Across all of the 17 sports at the 2013 AYOF the standard of competition was outstanding and future Olympians where in action across Sydney. Check out how all the competitions unfolded in the sport by sport wrap.
Across all of the 17 sports at the 2013 AYOF the standard of competition was outstanding and future Olympians where in action across Sydney. 1700 athletes from 30 countries descended on Sydney for the sixth and most successful Australian Youth Olympic Festival from January 16-20, 2013. Check out how all the competitions unfolded in the sport by sport wrap.
Athletics
The two athletics sessions were held on one day due the heatwave the previous day. There was a strong spread of medals with athletes from China, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia all standing on top of the podium. In total there were five AYOF records set on there track and eight in the field.
Some of the Australian stars included Nathan Brill (5000m walk), Matt Denny (hammer and discus throw), Georgia Wassall (800m), Molly Blakey (400m), Anas Abu-Ganaba (100m-200m), Hugh Nicklason (800m-1500m), Aliyah Johnson (100m hurdles, long jump), Shemaiah James (M-triple jump) and Yasenaca Denicaucau (W shot put – discus).
Chinese athletes also destined for greatness include Jianan Wang (M - long jump), Yang Lu (110m hurdles), Bokai Huang (M-pole vault), Rong Wang (W-triple jump) and Yaoqing Fang (M-triple jump).
For New Zealand thrower Matt Bloxham and sprinter Bailey Stewart were outstanding.
Medal Tally
Australia (24/22/16) 62, China (10/4/3) 17, New Zealand (3/7/10) 20, Brazil (1/6/4) 11
Badminton
The Chinese badminton team lived up to the nation’s reputation as the world’s best in the sport as they won all but one gold medal at the 2013 AYOF. Malaysia tallied five silver medals but eventually knocked off the Chinese in the women’s doubles to ensure their anthem was played at Sydney Olympic Park’s Sports Halls.
Tianyi Pei was the star of the tournament taking out the men’s doubles with Ningyei Zhang, the mixed doubles with Xiaohan Yu and also took gold in the team event alongside his Chinese teammates. Chinese Taipei and Great Britain built up a rivalry throughout the tournament as they faced each other five times for the bronze medal, with Chinese Taipei taking out four of the five encounters.
Women’s
Singles – Jiinjing Qin (CHN)
Doubles – Malaysia
Men’s
Singles - Song Xue (CHN)
Doubles - Tianyi Pei & Ningyi Zhang (CHN)
Mixed
Doubles – Tianyi Pei & Xiaohan Yu (CHN)
Team – China
Medal Tally
China (5/2/0) 7, Malaysia (1/4/1) 6, Chinese Taipei (0/0/4) 4, Great Britain (0/0/1) 1
Basketball
Australia had great success in both the men’s and women’s 3x3 basketball competitions with the Australia Green and Australia Gold teams fighting it out for the gold medal in both events. In the fast-paced variation of the sport, the women’s competition saw Australia Gold knock off friendly foes Australia Green 16-11 to take gold, with New Zealand claiming bronze over China 17-13. The men’s Australia Gold team also climbed to the top of the medal dais after taking a 21-12 victory over Australia Green. Hosts of the 2012 Games, Great Britain took bronze over China winning 19-15.
Medal Games
Women
Gold - AUS Gold 16 bt AUS Green 11
Bronze - NZL 17 bt CHN 13
Men
Gold - AUS Gold 21 bt AUS Green 12
Bronze - GBR 19 bt CHN 15
Medal Tally
AUS (2/2/0) 4, NZL (0/0/1) 1, GBR (0/0/1) 1
Canoe/Kayak Sprint
The Canoe/Kayak Sprint opened competition at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival on the waters of Sydney International Regatta Centre. Powerhouse of the sport Hungary claimed five gold to lead the medal tally, with Australia, Brazil and China all having athletes on top the top step of the podium throughout the competition.
Aussie Bill Bain asserted himself as a star of the future as he claimed gold in both the K-1 1000m and K-1 Head to Head races and partnered with Jordan Wood to claim another gold in the K-2 1000m. Hungarian paddler Dora Lucz impressed for Hungary as she won gold in the K-1 200m and the K-1 Head to Head while compatriot Sandor Totka took out the men's K1-200m and K-2 200m. Brazil's Isaquias Queiroz Dos Santos won both canoe events (C-1 200m & C-1 1000m).
