Olympic bronze medalist Matt Denny opened his season with a meet record at the Adelaide Invitational in a meet otherwise dominated by windy conditions.
All photos thanks to Jeff Wray
Denny threw 67.82m, within two metres of the track record of 69.35m he set at the venue at last year’s Australian Championships, which was then a national record before being improved to 69.96m when winning the Diamond League Final in Brussels.
Despite recording a world class performance, the 28-year-old was looking for more.
“I can’t be mad with my best ever season opener. I’m continuously progressing, and even with some differences with my preparation this year, I feel ready to go and I’m keen to take another step forward,” Denny said.
“I’m in a lot better shape than I threw today. I don’t want to make excuses but the wind made the discus shift and I wasn’t able to get it to fly. I feel like I’m in 70 metre-plus form and I was ready to do that today. I’m keen to get to the next one but it was nice to knock out the cobwebs.”
The women’s 800m saw the deepest ever line up of Australian athletes on domestic soil, with five sub-2 minute personal bests in the field. The conditions weren’t conducive to a quick time, but Abbey Caldwell showed her strength down the home straight to pull away for victory by over a second in 2:01.84 from Sarah Billings (2:03.09) and Bendere Oboya (2:03.11).
“I was really nervous. There’s no stepping back in the first race of the season. The depth is just so strong at the moment and certainly keeps us all honest but I certainly felt those butterflies today,” Caldwell said.
“I honestly didn’t even know how far that gap was. It was just eyes on the line for me, and I just knew I wanted to make a gap. I didn’t want to just pass and win it for the sake of dipping ahead of anyone, I wanted to make a strong win to start off the year.”
In the men’s race 17-year-old Daniel Williams ran prominently in an attempt to defeat former Olympic finalist Peter Bol, with Bol prevailing by a three-tenths-of-a-second in 1:46.40. Williams’s performance was a NSW junior record.
Riding a huge 5.3 m/s tailwind Lachlan Kennedy continued his winning form with a 10.10 second run, ahead of Jacob Despard (10.14) and Calab Law (10.24). Law returned later in the meet to win the 200m, this time into a 3.3 m/s headwind, in 21.05 seconds.
Bree Rizzo (nee Masters) showed fine form to take out the 100m in 11.30 (+1.8) from Kristie Edwards (11.43), who later won the 200m in 23.85s (-3.1 m/s).
World U20 Champion Delta Amidovski won the long jump in a wind-assisted 6.26m from heptathlete Emelia Surch (6.23m). Harrison Williams won the men’s event in 7.77m.
Olympian Tayleb Willis showed the field a clean pair of heels in the 110m hurdles, with his 13.56 (+2.3) two-tenths-of-a-second ahead of Japan’s Tetsuro Nishi.
Cara Feain-Ryan who claimed back the track record at the venue from Amy Cashin running 9:33.61 in the 3000m steeplechase in a length-of-the-straight victory.
Natalie Rule took out the 5000m in 15:21.94 ahead of personal bests for in form Victorian Amy Robinson (15:22.34) and Georgia Hansen (15:23.13). The men’s race saw a Tasmanian 1-2 finish with James Hansen (13:40.89) taking line honours from Sam Clifford (13:41.48).
Meet summary
World Championships Qualifiers:
- Matt Denny, discus (67.82m)
Track records:
- Cara Feain-Ryan, 3000m St (9:33.61)
- Lachlan Kennedy 100m (10.10w)
View all SA Athletics Stadium Track Records
Meet records:
- Matt Denny, discus (67.82m)
- Cara Feain-Ryan 3000m (9:33.61)
- Lachlan Kennedy 100m (10.10w)
- Chrisato Kiypyama 100m H (13.11)
Strong indoor and outdoor performances
Many top Australia runners have bypassed the initial meet of the Australian Athletics series, with a higher than normal number racing indoors. The results have been spectacular with national record after national record.
It continued this weekend with miler Linden Hall stepping up from recent outings over 3000m to race the 5000m in Boston, stopping the clock at a new Australian short track record of 14:58.43.
Jude Thomas had a similar breakthrough, slashing his personal best over the mile to 3:51.19 on the 307m track at the Husky Invite.
Back in Australia, outdoors, Australian 200m record Gout Gout stepped out at twice the distance in Brisbane, running a new personal best of 46.20 seconds for the 400m.
At the Australian 20km Walk Championships in Adelaide Isaac Beacroft set a new junior record of 1:22:52 while Canada’s Evan Dunfee set an Australian Allcomers record of 1:17:39. Marathon race walk Olympic medallists Jemima Montag and Rhydian Cowley were crowned national champions with 1:27:47 and 1:18:35 performances respectively.
Adelaide Invitational Photo Gallery
View the gallery of 398 photos from the Adelaide Invitational courtesy of Jeff Wray.
Free downloads using the code you receive when you subscribe to our newsletter.
