World Athletics Championships: Record haul has Australia primed for Paris Olympics
The sky is the limit for Australia’s athletics team at next year’s Olympics after a record-breaking haul in Budapest.
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There is no limit to what Australia’s track and field team can do at the Paris Olympics next year after a record haul of world championship medals.
Moments after watching Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers win silver and bronze in the high-jump, Athletics Australia’s high performance boss Andrew Faichney declared the sky was the limit at the Olympics given the standard the team had set in Budapest.
“We can do anything in Paris to be honest,” Faichney said.
“We have now got athletes who come to this environment who know they belong. And not only that, they own it.
“To be able to come in and deliver that level of success. You then have everyone start believing that they are coming here to perform at that medal level and that’s an amazing turnaround from the last few years.
“When you can look back to Doha, that wasn’t a very strong performance at all.”
One gold medal to javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber was all Australia came away with from the 2019 Doha world championships. Four years later the green and gold outfit leaves Budapest with six medals, its best ever haul.
Australia’s best track and field performance at an Olympic Games came at Mexico in 1968 where six medals were won including two golds to Ralph Doubell and Maureen Caird.
With more than 200 countries represented in Budapest, Australia finished equal sixth for the number of medals won.
“We are the best team on results (at a world championships), we have to be really proud of that,” Faichney said.
“And we have to be saying that’s what we don’t want to go back from, we want to actually build from it and have greater success next year at the Olympics.”
Pole vaulter Nina Kennedy led the way in Budapest with a shared gold medal while Jemima Montag won silver in the 20km walk. A pair of bronze medals were picked up by javelin thrower Mackenzie Little and pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall before the high-jumping pair added two more.
Faichney said the current wave of athletes had a no-fear attitude which had been missing in previous Australian teams.
“We’ve got the ones who are winning medals now so we’re not walking into the Olympic Games next year hoping that we have got people who perform at a medal level,” he said.
“We have got ones who have actually got medals hanging around their neck that they can turn to and show.
“I don’t think there is anyone who sits there and says that we’re not pushing for a medal anymore. You hear Rohan Browning in an event which has always been considered an impossibility often, he’s disappointed not to make (100m) the final and he’s pushing hard.
“There is nothing that is off the limits for us. We have the opportunity (in Paris) and we have the belief, our coaches are working with our athletes to say this is where we’re going, we’re not trying to make up numbers at all.
“I go back to Matt Denny, it was a fantastic quote when he said I should be excited about a national record (in the discus) and fourth place but I’m not going to pretend I’m not pissed off with it.
“That’s the drive that sits there, not just with him but the whole group.”
One issue which bubbled away behind the scenes has been the Peter Bol situation and his disconnect with Athletics Australia after his drug scandal.
Bol failed to get out of his heat in the 800m with Faichney not wishing to address the issue.
“Peter has had one of the most difficult years that anyone could possibly imagine and for him to be here was just amazing in itself,” Faichney said.
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