Golden form at Oceania Championships
GOLD medal wins for Sydney's Steven Solomon and Melbourne's Jemima Montag at last week's 2019 Oceania Track and Field Championships in Townsville are helping both take the next step to achieving bigger goals to come.
GOLD medal wins for Sydney’s Steven Solomon and Melbourne’s Jemima Montag at last week’s 2019 Oceania Track and Field Championships in Townsville are helping both take the next step to achieving bigger goals to come.
Montag, 21, beat her previous PB by more than nine seconds to finish first in the women’s 10km race walk in 43:50.84, beating Australian teammate Katie Hayward by almost 105 seconds.
It proved to be the perfect warm-up for the 2018 Commonwealth Games women’s 20km gold medallist’s next event – the 2019 World University Games – in Naples next week.
Montag said the win helped her to earn more IAAF Walks Challenge points, moving her up from ninth on the rankings to fourth.
Solomon, who is nearing full fitness again after recovering from niggling injuries, won gold in the men’s 400m final in 46.12 seconds, narrowly beating runner-up Tyler Gunn (46.61) and Alex Beck (46.61).
He then teamed up with Gunn, Beck and Ian Halpin to help Australia win gold in the men’s 4x400m relay in 3:08.67, ahead of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
“I would have loved the time to have been better … but I’m in a really good headspace at the moment,” Solomon said.
He will now focus on preparing for the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa, and the 2019 Athletics World Championships in Qatar.
SHANE DESIATNIK
comments