Montag sisters soar at Victorian champs
SISTERS Piper and Jemima Montag have continued their impeccable form in track and field, putting in superb performances to combine for three gold medals at the Victorian Junior Track and Field Championships at Lakeside Stadium on the weekend.
SISTERS Piper and Jemima Montag have continued their impeccable form in track and field, with the Maccabi athletes putting in superb performances to combine for three gold medals at the Victorian Junior Track and Field Championships at Lakeside Stadium on the weekend.
Click here to watch the video of the Montag sisters.
Jemima set the Victorian record at under-16, under-17 and under-18 level when she smashed her personal best (PB) to win the 5km walk in 22:32.95.
The 16-year-old has produced several remarkable results in recent times, which she hopes to continue as she prepares for the World Race Walking Cup in China in May.
“My most exciting [race] was two weeks ago in Hobart qualifying for the World Cup,” Jemima told The AJN.
“At the moment I’m starting a big block of nine-week training leading up to China, where I’ll be doing a 10km [event] on the road.
“I’m really excited, there’s not many reasons to be nervous in that sort of race, because there’s no pressure and I don’t really know the competition that well.
“It’ll just be really awesome to be in the top five, or a medal would be amazing, but we’ll just see.”
Piper, 13, was the standout in both the shot put and triple jump events, winning both titles in convincing fashion.
However, her luck ran out when she stumbled in the final stages of the 90m hurdles, just missing out on a place.
“I was a bit disappointed with my final hurdle falling over, but I was happy with the two gold,” Piper said.
“I’m trying to peak right now, at this part of the season, because this is when the big competitions are on, so yeah [my form] is pretty good.”
Piper is currently taking part in four disciplines – shot put, triple jump, long jump and hurdles – and said she plans to continue until the time is right to focus on one.
“I’m going to try and keep the four events going,” Piper said.
“With the four events that I do, the training is pretty similar, so doing some of the same training really benefits all of them.”
The young and ambitious star duo are also daring to dream about Olympic berths in the years to come.
“I love to dream about the 2020 Olympics,” Piper said.
Jemima added: “I’d love to do the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and our dream is to do the 2020 Tokyo [Olympics], that’d be awesome.
“We said when we were at the opening ceremony for the Maccabiah [Games] that in 2020 we’d be at the opening ceremony.”
Fellow Maccabi athletes Asher Marks, who produced two PBs in the under-16 200m and 400m, and Saul Lotzoff, who ran the under-15 1500m in just under five minutes, also per- formed well at the junior championships.
ASHLEY SHENKER
Photo: Peter Haskin
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