Success in the west

The athletics nationals this year were held in Perth so I made my way over for my first trip to WA with only one thing on my mind- to produce a World Championships ‘A’ qualifier to guarantee my spot on the team for the World Champs to be held January 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

My first morning in Perth and I headed out for a walk around Kings Park, a beautiful park which overlooks the city and surrounding waters. A very relaxing place to visit, on this particular day however the Red Bull Air Race was taking place. From our view point at the park we could see and hear the planes as they roared around the course, a lot of fun to watch! Later that day I headed out to have a look at the track and to have a light training session.

(View from Kings Park overlooking Perth)

(A plane weaving it's way through the course)

My first event of the meet was the long jump and unfortunately my lack of running over the past year proved to be my major problem. I had a lot of trouble with my run up taking off well before the platform. My best jump left my 3cm short of the distance I wanted.

Disappointing but I knew that if I had taken off from the ideal position I would have jumped a lot further than I needed. I finished the competition in 4^th place, not entirely bad given my lack of training! Luckily there are still more opportunities to qualify later in the year.

(On the runway)

My second and last event the Javelin was my last chance to produce the qualifier so I would be named in the first round of team selection. Javelin is a new event for me as this is the first time it has been available to visually impaired women so this was also the first Javelin competition I had ever been in.

I went out with only one thing in mind, the distance I needed to get that ‘A’ qualifier. I had my first throw and was 2 metres over the distance I needed! I had just guaranteed my spot for the World Championships and I was very excited, the rest of the competition I just used for practice. I ended up finishing 2^nd but I was happy I had come to Perth for the ‘A’ qualifier and I had done the job.

I was even more excited because the end of my event meant that I was now officially on break! Finally a chance to rest and enjoy some well deserved time off from training and competing!