Kayak
Men’s
K-1 200m – Sandor Totka (HUN)
K-1 1000m – Bill Bain (AUS)
K-1 Head to Head – Bill Bain (AUS)
K-2 200m - Sandor Totka & Richard Janza (HUN)
K-2 1000m - Bill Bain and Jordan Wood (AUS)
Women’s
K-1 200m – Dora Lucz (HUN)
K-1 500m – Xinyi Yin (CHN)
K-1 Head to Head – Dora Lucz (HUN)
K-2 200m – Szilvia Somogyi & Annet Szilagyi (HUN)
K-2 500m - China
Canoe
Men’s
C-1 200m – Isaquias Queiroz Dos Santos (BRA)
C-1 1000m – Isaquias Queiroz Dos Santos (BRA)
Medal Tally
Hungary (5/2/4) 11, Australia (3/4/2) 9, China (2/1/3) 6, Brazil (2/0/0) 2, New Zealand (0/5/3) 8
Canoe/Kayak slalom
The canoe/kayak slalom event was dominated by the host nation as Australia continues to assert itself as a strong nation on the world stage. Australia claimed all four gold medals with Noemie Fox, sister of London 2012 Olympian Jessica winning the K-1 event, Daniel Watkins winning the K-1 and C-1 and daughter of Barcelona 1992 Olympian Kate Eckhardt winning the women’s C-1.
Kayak
Men’s
K-1 – Daniel Watkins
Women’s
K-1 – Noemie Fox
Canoe
Men’s
C-1 – Daniel Watkins
Women’s
C-1 – Kate Eckhardt
Medal Tally
Australia (4/2/3) 9, China (0/1/1) 2, New Zealand (0/1/0) 1
Cycling – Track
Sixteen-year-old Josie Talbot was a standout performer at the AYOF with three gold medals (omnium, 3000m team pursuit, 5km scratch race).
In Australia’s other AYOF track cycling highlights, Courtney Field and Tian Beckett, first and second in the individual sprint, broke the Australian and all-comers record in winning the team sprint in 35.364 seconds.
In the men’s events, Australia’s Callum Scotson picked up two gold medals in the team pursuit and scratch race, plus silver in the omnium after finishing behind a determined Bradley Heffernan.
Medal Tally
Australia (10/9/8) 27, New Zealand (2/3/0) 5, Malaysia (0/0/2) 2, Japan (0/0/1) 1
Diving
It was a clean sweep for the Chinese in the diving as they lived up to their reputation as the world’s best in the sport. Australia, who claimed five silvers and two bronze, Great Britain and Malaysia took it to the sport superpowers but were unable to perform at the same level consistently throughout each of the events.
Of particular note Xiaohui Huang performed strongly throughout the women’s 10m platform competition including scoring a perfect ten in her last dive, while Ang Gao won the 10m platform and the 10m synchronised platform with teammate Bowen Huang.
Men’s
3m Springboard – Rongquan Chen (CHN)
Synchronised 3m Springboard - China
10m Platform – Ang Gao (CHN)
Synchronised 10m Springboard – China
Women’s
3m Springboard – QulinZheng (CHN)
Synchronised 3m Springboard - China
10m Platform – Xiaohui Huang (CHN)
Synchronised 10m Platform – China
Medal Tally
China (8/2/1) 11, Australia (0/5/2) 7, Great Britain (0/1/4) 5, Malaysia (0/0/1) 1
Golf
In golf’s first foray onto the Olympic program since 1904, the AYOF golf program delivered four intense rounds of play at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club.
The Australian brother-sister duo of Kevin and Celina Yuan were Australia’s strongest performers. Kevin took gold in the men’s individual event and Celina finished second to Europe’s number one female junior Georgia Hall.
Great Britain took out the gold medal in the mixed teams event.
Individual
Women’s
1st - Georgia Hall (GBR), 2nd – Celina Yuan (AUS), 3rd – Chloe Williams (GBR)
Men’s
1st – Kevin Yuan (AUS), 2nd – Ashton Turner (GBR), 3rd – Compton Pikari (NZ)
Mixed Team
1st - Great Britain, 2nd - Australia (Green), 3rd - New Zealand
Medal Tally
Great Britain (2/1/1) 4, Australia (1/2/0) 3, New Zealand (0/0/2) 2
Gymnastics
With superpower China and the improving Great Britain heading down under for the 2013 AYOF, Australia and New Zealand had their work cut out for them.
Artistic
Great Britain pulled an upset in the men’s team as they relegated the Chinese to silver with the Australians taking the bronze. China reversed the result in the women’s event as they beat the British with Australia again winning bronze.
