Parnov, Heap and Song were the outstanding field athletes on the first night of competition at the Sydney Athletic Centre with Australians winning five of the eight events.

China won two and Chinese Taipei the other. Australian jumpers Vicki Parnov in the women’s pole vault and Josh Heap in the men’s high jump, along with Chinese javelin thrower Dan Song where the stand-outs.

The hot favourite for the women’s pole vault, Australia’s Vicki Parnov, lived up to expectations smashing her competition and the Australian Youth Olympics record with a clearance of 4.25m.

The vaulters from China, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania were all cheering each other on as they attempted to make their respective heights while Parnov lay under the tent, getting up occasionally to stretch.

Despite their sportsmanship the other girls never stood a chance with Parnov only starting after the last of her competitors. Minor medallists Amanda Bartrim and Rachel Birtles bowed out at 3.70m.

Parnov, who is the niece of Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva set the bar at 3.90m, 10 cm above the AYOF record and had an easy clearance. She then cleared 4.10m with a squeal of delight and a clap of her hands.

Then she put it up to 4.25m, failing at her first and second attempt and clearly upset with herself. At her third attempt, she gestured to the crowd of supporters to clap and this time it carried her over the bar, again she let out a scream of joy. With a personal best at 4.32m she raised the bar to 4.35m but couldn’t quite get there again visibly frustrated.

“I was a bit annoyed but what can you do,” she said. But overall she was pleased with her result, “I’m so happy”.

At the high jump arena Joshua Heap captured the gold with a 2.17m clearance. He was pushed hard by the very tall competition Xiaoming Feng of China who jumped 2.11m.

Conditions were tough with the wind causing the bar to fall off repeatedly “It’s a bit scary when that happens but...you just have to jump and do what you can…you sort of learn to jump when the wind’s right”, he said.

The 17-year-old Queenslander, who is the 2006 National U/17 Champion, didn’t even know he had broken a record, “Oh really…that’s good…I didn’t even know that.”

Chinese javelin sensation, Dan Song, threw an astonishing 55.54m to win gold in the women’s javelin – her nearest rival more than 10 metres shy of her huge throw which smashed the Youth Festival by over four metres.

Song leads the world under-17 list by a staggering five metres, with her seasons best of 58.59m recorded in August, when she placed third in the open Chinese Nationals.Ranked no. 7 open javelin thrower in China, Song is a strong prospect for the Beijing 2008 Olympics as she is within three metres of the best in China.

In other field results, Australia’s Tahnee Reynolds-Hopkins took gold with a leap of 12.47m in the women’s triple jump and Henry Frayne made it an Aussie double with his 14.99m winning jump in the men’s final.

Jing Liu bagged gold for her 14.99m throw in the women’s shotput, Matt Stopel from Australia won the men’s hammer throw with a hurl of 57.87m and Lun Chen from Chinese Taipei won gold in the men’s javelin with a throw of 77.23m.

Katey Loughman
AYOF