WorldSkills Kazan 2019: Australia wins four medals

It’s known as the skills and trades Olympics. Australian tradies have wowed judges at the WorldSkills event in Russia after four days of intense competition.

Australia has picked up four medals at WorldSkills Kazan 2019, ranking it 8th out of 63 countries and regions in the skills and trades Olympics.

The 45th International WorldSkills Competition, held in Russia for the first time, wrapped up overnight with a closing ceremony attended by President Vladimir Putin.

It followed four days of competition across 56 skill categories from hairdressing to cooking to carpentry.

Maxine Colligan won Best in Nation for Australia as the country’s highest point scorer.

Australia’s Skillaroos nabbed a silver medal and three bronze medals from the 15 skills they entered, ranking Australia 8th based on average medal tally and average points tally - up from 10th at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017.

New South Wales’ Clinton Larkings won the silver in industrial mechanic millwright, while the bronzes went to Queensland’s Patrick Brennan for airconditioning and refrigeration, NSW’s Maxine Colligan for car painting and Victoria’s Patrick Keating for plumbing and heating.

Ms Colligan also won Best in Nation for Australia as the country’s highest point scorer.

“I’m so over the moon,” she said.

“All this hard work has paid off.

“(WorldSkills) has opened up a lot of opportunities even before I came here to compete - I’ve already had job offers and interviews and been asked to speak at events and represented women in trades.”

Clinton Larkings won silver in industrial mechanic millwright. Picture: Melanie Burgess

Mr Larkings, 22, had been wanting to compete in WorldSkills since he was 16 years old.

Over the past two years he won regional and national WorldSkills competitions to bring him to Russia, accepting a silver medal in front of a stadium full of people plus millions streaming the event live around the world.

“I didn’t think I would ever get up there,” he said.

“I hope mum and dad will be pretty proud of me.”

Queensland’s Patrick Brennan won a bronze medal for airconditioning and refrigeration.

Despite missing out on a podium finish himself, Tasmanian cabinet-maker Josh Boon will return home to his own prize, meeting his new daughter for the first time.

Willow Grace was born an hour before day one of his competition started but he did not let it phase him and was among only 10 of 30 cabinetmaking competitors to finish their project in the allotted time.

Mr Boon said he would have liked to have been there for the birth of his second child but his wife, Brittany, had been very supportive of his involvement in the WorldSkills competition.

“They are both doing really well and are home,” he said.

WorldSkills Australia chairman Kevin Harris wished all of the 2019 Skillaroos success in their post-WorldSkills lives.

“I hope they come out of it with a great experience and feel very positive irrespective of their results,” he said.

“(After the competition,) I hope they do whatever they want to ... (but) it would be lovely if all of them continued in the WorldSkills family and most of them do.

“It’s about that engagement and demonstrating and learning excellence (so) it would be great to go home and contribute to that.”

Originally published as WorldSkills Kazan 2019: Australia wins four medals