Gold Medallists
Women
Team - China
All Around - Tyesha Mattis (GBR)
Beam – Teal Grindle (GBR)
Floor – Amy Tinkler (GBR)
Uneven Bars – Jie Mei (CHN)
Vault – Tyesha Mathis (GBR)
Men
Team – Great Britain
All Around – Ruoteng Xiao (CHN)
Floor – Dominick Cunningham (GBR) & James Hall (GBR)
Horizontal Bar – Nile Wilson (GBR)
Parallel Bars - Nile Wilson (GBR)
Pommel Horse – Ruoteng Xiao (CHN)
Rings – Courtney Tulloch (GBR)
Vault –Di Wu (CHN)
Medal Tally
Great Britain (10/8/6) 24, China (5/6/5) 17, Australia (0/0/2) 2
Rhythmic
Australia pulled off an upset as they claimed gold over China in the Rhythmic Team event with Malaysia taking the bronze. Michaela Whitehouse then took individual gold ahead of China’s Xiaolan Xu and Malaysia’s Iman Iskander Chan.
Gold medallists
Team - Australia
All Around – Michaela Whitehouse (AUS)
Medal Tally
Australia (2/0/0) 2, China (0/2/0) 2, Malaysia (0/0/2) 2
Trampoline
China dominated the individual events as they won both the men’s and women’s golds with Great Britain taking the men’s synchronised and the New Zealand team claiming their only gymnastics gold in the women’s synchronised event.
Gold medallists
Men
Individual – Changxin Liu (CHN)
Synchronised – Great Britain
Women
Individual – Yujie Jia (CHN)
Synchronised – New Zealand
Medal Tally
China (2/1/1) 4, New Zealand (1/1/1) 3, Great Britain (1/1/0) 2, Australia (0/1/2)
Hockey
Australia pulled off two heart-stopping victories in the finals of the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments to give the host nation double gold. Undoubtedly an exhibition of many future senior international players, the tournament entertained the packed stands with consistently high quality play from all the competing nations.
The women’s final was a hotly contested battle between China and Australia who had already played out a draw in their pool match. The Chinese took an early lead with Zhang Xiaoxue scoring a deflected field goal in the 13th minute. Madison Fitzpatrick equalised early in the second half before Kathryn Slattery scored the winner with three minutes to go to give the Aussies the gold. Great Britain scored a golden goal to give Great Britain bronze after their match with USA was level at 1-1 after regulation.
Australia’s men’s team then went on to emulate the feats of their female compatriots as they beat Great Britain in golden goal. After opening a 3-0 lead, the Aussies let their Ashes rivals back into the match as the Brits levelled the match at 3-3 in the 57th minute. The British side then went ahead with a Sam French goal before Aussie star Jack Elliot sent it to golden goal with the scores even at 4-4. It was Will Gilmour who became the hero as he produced a brilliant individual effort beating several Great Britain defenders and firing off a powerful strike from close range for the winner to give Australia the gold. The USA beat Malaysia in an even more tense shoot-out.
Medallists
Women’s
1st – Australia, 2nd – China, 3rd – Great Britain
Men’s
1st – Australia, 2nd – Great Britain, 3rd – USA
Medal Tally
Australia (2/0/0) 2, Great Britain (0/1/1) 2, China (0/1/0) 1, USA (0/0/1) 1
Judo
In promising signs for the 2016 Rio Games hosts, Brazil dominated the judo competition as they claimed five of the ten gold medals on offer. Australia also performed well on home soil compiling a total of 15 medals with the USA, Chinese Taipei and China all winning a gold medal in Sydney Olympic Park’s Sports Halls.
Tinka Easton won Australia’s first gold medal when she took out the U/52kg division in the morning session after remaining undefeated in each of her four matches of the round robin competition, including a strong victory over Brazil’s Gabriela Rivera. The afternoon session saw Ellen Wright emulate her teammate’s efforts when she also remained undefeated and claimed gold in the U/57kg division in front of a boisterous home town crowd.
Gold medallists
Women
U/48kg – Gabriela Clemente (BRA)
U/52kg – Tinka Easton (AUS)
U/57kg – Ellen Wright (AUS)
U/63kg – Gratychewa Farias (BRA)
63/kg+ - Mackenzie Halls (USA)
Men
U/60kg – Ming-Yen Tsai (TPE)
U/66kg – Luanh Rodrigues (BRA)
U/73kg – Andre Umberto (BRA)
U/81kg – Rongwei Lin (CHN)
81kg+ - Clovis Braga Jnr (BRA)
Medal Tally
BRA (5/2/1) 8, AUS (2/5/8) 15, USA (1/2/3) 6, TPE (1/1/0) 2, CHN (1/0/0) 1
Rowing
The Sydney International Regatta Centre welcomed rowers from around Australia and around the world to compete at the 2013 AYOF. With Australia split into states, the host nation took on competitors from Great Britain, New Zealand and Vanuatu.
