Paris Olympics 2024: Long jumper Chris Mitrevski secures last minute Olympic berth at national athletics’ titles and is among four debutants named
He might have been cutting it fine, but Chris Mitrevski has secured a place in the Australian athletics team for the Paris Olympic Games and is among four debutants including Victorian teenage sensation Claudia Hollingsworth.
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LONG jump is all about timing and Victorian Chris Mitrevski left it to the very last minute to book his ticket to Paris.
With his last jump of the national championships, the 27-year-old soared to a personal best of 8.32m which was 5cm over the required Olympics qualifying standard.
That meant Mitrevski was among the 14 track and field athletes who were named in the Australian Olympic team at the conclusion of the four-day trials in Adelaide.
He is one of four debutants in the team, the others being 19-year-old Claudia Hollingsworth (800m), Abbey Caldwell (800m) and Lauren Ryan (10,000m).
After a tumultuous 12 months, Peter Bol can now focus on Paris after he was included in the team despite being beaten in the 800m final thanks to a number of A-standard times up his sleeve.
Hurdler Michelle Jenneke is going to her second Olympics after winning her third national title on Sunday while others to get selected in the first wave of nominations were Matt Denny (discus), Jessica Hull (1500m), Nicola Olyslagers (high-jump) and Eleanor Patterson (high-jump).
Four walkers were also included in the 20km event: Jemima Montag, Rebecca Henderson, Kyle Swan and Rhydian Cowley.
There are two more selection openings for the track and field team with marathoners next month and the final cut coming in July with a team of approximately 70 expected.
Young stars like Torrie Lewis and Caleb Law, who both brilliantly won the 200m national titles on Sunday, will now seek the relevant qualifying standards over the next three months.
Mitrevski, who has represented Australia at the past two world championships, was lost for words about how he produced a career best jump – an 11cm improvement on his previous best – with an Olympic spot on the line.
“I don’t know (how I did that), I’ve known I’ve had something like that in me for a while and I’ve just been trying to get the confidence to really be able to attack it,” he said.
“I think over the last few years I’ve been pretty inconsistent, a lot of hesitation and I sort of had nothing to lose on that last jump. I knew I had the gold so I just went harder than I ever have and flew over 8.32m.”
Mitrevski revealed his mother had booked her trip to Paris months ago and “she couldn’t cancel it so she’s pretty happy”.
To put into perspective his winning leap of 8.32m would have won the bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“I said that to myself two years ago when I jumped pretty well at nationals 2022, I changed my focus from can I make a team to let’s push for a medal now,” he said.
“I’ve just struggled with consistency since then but if I keep doing that, then absolutely go for a medal.”
Olyslagers, the silver medallist from Tokyo, took the national title with a leap of 2.01m but she was more excited about how close she got in her three attempts at 2.06m.
Patterson, the 2022 world champion who has had an interrupted summer through personal reasons, was also pleased with her 1.95m performance saying it was an important building block in her Olympic preparation.
Raising the bar significantly over her career best and Australian record (2.03m) was a tactic Olyslagers is using to prepare herself for jumping big heights in Paris.
“I had a chat with a few other competitors and they said once you’ve won a big competition you need to put it up to a height you desire to jump, don’t step stone it,” she said.
“So after 2.01, I went well, I really believe 2.06m is in there. I bypassed PBs because ultimately I want to jump higher but you can’t jump high unless you have attempted to jump high.”
TEEN STAR LIVES UP TO HYPE WITHB FIRSTV NATIONAL TITLE
SHE’D been labelled a potential GOAT coming in and Victorian teenager Claudia Hollingsworth has justified the hype, showing she won’t be out of place in Paris in three-and-a-half months time.
Hollingworth’s jaw-dropping victory to win her first national title came in one of the fastest 800m races ever seen in this country with the first four over the line all running under two minutes.
🔥WOW Australian U20 800m Record🔥
— @athsSTATS (@athsstats) April 14, 2024
2nd fastest Australian all-time
Claudia Hollingsworth🥇take a bow!
Caldwell🥈led into the straight & Oboya flashes home🥉after Bisset bravely led the field to 650m
Never 4 Oz under 2 mins in same race#AustChamps🇦🇺#ThisisAthleticspic.twitter.com/ZczOj5WJhI
And 10 minutes later the men’s 800m final was just as good with another new fresh face on the scene, Luke Boyes, taking the scalp of Olympic finalist Peter Bol.
Hollingsworth, who turned 19 on Friday, looked in trouble on the back straight when she was snookered back on the rail but she exploded over the final 100m to claim victory in a personal best 1min58.40sec from fellow Victorian 22-year-old Abbey Caldwell (1:59.01sec).
Former 400m runner Bendere Oboya finished third (1:59.33sec) with Australian record holder Catriona Bisset (1:59.87sec).
“It’s just pure elation and such a huge weight off my shoulders,” an emotional Hollingsworth said. “I’ve been thinking about this one race for so long now and just to have it over is so exciting and now I can relax and really focus on the rest of the season, just pure joy.
“Throughout the race there wasn’t really one point where I felt relaxed, just really nervous being a bit boxed in when we got to the 300 I felt good, I was quite a way back but I just trusted my back end ability, always say don’t go too early and it worked out in my favour.”
Hollingsworth is coached by former middle-distance star Craig Mottram who discovered her at a school athletics carnival several years ago. Her freakish talents have been on display in junior ranks with Cathy Freeman’s former coach Peter Fortune moved to label her a potential GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) when he saw her race as a 16-year-old.
On the thought of racing against the world’s best at the Olympic Games, Hollingsworth said: “If that happens it’d be insane. I can’t even imagine.”
Boyes, a 20-year-old university student from the Blue Mountains, has been a revelation this season and in a brutal 800m final he fought back over the final 20m to pass Bol who’d hit the front momentarily.
His time of 1:44.73sec was a massive personal best and just .03sec off the Olympic A qualifying time which means he will have to wait until July to see if he is selected in the Olympic team.
“I can’t believe I won, it’s such a quality field,” Boyes said. “I knew everyone would expect me to go to the front so then when I found myself there, I thought, well, the national title isn’t going to come easy so if I go down, I’ll go down swinging.
“So I pretty much had to take it on from the 600m and I felt absolutely horrible coming down the home straight. So I’m thinking like it’s going to be the longest 400 in my life and I’m either going to win or I’m going to come seventh or eighth.
“Pete got around with a 100 to go and it is kind of intimidating how smooth his shadow looks, I couldn’t see him, I could see his shadow, it is so effortless. He got in front and I thought he had it but it’s championship racing and I just found something in that last 40.”
Bol, who clocked 1:45.06sec with Peyton Craig third (1:45.76sec), was more than happy with his performance given it was just his third race back from an injury-interrupted season.
“I wasn’t preparing for a 1:44 race, it was physical but these are the races I like, these sorts of races prepare you for the Olympic Games,” he said. “The other races I have been running (previously in Australia) have almost been too easy.
“That’s what we want in Australia. Well done to Luke obviously, I’m just coming back so I’m pretty sure I’ll be in 1:43 shape this season for sure.”
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Michelle Jenneke claimed the national title in a season’s best 12.88sec to upstage arch rival Liz Clay (13.03sec).
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