Aussie Results/News 2023

[El Toro]

While skimming Qld results, I noticed the 4th placed athlete in the U20 3000 championships was named Ollie Boltz.

I wondered if he was any relation to Danny Boltz, a distance runner sitting at 18th on the AUS marathon list with 2:11:10 from 1991. He represented his native SUI at the 1992 games finishing 55th in 2:25:50 compared to the AUS runners of de Castella in 26th and Moneghetti in 48th.

Well, yes, Ollie is the offspring of Danny Boltz and wife Jill Hunter, an ENG/ GBR distance runner and 1988/1992 Olympian with rather better credentials than her husband with top 10 finishes at OG, WC, EC and WXC, a silver at CWG behind Liz McColgan and best times of 8:47.36 - 15:09.98 - 31:07.88.

Ollie only seems to have competed a small number of times over the last three years and turns 19 next month. He's not exactly setting the world alight but given his parental strengths he really needs to go much longer, not an easy task when living in tropical Cairns.

[Trickstat]

Cairns is a bit of a contrast to Jill Hunter's upbringing in north-east England!

[Vault-emort]

I wonder why zero Aussies come to the NZ champs,

Do ANZ pay for flights/accomodation?
Does NZ Champs earn extra ranking points?
Why would they bother?

Aussie athletes have hardly competed in NZL Champs for 50 or more years

[Daniel Foster]

While it clashes with your state champs, I wonder why zero Aussies come to the NZ champs, especially in certain events where we dominate in the region in terms of top performer or depth;
- W100
- WPV
- MSP
- MHJ

Just to name the obvious one's.

Interestingly the one name I saw was Kayla Cuba, who would have had no competition for her in the TJ, but she was a DNS.

Hobbs may have the top legal time in the region over the last two years (11.07), but Anang's 11.20 against a 1.4 headwind is almost equal when adjusted for wind. Top 5 NZ women's times over the last 5 years = 11.07, 11.45, 11.51, 11.47, 11.64. Aussie top 5 over the last two years = 11.20, 11.25, 11,29, 11.35, 11.39. In the W100, the competitive races will always be in Australia.

[Glorydays]

Hobbs may have the top legal time in the region over the last two years (11.07), but Anang's 11.20 against a 1.4 headwind is almost equal when adjusted for wind. Top 5 NZ women's times over the last 5 years = 11.07, 11.45, 11.51, 11.47, 11.64. Aussie top 5 over the last two years = 11.20, 11.25, 11,29, 11.35, 11.39. In the W100, the competitive races will always be in Australia.

Not sure whose times in NZ you're looking at but last 5 years no. 1 in NZ (all Hobbs) have been: 11.07, 11.08, 11.27, 11.38, 11.37. So comparable for the first 3 years then a step above. Agree re Anang but she's a step ahead of the other Aussies, to me going head to head with Hobb's would be more benefit....will see soon I guess!

[Glorydays]

Do ANZ pay for flights/accomodation?
Does NZ Champs earn extra ranking points?
Why would they bother?

Aussie athletes have hardly competed in NZL Champs for 50 or more years

Why would they bother.....well if they're at the elite level some competitive pressure to get an Auto Q for major championships (in events like I listed).

[Vault-emort]

Why would they bother.....

Many Aussie 'stars' didn't even compete in their own state championships this weekend. Not surprising they didn't pay to fly over and stay in hotels to compete against (mostly) lesser competition in NZL. And some have a Continental Silver meet in Sydney to compete in this weekend.

NZ's # 2 (probably) male athlete Hamish Kerr doesn't even have a clothing sponsor although he got upgraded on his flight back from Europe. This lack of a sponsor amazes me even though apparently Naa Anang doesn't have a sponsor either and ran her 11.20 in old long jump spikes.

It would be good however if AUS & NZL had a more co-ordinated season's programme to aid in world rankings & relay competition.

