Aussie Results/News 2021

[Vault-emort]

Brisbane or Gold Coast are the only logical choices in Qld.

Perth might have a chance. Sydney too.

Can't see anywhere else having a chance in our winter, even if they had the facilities.

Cairns would probably struggle to put on a world junior champs.

[El Toro]

Brisbane or Gold Coast are the only logical choices in Qld.

Perth might have a chance. Sydney too.

Can't see anywhere else having a chance in our winter, even if they had the facilities.

Cairns would probably struggle to put on a world junior champs.

I think you've still got the same problems about white elephants.

Sydney is a properly sized legacy facility. It would be hard to invest there for two weeks especially with the arguments over stadium knock down and rebuild they've had recently.

Perth has just built a new football stadium so are unlikely to want to invest on a similar scale.

Gold Coast pulled up the track in their expanded football stadium and I don't think football would accept missing the necessary time for athletics. They've got their right sized stadium out of the CWG so athletics can f off. All the existing tracks are single tracks withouth the space beside for a full warm up facility or to build a big grandstand. I wouldn't think there's a big appetite for a new build so soon after the CWG.

Unless you get a drunken sailor as premier, these newly frugal times point to Brisbane and nowhere else. If nobody wants to build new for OG why would they for athletics?

[Vault-emort]

these newly frugal times point to Brisbane and nowhere else. If nobody wants to build new for OG why would they for athletics?

A World Championships doesn't require that much. Existing infrastructure would cope whereas an Olympics requires much much more.

One athletics track laid in a (say) 50k capacity stadium. Most footy - ex-Games stadiums in the main - have adjacent warm-up tracks. And footy schedules in a place like the Gold Coast could be easily be put on hold for a few months one season.

Most state governments would be happy to put some money into a stadium upgrade if it could benefit footy codes after the world's greatest athletes had pissed off home.

[Vault-emort]

Not too much going on this week with Little Athletics or Country Championships being held in some states.

The Victorian Champs continue in Melbourne with some of the more interesting fields:

200 Hale deBruin Romanin Johns
800 Mathews
LJ Mitrevski Smith Murphy

200 Basic Loizou Lane Coates
800 Bisset Maccagnini
LJ Stratton Burkitt
JAV Mitchell Mielczarek

The SA Champs commenced yesterday and continue over the weekend.

ADELAIDE - 26 FEB
Jav Roberts (b02) 51.11m

PERTH - 24 FEB
PV Parnova 4.30m

CANBERRA - 26 FEB
400H Boden 57.13

[El Toro]

Canberra Times has a story on Keely Small post Brisbane OG announcement + comments on her losing race on Thursday:

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7144481/brisbane-2032-olympics-swansong-in-smalls-sights/?cs=14280

Key points:
A home Olympics would be a nice swansong at the end of her career
She didn't feel great in her 800 but still ran 2:02 so she's confident she can hit the Q time
She's also running in the 1,000m race that is doubling as an attack on the NR and a fundraiser for Lifeline.

Relevant best performances:

World 2:28.98 Svetlana MASTERKOVA RUS (1st performer)

Cwlth 2:29.15 Faith KIPYEGON KEN (2)

Oceania 2:37.28 Angela PETTY NZL (=171)

AUS 2:37.80 Brittany MCGOWAN (202)
.
Keely Small and Catriona Bissett are both 1,000m virgins but should be able to put themselves well into the AUS alltime list.

[Vault-emort]

A home Olympics would be a nice swansong at the end of her career

The only athletes I can think of that held a world age (teen) record in a middle-distance event and was still competing at international level in her 30s are Elouise Wellings and Mary Decker. Good luck to her in joining a very small group.

[El Toro]

The only athletes I can think of that held a world age (teen) record in a middle-distance event and was still competing at international level in her 30s are Elouise Wellings and Mary Decker. Good luck to her in joining a very small group.

Hey, it's great to be young and indestructible but first things first - 1.59.50.

[Vault-emort]

Notable withdrawals outnumbered notable performances today:

MELBOURNE - 27 FEB
5kW Cowley 19-09.48 Thompson 19-43.42
U20 PV Cram (b03) 4.90m

5kW Montag 20-51.03
U20 PV Kenshole 3.99m
LJ Minko 6.03m (0.0)
U20 JAV Mielzcarek 51.91m

MINGARA - 27 FEB
100 (0.2) O'Neill 10.70
400 r2 Gunn 46.41

100 (1.1) Carroll 11.81

ADELAIDE - 27 FEB
HAM Carlin (b03) 56.63m

HJ Hewett (b05) 1.78m
PV Smallacombe 4.10m Lawson 4.00m

[AS]

Notable withdrawals outnumbered notable performances today:

MELBOURNE - 27 FEB
U20 PV Cram (b03) 4.90m

That guy should be a middle distance star... his first name is Wilson!!

