 at altitude at Pietersburg of 42.99.

"Australia’s sprinters lit up the track with a new national 4x100m record of 42.94-seconds, with the quartet of Ebony Lane, Bree Masters, Ella Connolly and Torrie Lewis reaping the rewards of the relay program when shattering the 24-year record."

Currently its the 11th fastest time by a national team's 4x100m, team since 31st December 2022.

Under the old rules the IAAF/World Athletics Top List 16 national team rankings, got you a gig at the Olympics. For Rio and Tokyo they changed it to the 8 finalists from the year before the Olympics at the World Championships, and the fastest next 8 by the Top List rankings.

So under the old rules they would have been confident of going to Paris.

However the girls have to keep competing to make the Olympics as now they are going to have go to a World Athletics Relay competition in the Bahamas on 4th and 5th May. All 5 relay events will be mainly determined by placings at this event ie men's and women's 4x100m and men's women's and mixed 4x400m.

On the Saturday, the heats in each of the 5 relays will determine 8 teams who qualify ie each 5 relays will have 4 heats and each heat teams will be based on rankings and top 2 of each heat qualify for Paris. On the Sunday there are repechages and 6 more qualify for Paris. So that's 14 and the last 2 spots are based on the Top List rankings.

Current rankings.
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Road To | World Athletics

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Just on women's relay teams at the Olympics since 2000, Oz hasn't qualified a team since 2000 when we had Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, Lauren Hewitt and Nova Peris as the 3 main runners, but dropped the baton in the heats and didn't advance.

The 4x400m team has been better finished 5th in 2000 with Cathy, Jana, Nova and Melinda, but there was only 1/2 a second between 2nd and 5th. Oz qualified for Rio and made the final, but finished 8th and made Tokyo finished last in their heat and were ranked 14th of the 16 teams.

At World Champs the 4x100m have done a bit better than Olympics, but not that much since 2000. Final placings/rankings are as follows;
2003 14th of 20 teams, 2007 14th of 18, 2011 11th of 21, 2019 16th of 16, 2023 dropped the batton finished 17th of 17.
 
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Athletics Australia have done a good job with relays this year with camps and coaches. Importantly they have also arranged for overseas teams in almost all races. Times clocked by relay teams only count for world rankings if there is an international competitor in the race. It doesn't matter if it's some lowly team from Papua New Guinea or a Little Athletics team from NZ - as long as they are there.

These days you really have to have a plan to compete each year as if you miss out on World Champs or Olympics or World Relays, it's a tougher hill to climb the next year. So AA need to replicate this year's relay strategy every season from now on.

Unlike swimming, you can't just form a relay team when the team get to the Games/WCs (or switch around team members too much between heats & finals.

You don't really need to qualify teams for the World Junior Athletics champs, but good to see our U20 boys and girls have been part of this relay strategy and have already run times that give them chances of medals later this year.

The U20 girls have now set two national records this year and with Torrie Lewis in the team, that's likely to mean at least a 0.4 or 0.5 improvement which would already take them down to about 43.8 - an outstanding time for teenagers.
 
Plenty of athletics events on over the next few days.

- ALBIE THOMAS meet in Sydney (Thurs 7.30pm) features Australian Mile Championships and a few other events and will be streamed on the Athletics NSW Facebook & YT pages. Sadly no entry lists out yet.

- WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS in Serbia (Sat 9pm AEST) - Patrick Tiernan leads the Aussie team and we can watch live and free via 'Inside Track' on the World Athletics site (Free registration required).

- STAWELL GIFT (Saturday to Monday) will be streamed on 7Plus with Monday's final session also shown on TV. With the National Championships/Olympic Trials just a couple of weeks away, many big names have sensibly skipped Stawell this year, but likely still to be some good contests. Mia Gross is the only competitor I've seen listed who could make the Paris team.
 
AdelaideGT said:
Plenty of athletics events on over the next few days.

- ALBIE THOMAS meet in Sydney (Thurs 7.30pm) features Australian Mile Championships and a few other events and will be streamed on the Athletics NSW Facebook & YT pages. Sadly no entry lists out yet.

- WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS in Serbia (Sat 9pm AEST) - Patrick Tiernan leads the Aussie team and we can watch live and free via 'Inside Track' on the World Athletics site (Free registration required).

- STAWELL GIFT (Saturday to Monday) will be streamed on 7Plus with Monday's final session also shown on TV. With the National Championships/Olympic Trials just a couple of weeks away, many big names have sensibly skipped Stawell this year, but likely still to be some good contests. Mia Gross is the only competitor I've seen listed who could make the Paris team.
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My daughter runs the VAL events but as netball is starting up, she decided not to go to Stawell this year.
I think we've been to around 7 events this year, the most recent being Ringwood.
I think the morals for the women's semis are Payne, Wang Lecouteur, Zoe Neale, Mia Spencer, Santiglia (off 6.5 is great odds), Olivia May and Talia Martin off 10.25.
I'll be putting money on Wang Lecouteur, Neale, Santiglia and Windshuttle as a frontmarker smokey
 
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Dan Moody said:
I'll be putting money on Wang Lecouteur, Neale and Santiglia
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It's always hard to bet against those front-markers who, almost always, only compete in pro events so their true form is hard to judge.

I will probably be cheering for the SA 20yo Olivia Hastings who made the final last year. But her recent (massive) improvements in 'amateur' races means she will probably be handicapped out of any chance of a win (or even another finals spot).
 
Hastings did run very well today to win her heat but starting some 8m (nearly a second) behind most of the favourites, it would be amazing if she made the final.
 
AdelaideGT said:
Hastings did run very well today to win her heat but starting some 8m (nearly a second) behind most of the favourites, it would be amazing if she made the final.
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Great run, very dominant win.
Mannix-Power was easily the run of the day.
Windshuttle, Kinnersly, Layla Watson and Hastings should make the final based on their form today
 
Anybody in Adelaide heard anything about Lakara Stallan in local media news?

She was in good sprinting form early in the season but didn't compete in SA Champs and doesn't appear to be in their team for the Nationals. Injury??
 
Hectic fortnight of viewing on 9Now & 7Plus for fans of swimming & athletics.

Swimming Age Champs kicked off 9am this morning with finals from 6pm and continue through Sunday. After that the big boys and girls swim in the National Championships (but not Olympic trials).

The Athletics National Championships ARE Olympic trials and commence Thursday morning on 7plus with Open & U20 events for four days. After that U18 and other age championships will begin.
 
AdelaideGT said:
The Athletics National Championships ARE Olympic trials and commence Thursday morning on 7plus with Open & U20 events for four days. After that U18 and other age championships will begin.
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My nephew is throwing the hammer soon. Hoping for a good result and work towards 2028

I am here watching
 

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Drummond said:
So good!

Thinking about heading along tomorrow, finally a day off. Grandstand seating? Did you drive in or catch public transport?
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Drive in park at Bunnings walk across road.

We made the mistake of catching the train and doing a near full lap to get to the entrance
 
I'm going soon for today and again tomorrow. I assume the tickets are first in best dress re the grandstand, as there was no chance to book seats at online portal.
 
After Matt Denny's magnificent record in the disc today, I'm really looking forward to these finals over the next couple of hours.

Can the juniors Seb Sultana & Aleks Stoilova upset the senior champions in the 100s?
 
AdelaideGT said:
Even back in Olympic Sports Field days, there were always good crowds in Adelaide. I remember some of the big stars from interstate coming through the gates and going 'wow' when they saw the size of the crowd.
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Kensington was always good value.

Heard Jane Fleming on either last weeks or the week before SEN's House of Athletics show say that Kensington was her favourite athletics venue in Oz when she was competing. Didnt realise she was Prez of athletics australia.

Snaffled a seat in the grandstand 10m past the finish line.
 
Well done to Matt Denny for throwing a PB, Aus record and wel over the Olympic qualifing standard.

His 69.35m ranks him 4th in the world in this qualifying period for Paris.

3rd is Jamaican Mullings on 69.67m.

Ive heard Matt in a couple of interviews say he is sick of finishing 4th or 5th and knows he has to throw 70m to win a medal in Paris, and 70m might be good enough for gold.
 
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