[El Toro]

Why would they bother.....well if they're at the elite level some competitive pressure to get an Auto Q for major championships (in events like I listed).

Attending competitions is purely strategic and, in Australia at least, athletes have to get agreement from high performance managers on the shape of their season. They also have an obligation "to support the domestic season" in order to qualify for teams and, of course, they don't have unlimited travel budgets.

I don't know about NZL but the AUS championships entries have to be agreed between the two federations, so it's just not open slather for NZL to compete here either.

There's obviously a higher value placed on the Sir Graeme Douglas meet. Here's the entries for the SGD where I've listed the AUS entries (last update 27 Feb)

M100 7
M400 0
M400H 1
M1500 0
MLJ 2
MPV 1
MSP 0
MJT 0

W100 6
W400 2
W1500 0
W400H 0
WJT 1
WPV 1
WLJ 2

They do have 4x100 listed but no entries at the moment. Are that many sprinters going for the individual events or is the real focus for both nations trying to qualify in relays.

At the moment there doesn't seem to be enough other nation sprinters to make an international team (there's only 19 other nation entries total) but they might get a few Oceania teams in.

[Vault-emort]

They do have 4x100 listed but no entries at the moment.

Sad as that is where AA should be spending some money for flights and hotels.

- Masters. Connolly. Lewis, Anang (yes please)
- Browning, Despard, Azzopardi, Hale (or whoever).

And maybe pay a few old fat Samoans or Tongans to jog around the track with a baton.

[El Toro]

Cairns is a bit of a contrast to Jill Hunter's upbringing in north-east England!

She actually used that example on her coaching website as "understanding extreme conditions". Fair enough too. Having grown up in the Qld tropics, I can guarantee it is sub-optimal for distance running all year round and the same for every event for the wet season.

[Vault-emort]

Having grown up in the Qld tropics, I can guarantee it is sub-optimal for distance running all year round and the same for every event for the wet season.

No surprise that for 70-odd years the Aussie swimmers have trained up north. And no surprise there have been few QLD distance stars (Benita one of the very few?).

[El Toro]

No surprise that for 70-odd years the Aussie swimmers have trained up north. And no surprise there have been few QLD distance stars (Benita one of the very few?).

Yeah, the only future OG gold medallist I competed against (and beat!) in my youth was a swimmer.

Benita was born in Mackay (birthplace of C. Freeman and Sue Howland JT), about 10 hours highway driving south of Cairns and did most of her feats when not training in Qld at all, as far as I can remember.

Olympians, running more than 1500, Gerard Barrett 1980 OG 10k/Mar, Peter Nowill 2004 OG SC, Dane Bird-Smith 2016 OG 20kW but all from Brisbane, another 10 hours drive south of Mackay. Although sub-tropical, it's nothing like the oppressiveness of the true tropics.

Also, DNF queen, Nicky Carroll in the WMar WC late 90s, also Brisbane. There may be more that I can't remember but it's a sparse list compared to southern states, even allowing for population.

[Vault-emort]

Sue Howland JT).

grrr...Maurie Plant meet...

[El Toro]

grrr...Maurie Plant meet...

Ha! Sshhh, she lives in your town.

Sue was a super talent though, the longest arms ever on an AUS JTer, but very bad knees. I met her at a NQ champs and she complimented my technique.... but not my distance.

The Black report to me was like, yep, yep, of course, no surprise, especially the powerlifters, some of whom I knew. A but like reading about dope smoking hippies in the 60s.

[Vault-emort]

Ha! Sshhh, she lives in your town.

Sue was a super talent though, the longest arms ever

The Black report to me was like, yep, yep, of course, no surprise, especially the powerlifters, some of whom I knew. A but like reading about dope smoking hippies in the 60s.

Yes, I remember seeing her as a security guard at Parliament House. Rendell did that too, didn't he?

And yes, Maurie did lots for Australian athletes. I just found it strange that he would comment about 'big bad Ben' (Johnson) on TV but try to cover up for other cheats.