WA’s Best Aiming for Track Classic Success

Published On: 10 February 2015

Kim Mickle

A line up of Australia’s best field athletes will headline this weekend’s Track Classic meet in Perth, with Kim Mickle set to throw for the first time in 2015.

The Commonwealth Games champion opted out of last weekend’s meet in Canberra but is raring to go in Perth, as she builds form towards this year’s World Championships in Beijing (August 22-30), where she will look to repeat her heroics of 2013, where she won a silver medal in Moscow.

Speaking to Sydney’s ABC radio, Mickle said she is working through a training block but believes big throws are still a distinct possibility, even at this early stage of season preparation.

“Last year we did the same as what we did this year, but I ended up breaking the Australian record and throwing some huge throws really early in the season so there’s nothing stopping me doing that again if things go alright,” she told 702 ABC Sydney.

With competition set for this Saturday night at the WA Athletics Stadium, Mickle will go head to head with fellow Australian javelin stars Kelsey-Lee Roberts and Kathryn Mitchell, who have both put Mickle on notice with world championship qualifying throws at last weekend’s meet in the nation’s capital.

Roberts won the competition, recording a throw of 63.78m whilst Mitchell was just a fraction behind, with a best throw of 63.70m in second. With the addition of emerging Chinese star Li Lingwei to the competition field, Mickle was enthusiastic about this weekend’s action.

“Potentially we have five of the top 12 in the world throwing here in Perth with a free entry, which is just absolutely insane,” the WAIS athlete said.

“It’s a world-class event and I honestly can’t think of anything that’s actually free these days that you can say is almost like a world championships final.

“And it happens to fall on Valentine’s Day so if anyone’s strapped for an idea of what to do, I think it’s pretty romantic to come and see some chicks chuck some javs,” Mickle remarked with customary humour.

In the men’s field, WAIS duo Cruz Hogan and Morgan Ward will go head to head with Matthew Outzen and Hamish Peacock. Hogan competes in good form, having thrown 74.26m for victory at the WA State Champs recently, whilst Ward, son of WAIS throws coach Grant Ward, has recently switched focus to specialist javelin, after moving away from the decathlon.

The women’s pole vault will similarly attract a high calibre of class for this weekend’s competition, with reigning Commonwealth champion and former WAIS scholarship holder Alana Boyd back in town to take on the best of the local talent.

That talent includes Olympic and World Championship representative Liz Parnov, her WAIS training partners Emma Philippe and Nina Kennedy and Parnov’s elder sister Vicki, a 2014 Commonwealth Games representative for Australia.

Liz Parnov launched her 2015 campaign with a 4.20m clearance last weekend. A medallist at the IAAF World Youth and IAAF World Junior Championships, as well as the Youth Olympic Games, the 20-year-old is confident in her preparation for the Australian Athletics Tour and has her sights set on a strong opening leap on the national circuit.

“My training has been coming along great, we have made a few changes this season technically so I am looking forward to having a crack under some great conditions and atmosphere. I’m not chasing a certain height, but of course the higher the better so we shall see,” Parnov said.

Philippe and Kennedy have launched their domestic season campaigns in perfect fashion, with both soaring to new career best performances already in 2015.

Second placed on countback behind Vicky Parnov, Philippe delivered a new PB of 4.30m at the Western Australia Athletics Championships, providing an ideal start to a season that follows medals at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships and the Australian Athletics Championships in 2014.

Kennedy has made the final of the women’s pole vault at both the IAAF World Youth and the IAAF World Junior Championships. Her new career best of 4.41m from last month, bettered the national under 20 record and she now has the 4.50m qualifier for the IAAF World Championships in her sights.

“I am so excited to have jumped a new personal best quite early in the year. I think it shows that I’ve had a solid injury free base and I’ve done a lot of good work. It’s given me confidence toward jumping bigger later in the season and that’s a great thing,” Kennedy said.

“4.50m is the qualifier for Beijing but I think I can clear it somewhere on the Australian Athletics Tour. It’s very high, but my major goal this year is to qualify for the World Championships so I need to be able to do it. It’s a big ask for me, but I want to finish the year knowing that I’ve done all I can to try and make it possible. That’s why I am going to jump this weekend, then in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as the Junior and Open Nationals in March.”

Further details on the Perth Track Classic can be found here.