been looking through the results from the Australian Athletics nationals for U/20’s and U/23’s.
what a joke many events had as little as 2 starters, looks like the decision to cancel the December U/20’s age group at the schools nationals is another great move by AA.
i dont know one coach who wanted the U/20 removed from the allschools meet the official line is its to try and increase the depth of the Feb carnival - hello its a new year and a new age group for many of these athletes, added to this you have those leaving school and starting uni and or work for the first time who would be unable to leave for 4-5 days.
2 starters… wow.
sounds like its starting to become as good as amature boxing now ey!! I used to work with a guy whose son won a national boxing title… Only two turned up, the kid was 14 and the size of him, he was about the size of a normal 20yr old.
he is close to Darren is more ways than one - seems to have the same hamstrings at times to.
Hey Cool dont worry i can see some regional newspaper this week running a story on how these local kids came 2nd in australia, take a look at the times of the U/20’s female 400mh 63 high won a medal from memory :eek:
i propose a 20 year breeding plan with Jamiaca and i am in charge of quality control please im only kidding if you take offence to that
i may have read the link incorrectly but i thought the 200 final followed the 400, so hammies presumably were not the issue. the kid who won the 400 came second in the 200 (from memory). anyway I thought there may have been a story there, maybe Mulcahy didn’t want to run the 400 and the officials may have done the old “you’ve entered, you must compete now or you must forfeit all subsequent races at this meet”.
Kurt was in front the whole way and about 50m to go started to drop and lean forward and finally his toe clipped the track and he fell. This all happened as Dylan got up to his shoulder.
Dylan went back to see if Kurt was okay prior to Kurt finishing the race.
Yes the 200 was the day after the 400m.
I was disaapointed in some of the U23 events. For instance the winner of the hammer threw mid 30’s at the same age theywouldn’t of made the final 8. I would of been 8th and I threw 47.
47 at 17 is very respectable. Not everyone comes to notice “fully formed” - most take many years of sensible, progressive and hard training to get down into the sub-46 range from where they can start to make major teams (at least for 4x4 relays). Underwood sounds like a good un.
John, also, congrats on your excellent review of the CF seminar. I called up Charlie Francis. com and it popped up as a home page (? if that’s what it’s called). Anyway that’s big credit to you.
Thanks for the kind words re the summary, as I have said attending the seminar and writing the review was the easy part. Thankfully a lot of bits of the puzzle finally fell into place which should lead to some performance improvements.
SPEEDSTER Kurt Mulcahy has placed a promising NRL career on hold to pursue his dream of representing Australia at the Beijing Olympics - and he has the blessing of his club, the Sydney Roosters.
The Roosters identified Mulcahy as a serious talent two years ago and signed him to a four-year scholarship. However, CEO Brian Canavan said they would not stand in his way of running at the Olympics.
The 17-year-old sensation has been compared with Darren Clark, who finished fourth in the 400-metres final at the Los Angeles and Seoul Olympics, before finishing his sporting career playing league with the Balmain Tigers.
“I want to make the Beijing Olympics pretty badly,” Mulcahy said. "I’ve decided I’ll do athletics pretty seriously. I think I can achieve a lot more [than in football].
"I can improve a lot. I haven’t even started doing gym work or anything like that. I want to give it a pretty good shot and aim for Beijing in 2008 and even past then.
“I’d like to make Olympic finals. I think [that’s realistic] if I keep improving at the rate I’m going now.”
Mulcahy needed only one training session with the Roosters, when he was 15, to prove he had what it takes to be a top player.
Veteran trainer Ron Palmer was so impressed with Mulcahy’s skills he asked him to show the first-grade squad - including internationals Craig Wing and Anthony Minichiello - how to complete one of the drills.
But Mulcahy made it clear his immediate focus was running for his country in the 200m and 400m at the world championships in Osaka this year, and the Olympics in 2008.
The year 12 student, who credited the support of his parents and coach Robyn Wright for his stunning rise, said he wasn’t pressured by comparisons to former track star Clark.
“I just want to go out there and do my best,” he said.
“Darren started off more in athletics and went to football but I’ve gone the other way.”
Mulcahy had his sights set on the world championships after finishing a close second in the 200m to Patrick Johnson in a Telstra A Series meeting in Canberra.
He also recently ran a sizzling 46.03 seconds in the 400m - only 0.08s off a world championship qualifying time. “It was a good experience because I want to push myself by racing people who are better than me,” he said of running against track veterans Johnson and Daniel Batman.
His immediate challenge was to win gold in the national under-20s championships held in Hobart over the weekend.
One of the challenges Mulcahy has faced throughout his career has been his location - his family lives at Mullumbimby in northern NSW, an 11-hour drive from Sydney.
But his mother Roslyn said living in a country town was more of a help than a hindrance to his career.
“That’s why he is so successful,” she said.
“City kids have it all laid on and they don’t realise. When he does anything, he trains hard.”
Athletics Australia spokesman David Culbert said football codes - particularly the AFL - were scouting at track and field events.
He cited Geelong recruit Tom Hawkins who won the high jump in the Australian Associated Public School Championships.
Mulcahy said he hadn’t closed the door on league but wanted to give himself every chance of Olympic success.
Canavan said the club was happy to continue Mulcahy’s scholarship, even if he decided against playing football in the future.
“We’d love Kurt to choose rugby league and wear a Roosters jersey, but we acknowledge he has elite talent in athletics,” Canavan said.
“If he chooses athletics we’ll support him and cheer him on.”
It’s becoming a bit of a joke. I didn’t go down I didn’t have the money and the quality of the entries was poor i only knew two guys that would be worth racing. It’s a bit sad though when your national champs is considered a poor comp.
please im only kidding if you take offence to that 