Eleni Kalimnios of Tasmania had a great comeback to win gold in the women’s single scull in a time of 7:50.04 after a rough night having suffered damage to her boat before the race while Britain’s Jack Beumont won the men’s single scull. In the blue riband eights events, NSW took the lead early in the women's eight and never gave it up while in the men's eight South Australia won ahead of New Zealand and Great Britain.
Medal Tally
Great Britain (3/4/3) 10, New Zealand (3/4/2) 9, New South Wales (3/0/3) 6, South Australia (2/2/2) 6, Tasmania (1/0/0) 1, Victoria (0/1/1) 2, WA (0/1/1) 2
Rugby 7s
The inception of rugby sevens at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games was given a boost by an exceptional tournament at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival. The AYOF gave the Australian athletes their first taste of international competition and the Aussie women finished with gold and men with silver.
With only four tries scored against them to a total points tally of 242, the Australian women were queens of the competition. The astonishing campaign, capped by a 40-0 defeat of China in the final, was more an indication of the incredible talent in this young generation of Australians than their international counterparts. Senior women’s captain and AYOF Ambassador Rebecca Tavo tips many of these players will progress to the world circuit and indeed Rio 2016. Evania Penitani and captain Charlotte Caslick were among the standouts at the AYOF.
The men’s competition saw Australia challenged by Tonga and South Africa after holding China and Japan to zero in three matches where the Aussies notched fifty-plus points. In their first head-to-head clash Australia fell to South Africa 12-30. When they met in the gold medal match, they were without skipper Jack Tuttle. Despite every effort the Australians were out-played by a class South African outfit 22-7. Nonetheless, their first outing as a team showed huge promise for the future with Guy Hamilton among the rising stars.
Medallists
Women’s
1st – Australia, 2nd – China, 3rd – Japan
Men’s
1st – South Africa, 2nd Australia, 3rd – Tonga
Medal Tally
Australia (1/1/0) 2, South Africa (1/0/0) 1, China (0/1/0) 1, Japan (0/0/1) 1, Tonga (0/0/1) 1
Shooting
China won a stunning eight gold medals from the 14 shooting events contested at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival held at Sydney International Shooting Centre. The British finished with three gold, Malaysia had two and New Zealand one but it was undoubtedly the Chinese that had everyone talking.
Chinese duo Haoran Yang (men’s 10m Air Rifle & 50m Rifle 3 positions) and Jiali Hu (women’s 10m Air Rifle & 50m Rifle 3 positions) won double gold as the superpower of the sport asserted their dominance. Australia came home with silver in the men’s trap to James Grice, silver in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol to Lachlan Tremble and bronze to Edwin Gouw in the men’s 10m Air Rifle.
Pistol
Men
10m Air Pistol – Wen Yan Choo (MAS)
25m Rapid Fire Pistol – Kristian Callaghan (GBR)
50m Pistol – Jiayu Wu (CHN)
Women
10m Air Pistol – Jiaying Chen (CHN)
25m Pistol – Lija Cao (CHN)
Rifle
Men
10m Air Rifle – Haoran Yang (CHN)
50m Rifle 3 Positions - Haoran Yang (CHN)
50m Rifle Prone – Zhengyu Shen (CHN)
Women
10m Air Rifle – Jiali Hu (CHN)
50m Rifle 3 Positions – Jiali Hu (CHN)
Shotgun
Men
Trap – Daniel Tarrant (GBR)
Double Trap – Mason Reed (NZL)
Skeet – Joseph Joo Kit Lee (MAS)
Women
Skeet – Sian Bruce (GBR)
Medal Tally
China (8/2/1) 11, Great Britain (3/4/2) 9, Malaysia (2/2/3) 7, New Zealand (1/1/3) 5, Australia (0/2/1) 3, Singapore (0/2/1) 3, Canada (0/1/1) 2, Japan (0/0/1) 1
Swimming
In what was an extremely strong AYOF swimming meet, almost every Festival record fell as many of the world’s elite juniors clocked some impressive times. Australia’s Green and Gold teams combined to tally a total of 26 gold medals with Japan performing strongly to finish with 12 gold medals and knocked off the Australia Green and Australia gold teams in the overall points tally.
