July 14 2008
They may have had to wait until the second last event on the program, but Australia has won its first medal at the 12th edition of the World Junior Championships thanks to a brilliant run from the women’s 4x400m relay team.
The team were not considered a medal chance leading into the championships, but like the members of the 28-strong team have done over the six days of the championships, they rose to the occasion and claimed a bronze medal.
Brittney McGlone ran a stellar opening leg of 55.3 seconds to pass the baton to NSWIS’s Trychelle Kindgom, who used her 800m running tactical prowess to position the Australian team in 6th place at the end of her 54.2 second leg.
To the astonishment of the crowd NSWIS’s Olivia Tauro took off at such speed at the start of the third leg that she must have almost run a personal best over the first 200m. She moved the team through to second and despite tightening up over the final 50m and collapsing as she handed off the baton, kept the team in fourth place and contention for a medal with a 52.8 second split.
It then came down to 400m finalist Angeline Blackburn to anchor the team. The Jump Start to London 2012 Indigenous squad athlete showed that she is destined for further representative honours as she ran her leg with experience beyond her years, tailing the runners from the Ukraine and France before moving onto their shoulder as she entered the final straight. In a strong run to the line Blackburn breasted the tape only three-hundredths of a second shy of the second placed Ukrainian team, with a phenomenal final leg of 51.8 seconds and a well deserved medal for the Australian team in a time of 3:34.23.
NSWIS’s ‘top eight’ performances at the 12th IAAF world junior championships:
Trychelle Kingdom, Olivia Tauro: 4x400m relay, bronze, 3:34.23
Ryan Gregson, 1500m, fifth, 3:48.23
Bridey Delaney, 1500m, fifth, 4:21.20
Trychelle Kingdom, 800m, seventh, 2:06.84
James Kaan, 800m, eighth, 1:52.41