Delhi2010 – Gold Medal Success for Boyd
WAIS pole vaulter Alana Boyd has continued WA’s medal charge at the Delhi Commonwealth Games after taking gold on the final night of track and field action.
Boyd made a first up clearance at 4.40m to win gold ahead of Cypriot surprise packet Marianna Zachariadi – after neither was able to negotiate the bar at 4.55m.
Following a long season, Boyd looked primed and ready and made fine clearances at 4.10m and 4.25m to put the competition on notice. Fellow WAIS athlete Liz Parnov – who was the youngest in the field at 16 – was unable to build on her success at nationals, bowing out at 4.10m, whilst 23 year-old Amanda Bisk showed plenty of promise and competitive drive, finishing sixth on countback, after clearing 4.25m.
The night marked a bittersweet one for WAIS coach Alex Parnov, who endured the emotion of seeing one of his athletes win gold for the second straight night after Hooker’s earlier win – coupled by the heartbreak of watching his daughter Liz distraught after ending the competition at an early stage.
It was undoubtedly a night to celebrate for Boyd however – who joined her father Ray and mother Denise as a Commonwealth champion and for the former Queensland vaulter it was a sweet feeling.
“It’s pretty amazing, the goal was to come away with the gold and I’ve done that so I couldn’t be happier,” Boyd said.
“(The gold medal) was certainly there for the taking. I went into the competition ranked second on personal bests and being such a long season, all of us haven’t competed in the last five weeks which is not an ideal preparation but I’ve had a really good month leading into this, actually it’s probably the best month’s preparation I’ve ever had.
“It didn’t quite transfer into the height I wanted but I did what I had to do, I cleared first attempts and I won on a countback.”
For Bisk the experience of competition was a great one, but missing bronze on countback held some sting.
“To finish just out of bronze is a little bit disappointing but it’s going to give me more motivation for next season to train even harder and build up to London,” she said.
Rising star Liz Parnov, the youngest member of the Australian Flame, will also use tonight’s experience to her advantage as she continues her transition into the senior ranks.
“To come all the way over here and not perform at your best is hard but I’ve had a really long season and I jumped a PB, I came second at the Youth Olympics so I should really be happy and learn from this experience,” Parnov said.
On a big night of relay action for Australia, Sally Pearson made a rare appearance over 400m on the back of a hectic week of racing at the Jawaharlal Nehru track, the 100m finalist and 100m hurdles gold medallist anchoring the women’s 4x400m team to fifth place in a time of 3:30.29 behind India (3:27.77). The relay was led out by WAIS national 200m and 400m champion Jody Henry, who ran a tremendous 300m before tiring in the back straight.
– with Athletics Australia