Aussie Mack Horton was a standout in the men’s 1500m freestyle edging closer to the magical fifteen minute barrier as he clocked 15:04.87 and broke the AYOF record by over 19 seconds, confirming himself as Australia’s next long distance star. Horton had already claimed a hall of medals winning gold in the 400m freestyle, bronze in the 100m and 200m freestyle before finishing with gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay and silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Compatriot Alexander Graham also impressed as he took gold in the 100m freestyle, silver in both the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly before helping Australia Green to gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay and silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Jemma Schlict was another standout with the Aussie winning gold in the 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley and also claimed silver in the 50m freestyle and bronze in the 4x200m freestyle.
Medal Tally
Australia (21/15/14) 50, Japan (12/10/9) 31, Canada (2/3/2) 7, New Zealand (0/1/3) 4, Hungary (0/0/1) 1
Triathlon
Australia’s future in the sport of triathlon certainly looked bright after claiming each of the three gold medals in the competition. With the individual events held on Sydney’s hottest day on record the task was made even more difficult for the young athletes competing at the Sydney International Regatta Centre.
Jaz Hedgeland got the ball rolling for the hosts when she took out the women’s event ahead of Japan’s Sumire Ohara and Georgie Taylor-Brown from Great Britain. Jacob Birtwhistle then matched his compatriot by taking gold in the men’s event, beating teammate Luke Willan and Great Britain’s Marc Austin taking bronze. The exciting mixed relay event rounded out the competition with Australia Gold, featuring Hedgeland and Birtwhistle beating Australia Green and Great Britain.
Medallists
Women’s
1st – Jaz Hedgeland (AUS), 2nd – Sumire Ohara (JAP), 3rd - Georgie Taylor-Brown (GBR)
Men’s
1st - Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS), 2nd - Luke Willan (AUS), 3rd - Marc Austin (GBR)
Mixed Relay
1st – Australia Gold, 2nd – Australia Green, 3rd – Great Britain
Medal Tally
Australia (3/2/0) 5, Japan (0/1/0) 1, Great Britain (0/0/3) 3
Weightlifting
Weightlifting superpower China did not disappoint as they lifted some impressive weights that left the crowd at St Ignatius College in awe. They took gold in all six events they competed in and also claimed a silver and a bronze medal. The combined Oceania team also impressed winning the final two gold medals with hosts Australia taking one silver and four bronze medals.
Australian Joshua Wu followed in the footsteps of his sister and Olympic medallist Melissa as he too claimed an AYOF medal when he broke two national records on his way to claiming bronze in the U/62kg division. London 2012 Olympian and British record holder Zoe Smith claimed silver in the women’s U/63kg behind China’s Wei Deng.
Gold medallists
Women
U/53kg – Quan Liu (CHN)
U/58kg – Mathlynn Robert-Sasser (OCE)
U/63kg – Wei Deng (CHN)
U/69kg – Xinyue Wang (CHN)
Men
U/62kg – Meilong Chen (CHN)
U/77kg – Karitema Otang (OCE)
U/85kg – Huacong Zhang (CHN)
105kg+ – Changsheng Wu (CHN)
Medal Tally
China (6/1/1) 8, Combined Oceania (2/4/1) 7, Australia (0/1/4) 5, New Zealand (0/1/2) 3, Great Britain (0/1/0) 1
Wrestling
In the wrestling, China has dominated all divisions it entered at Sydney’s Olympic Park. In the only category not won by a Chinese athlete, Australian Aliena Coleman won gold in the women’s 65kg section.
With London 2012 Olympian Farzad Tarash looking on, the Perth born teenager joined fellow Australians Arminder Sandhu (silver), Cody Witham (silver) and Sean O’Dea (bronze) as a youth Olympic medallist.
Gold Medallists
Women
49kg - Ya Xie (CHN)
56kg – Yanan Jiang (CHN)
65kg+ - Aliena Coleman (AUS)
Men
54kg - Guangbin Zhang (CHN)
63kg – Zongtao Huang (CHN)
76kg – Lajinima Ba (CHN)
85kg – Jiuzhen Yao (CHN)
100kg+ - Jianfeng Li (CHN)
Medal Tally
China (7/0/0) 7, Australia (1/2/1) 4, Great Britain (0/2/1) 3, Brazil (0/2/0) 2, Chinese Taipei (0/0/1) 1, Combined Oceania (0/1/0) 1, New Zealand (0/0/5) 5
For full results for all competitions head to the results page>>>>
