ATHLETICS: 16-year-old Tay-Leiha Clark has taken out silver in the final of the women’s triple jump, at the second summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Nanjing, China.
Coming from the Southern suburbs of Sydney, Clark smashed her PB by more than 40cm in the qualifier, giving her the second spot moving into the final and a real shot at a medal.
On Clark’s second jump of the final, she again bested her PB landing a jump of 13.06m, putting her in second position where she remained for the rest of the final. Gold Medallist, Yanis Esmeralda David of France, also made a PB, landed a huge 13.33m jump.
“The complex is amazing to run on, the track is awesome, the competitors are really good, it was really enjoyable,” Clark said.
“I got a new PB again today, so I’m really happy with that. It felt good, I looked up straight away at my coach and he was fist pumping the air so I knew it was better.”
Clark admitted she was feeling more confident in her qualifier, but none of that showed as she put in an amazing performance in the final.
“I was definitely more nervous than the qualification round, I didn’t really know what to expect, I just came here to have fun and enjoy myself,” the teen said.
With her finals performance, Clark secured Australia’s sixth medal in the athletics, a feeling she will not soon forget.
“It feels awesome, I bet it will feel even better when it’s around my neck.”
17-year-old Emily Augustine lined up on the track for the A final of the women’s 1500m and shared the track with a strong group of girls.
As the runners broke away from the line, Augustine sat herself in the middle of the pack, as a group of five runners streaked ahead, lead by Kokeb Tesfaye Alemu of Ethiopia. As hard as she tried to keep with pace, Augustine finished in eighth place with a time of 4:30.51.
Though Augustine missed out on a spot on the podium, the A final is all Augustine came for – and that’s what she got.
“It was pretty awesome, I went out hard and tried to stay with them because in the heat I let them go a little so I just tried to improve on that,” Augustine said.
“It’s been amazing to get a feel for everything, the dining hall, the village as well as meeting other countries, it’s awesome.”
Also on show on day five of the athletics was 16-year-old South Australian, Declan Carruthers who took to the field in the B final of the men’s pole vault.
Carruthers second last vault of 4.75m had him sitting in first place but little could be done to topple Pierre Cottin who cleared the 4.80m mark. Carruthers finished the morning’s competition in second place.
Tonight will see three more Aussies take to the track and field in A finals. Matthew Rees in the men’s javelin, Rosie-May- Davison in the 2000m steeple chase and Ryan Patterson will go for gold in the men’s 800m.
Sam Rawlings
Olympics.com.au
@AUSOlympicTeam
