23 year old AIS athlete, Lauren Boden, has made a huge step towards making the London Olympics with a superb 400m Hurdles victory at the Sydney Track Classic in a time of 55.45. This time secured the precious A qualifier which is a major requirement for selection onto the Australian team.
Boden , who has been with coach Matt Beckenham since she was 14, is a wonderful story of patience and sticking to a long term plan.
“When Lauren started she couldn’t break 13 seconds for a 100m or even 60 seconds for a 400m so we have taken a long term sequential approach to give the best chance for her to run when it counts which is as a senior athlete .” Beckenham also remembers “there were quite a few sessions with tears in the early days as well as she worked on her hurdle technique on both legs but Saturday night’s run makes it all worth it.”
Also in the Women’s 400m Hurdles, 17 year old Chloe Jamieson showed some consistency from Hobart to run 61.65. Will 3 runs around the same mark Jamieson will be looking to make a big jump over the next month leading into the Junior National Championships.
Melissa Breen ran with maturity to take out the Women’s 100m in time of 11.49 in not ideal conditions for the sprint events. She also claimed third in the 200m with a time of 23.75.
Brendan Cole ran a much better race compared to Perth 7 days ago to just miss running under 50 seconds in the Men’s 400m Hurdles (50.02). A mistake at the last hurdle cost him critical momentum and the victory but overall the signs from the race were very positive. Training partner, 33 year old Mowen Boino (PNG) ran the fastest he has run for almost 4 years to finish 3rd in a time of 50.88. The 3 time Olympian is now on track to make an amazing 4th Olympic Games. Ollie Wurm also improved on his run from Perth with a time of 54.36.
MattyB DEPT. (MBD) 