[El Toro]

A World Championships doesn't require that much. Existing infrastructure would cope whereas an Olympics requires much much more.

One athletics track laid in a (say) 50k capacity stadium. Most footy - ex-Games stadiums in the main - have adjacent warm-up tracks. And footy schedules in a place like the Gold Coast could be easily be put on hold for a few months one season.

Most state governments would be happy to put some money into a stadium upgrade if it could benefit footy codes after the world's greatest athletes had pissed off home.

I've been pondering on this isssue a bit more in preference to working in the yard.

While a WC is cheaper than an OG or CWG, it still costs a lot of money. According to this article on Budapest's new stadium for 2023, they estimate 100m euro running costs and their new stadium costing 300m. Hungary's not the richest nation in Europe, so I'm sure the running cost in AUS wages is going to be relatively more.

I doubt you will get a lot of govt support to spend that every 12 years, just for athletics, where they will probably struggle for crowds and that's without even thinking about the stadium issue. Australia has been on a stadium building binge and every sport that has ongoing need for 30k+ spectators has or is just about to get a shiny new stadium.

Those sports no longer need to look for other big events to justify a new stadium for themselves, so they are not going to want to lose any time to accommodate for athletics. Melbourne 2006 was lucky because they could lay the MCG track between seasons and they got a better drained and structured surface back. Those things aren't possible with a July/August competition.

One possibility is that the Comm govt will run a bid process for a permanent venue and invest once in minimum sized, low maintenance facility with an 80 year design life. That would probably outlast the rotation policy, the WCs or WA.

[El Toro]

Cairns would probably struggle to put on a world junior champs.

Barlow Park is down for a potential Olympic upgrade to 20k seating....for soccer, so WC here we come!

However, the upgrade is still marked as TBC on the list below. It certainly seems one of the stupidest upgrades compared to some of the others given the poor support of the sport in NQ and FNQ:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairns_FC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Fury_FC

Link to list of potential venues:

https://www.austadiums.com/news/921/brisbane-2032-olympic-games-venues-revealed

[Vault-emort]

A few more results from today:

ADELAIDE
100 (1.0) Moss 10.59 Semmler 10.69
U20 400 Murphy (b03) 47.79 (0.6 PB for the son of Tania Van Heer)
LJ Callahan 7.39m
PV Downey 5.45m
DIS Page 56.06m

100 (-0.5) Lakara Stallan (b03) 12.09... 7) Stallan (b01) 12.73 8) Stallan (b01) 12.84*
1500 Eckel 4-15.89 Adams 4-18.09
HAM Hulley 60.65m

* Three sisters - including two twins - running in a State Championships final. Not sure it has happened before. There have been others like the distance-running Poyner sisters of the mid-70s, but I'm not sure they ever ran in the same championship event. #trivia

MELBOURNE
PV Gross 4.00m

[El Toro]

A few more results from today:

ADELAIDE

100 (-0.5) Lakara Stallan (b03) 12.09... 7) Stallan (b01) 12.73 8) Stallan (b01) 12.84*

* Three sisters - including two twins - running in a State Championships final. Not sure it has happened before. There have been others like the distance-running Poyner sisters of the mid-70s, but I'm not sure they ever ran in the same championship event. #trivia

Can't think of any in the same event but the many Achurch sisters were in many different Qld finals at the same time in the late 70s early 80s. Twins much more common but I'm not going down that rabbit hole.

A few more results from today:

ADELAIDE

U20 400 Murphy (b03) 47.79 (0.6 PB for the son of Tania Van Heer)

Sigh, TVH. Now there was a talent held back by soft bones. I think she had some deficiency due to her childhood, or am I making that up?

[Vault-emort]

Sigh, TVH. Now there was a talent held back by soft bones. I think she had some deficiency due to her childhood, or am I making that up?

Dunno, but she sure had lots of injury and bad luck through her track career.

I would love to see Tania's daughter Melarn (24.58 200m at age 17) back competing too but she seems to have had her own troubles over the past season or two.

[Speedster]

Dunno, but she sure had lots of injury and bad luck through her track career.

Great versatility over 100, 200, 400 during such a stacked era of female sprinters, ran her PBs in majors and maybe came to the 400m a little too late in her career where she might have done her best.

Good to see the speed genes passed on.