The MattyB DEPT. has been working hard during the winter and with less than 3 weeks until the first major gift of the year, Queanbeyan Gift, the squad is counting down the days until the competition season commences.
With increased prize money at this gift, including equal prize money for Men and Women, this meeting will be a wonderful opportunity to gauge how athletes are going.
Clearly this looms as the biggest season ever with the Olympic Games and World Junior Championships less than a year away. The squad will have many athletes competing in the Athletics Australia tour meets which will be telecast on Channel 9 this year.
A group of athletes will again head down to Tasmania for the Christmas/New Year carnivals and the squad will have their first athlete run at Bay Sheffield.
Throw in gift carnivals in NSW and Victoria (including Stawell) and local summer series meets with AACT and you have a year full of many opportunities and fun.
Please stay tuned to www.mattybdept.com for results, insights and video footage of the squad.
Congratulations to Lauren Boden who competed in her first World Championships in the Women’s 400m Hurdles, and top twenty in the world as a result!On Monday morning she placed 4th in her heat to automatically qualify through to the Semi Finals in a season best time of 55.78. An excellent start, ‘I ran a very controlled race and executed my race plan exactly the way I had discussed with Matty. I can’t wait to give it everything tomorrow night in the semi finals, I have nothing to lose.’
On Tuesday night it was Semi Final time in the Women’s 400 Hurdles here at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Lauren placed 7th in her Semi Final in a time of 56.68, tough windy conditions out there, ‘Overall I was actually quite happy with my run and unfortunately there was a massive headwind to battle for the last 100m! But that is racing and often there are things that you can’t control! Tonight was an amazing and invaluable experience, especially as I look ahead now to 2012 London Olympics.’
Next on the program is the 4x 400m relay which Lauren will be running the third leg the heats begin on Thursday at 12.10pm (1.10pm AEST).
MattyB DEPT. will be proudly represented by Lauren Boden and Melissa Breen at the up coming World Championships in Daegu. Brendan Cole had a “B” standard but was unfortunately not given the same discrectionary selection as Boden. We wish him all the best and know he will be on the team for the 2012 Olympic games.
Lauren will run in the 400m Hurdles and is part of the 4 x 400m relay team.
Melissa will run in the 4 x 100m relay team.
All 3 have been competing in Europe over the past few months. All 3 athletes have their own website with video footage and blogs that make for great reading so please click on each of the athletes under the links section to check them out.
MattyB DEPT. (MBD) 