The President of the Australian Olympic Committee, John Coates, has congratulated Queensland on their Commonwealth Games success and Sally Pearson’s honour as the IAAF’s female athlete of the year. 

“Take a bow Queensland,” Coates said today. 

“The Gold Coast Bid Committee, Queensland Government and the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) have done an excellent job and the result is very important to Australian sport and our country,” Coates said. 

“The 2018 Commonwealth Games will showcase the Queensland coast but it will also encourage young children to participate in sport after watching their role models compete.” 

One of those role models will be Sally Pearson, the reigning 100m hurdles world champion, who was crowned IAAF female athlete of the year in Monte Carlo at the weekend. 

“It means a lot and hopefully will inspire junior athletes to stay in athletics,” Pearson said. 

“Sally is the epitome of a young athlete who has worked hard and is now dominating her sport,” Coates said. 

“Sally progressed as a young athlete through our Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF) which is especially pleasing for us. Our next AYOF will be held in 2013 and we expect many of the young athletes competing will go on and spearhead our Olympic and Commonwealth Games‘ Teams in 2014 in Glasgow, 2016 in Rio and 2018 on the Gold Coast”. 

AOC