Our next generation of athletes got their first taste of international competition with the World Athletics U20 Championships, which took place at the beautiful Pascual Guerrero Stadium in Cali, Columbia. After phenomenal domestic seasons our U20 athletes; Brodie Hicks (Steve Gaffney) Archie Noakes (Charlotte Wilson) and Ryan Tarrant (Adam Larcom) were selected to represent Australia at their first world championships. With Australian athletics entering a new “golden era” being selected as part of this strong Australian squad is a testament to the hard work of these three athletes and their coaches.
Archie Noakes featured on day one of the program with the 5000m final. It was a rough introduction to the world stage with the group staying tight for most of the race and featuring some tough jostling to claim space in the pack. In his first race at a major international competition Noakes showed great grit and determination to finish 18th with a time of 15:00.22. He was back again two days later in heat 1 of the 3000m steeplechase where he clocked 9:12.50 to finish 7th in his heat and 24th overall.
Brodie Hicks also made his debut on day one of the competition featuring in the mixed 4x400m relay featuring alongside Gus Simpfendorfer, Annie Pfeiffer and Txai Anglin. The team ran 3:27.08 SB to finish 5th in their heat but unfortunately just missed out on making it into the final after finishing 9th overall.
The Australian men’s 4x100m relay team featuring Ryan Tarrant, Lachlan Kennedy, Connor Bond and Aidan Murphy were sadly hit with the harsh reality of a DNF. With three extremely clean changeovers and an easy hold until the fourth, there were a number of positives to take out of the race despite the final result and we’re sure we will see this team bounce back from heartbreak with fantastic results in future.
Alwyn Jones was also selected as an Australian jumps coach for the championships. We’d like to congratulate him and his athlete Tiana Boras (Athletics Chillwell) on coming away with bronze in the women’s triple jump. Boras jumped 13.30m (-0.1) to finish third on countback.
