Pekin Aiming to Qualify Australian 4x400m Relay Team for Rio

WAIS sprinter Lyndsay Pekin will compete for Australia at this weekend’s IAAF World Relay Championships in Nassau, New Providence (The Bahamas).

The Championships take on greater importance, with the top eight nations in both men’s and women’s events, qualifying their countries for next year’s Rio Olympic Games.

Pekin will join a women’s 4x400m squad that includes; national champion Anneliese Rubie (NSW), Jess Gulli (Vic), Morgan Mitchell (Vic), Cailtin Sargent (Qld) and IAAF World Junior Championship representative Samantha Lind (Tas).

Set to compete just one week after placing third in 3:32.31 behind Jamaica and the USA at the prestigious Penn Relays, Mitchell believes the team can continue to improve to ensure they stake their strongest possible claim for qualification to Rio 2016.

“Philly (Philadelphia) was amazing, the atmosphere at Penn Relays was crazy, there were so many people. It was another chance for the team to run against the best athletes in the world and it was a great pre-championship hit out before the World Relays. To be honest we were hoping to post a quicker time, but that’s behind us now, I know we can run better, we believe we can run better and fingers crossed this weekend we will,” Mitchell said.

“We’ve been travelling with Fort (renowned coach Peter Fortune) and it has been great. He has been fantastic on and off the track. He has mentored us with race planning and given great guidance in working out our running order. He has shared some of his amazing experiences with us and I know it is going to be so hopeful to us all in the long run.

“The main aim is to qualify for Rio. We are all working as hard as we can to make sure that we pull it off. We want to run faster than we did in Glasgow too. That will give us the best chance of racing in Beijing later this year, and at that event we can look to improve even more.”

-with AthleticsAus