Some of Australia’s best medal chances in athletics are in the jumps and throws – especially the men’s and women’s pole vault and the men’s long and triple jumps.
In fact, there’s a reasonable argument for the usual name to be reversed for Australia, and it should instead be called ‘field and track’.
Before the field programme begins, let’s take a look at some of the Australian team’s prime medal hopes.
Australia’s champion pole vaulter Steve Hooker has earned a huge public profile since his Olympic gold medal in Beijing, and his struggle for form and confidence this year has been widely discussed in the media.
Hooker deserves a lot of credit for his bravery in dealing with his confidence issues so publicly, but it can’t have made things easier.
Still, Hooker is a formidable competitor, something I saw first hand in Berlin in 2009 when he won the world championships virtually on one leg, having received an injection of painkillers in the stadium immediately before the final.
Hooker’s best height this year (5.72m) ranks him only 22nd, after a shocking run of bad weather at lead-up competitions stymied his chances of scoring a few good confidence-boosting clearances, but a jump of 5.80 would put him into the top five.
Nobody has cleared 6.0m this year. Word from inside the squad is that Hooker’s physical condition is good – if he can get his head in the right space, he could achieve anything.
Hooker’s training partner Alana Boyd is also an excellent medal chance, currently ranked fourth in the women’s pole vault with a 4.76m clearance in Perth in February. As we know, anything can and does happen in the pole vault, so we’ll have to hope the luck falls Australia’s way.
Mitch Watt (8.28m) and Henry Frayne (8.27m) are ranked sixth and seventh in the Long Jump this year, but Watt is the big name, having won silver in Daegu and bronze in Berlin.
Watt’s PB of 8.54 would comfortably clear the world’s best this year of 8.35 by Greg Rutherford of Great Britain, but 22-year-old Frayne has improved rapidly this year and is an enormous talent in both the long and triple jumps. Both should be competitive in what is a very open event.
Frayne’s 17.23 in the triple jump ranks him 11th this year, but with four guys over 17.50m he’ll be an outside chance to medal. His best jump was at the Olympic trials in Melbourne, so he’s due for a big leap.
In the throws our best chances are Benn Harradine in the men’s discus, Jarrod Bannister in the men’s discus, and Kathryn Mitchell and Kim Mickle in the women’s javelin.
Harradine is ranked ninth in the discus with a 67.53m throw in Townsville in May. Reigning world champion Robert Harting (Germany) and discus legend Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuania) have both thrown over 70m this year, which will make it tough to grab gold, but a top five result is not beyond the charismatic Harradine.
Jarrod Bannister is ranked 19th in the javelin, but finished seventh in Daegu in the 2011 world championships and would be hoping to repeat that performance. Kim Mickle is ranked 13th this year, but finished sixth in Daegu, and together with Kathryn Mitchell (ranked 12th) will hope to push for places in the women’s javelin.
2009 discus world champion Dani Samuels has been a little below her best this year, and is currently ranked 26th in the world. Her best throw of 2012 is 62.78, a fair way behind world leader Darya Pishchalnikova’s 70.69m.
Shot-putter Dale Stevenson recently threw a PB of 20.63 which is encouraging, but he will need to perform well above his ranking of 22d to make the final.
As with my preview of the track events and walks, this is not an exhaustive list of Australian athletes competing, so keep your eyes open.
Athletics Victoria has prepared an excellent guide to event times and athletes competing in each event, which you can download here: Athletics Victoria’s guide to the 2012 London Olympics
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