Category Archives: 2011/12 Media Releases

2011/12 Amateur Results, 2011/12 Media Releases

Boden A-mazing

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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.

Race footage available here

2011/12 Amateur Results, 2011/12 Media Releases

Breen blasts two B qualifiers for Olympics

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In an outstanding display of sprinting in Perth 21 year old Melissa Breen ran 2 Olympic “B” standard performances in the space of 90minutes.
Fully recovered from a freak neural issue in Adelaide last week that prevented her from pushing out of the blocks Breen exploded out this time to record 11.35 (1.7w) in the first race. She was then able to back this up with arguably a better run in the second race recording 11.36 with a less supporting wind of 0.9m/s.
“I knew from training that I was in PB shape so it is a good positive indicator to run these times in competition conditions.”
It is a huge weekend for the MattyB DEPT with athletes competing in four states. Breen in Perth along with Brandan Galic who ran 10.98 in the 100m.
Also last night three athletes competed in Canberra highlighted by a huge PB by 19 year old Rachael Carnegie running 57.84 in the 400m taking over a second of her best. Jesse Matthews also ran a season best and under 50 seconds in the 400m (49.81) to take victory over Luke Storta (50.33).
Birthday boy Ollie Wurm runs a 400m at AVShield in Victoria on Saturday hoping to challenge his PB of 47.62.
To round of a huge weekend the 400m Hurdlers are hoping for pleasant conditions down in Tasmania at the Hobart Track Classic. Lauren Boden and Chloe Jamieson will compete in the Women’s while Brendan Cole and honorary member Mowen Boino (training with squad for 3 months) will run in the Men’s event.
2011/12 Gift Results, 2011/12 Media Releases

Cole claims Albury 400m Gift

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BJ Cole has again provided the crowd with an amazing display of 400m running to take victory in the Albury Gift off the backmark of 7m. Cole made a decisive move down the back straight to get himself into striking distance and then showed great strength to hold off the rest of the field to claim victory by 2 metres.

This victory comes off the back of his victory in the Burnie Gift over the Christmas period in Tasmania.

“Today’s gift was a fantastic carnival and I really felt good out there today. I know I am biased but I think my training partner Tom Burbidge did a great job in setting up and running the Albury Gift.” Cole was the ambassador of the Albury Gift that has been put back on the calendar by 2010 Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge.

Cole will now firmly shift his focus towards running the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400m Hurdles with races in Hobart, Perth and Sydney in the next 3 weeks leading into the Olympic trials on the 2-4th March in Melbourne.

In other squad results Kevin Matthews took victory in the frontmarkers 70m and also the Vets/Women’s 300m. He was also third in the vets 120m

Rachael Carnegie also made the final of the 300m and finished 8th in the Women’s Gift final.

Brandan Galic ran strongly for 4th in the 70m final off the back mark of 2.25m He also ran 2nd in the Backmarkers final with training partners Brendan Matthews 3rd and Ollie Wurm 6th in the same race.

Luke Storta and Jesse Matthews made the final of the Men’s 400m to finish off a great day for the MattyB DEPT.

Footage here including Men’s Gift final won by Joel Bee

Congratulations also to Jesse Matthews for taking victory in the 70m at the Wangaratta Gift meeting the day earlier.