Racing against the world
THREE impressive local athletes are set to hit the world stage after qualifying for the 2018 IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Finland.
Sprinting prodigy Mia Gross, 16, qualified for the 100m, 200m and 4x100m events, but the Year 11 student isn’t concerned about racing against older opponents.
Gross narrowly missed out on Commonwealth Games selection after making the 4x100m relay gold squad, which included world and Olympic champion Sally Pearson.
Training in the elite seven-woman squad gave her the opportunity to work closely with her running idols.
“Sally shared a lot of stories and wisdom with me, which was awesome,” Gross said.
For Harvey Murrant, 19, qualifying for the world championships is a “dream come true”.
The hurdler produced back-to-back world qualifying times at the Australian Junior and Victorian Open Athletics Championships earlier this month.
But for now, it’s back to training.
“Right now I’m focused on competing to the best of my ability in Finland, so the focus is on training for the next few months,” Murrant said.
This sentiment was shared by Christian Davis, 18, who has run 10 qualifying times for 400m and 800m events.
However, the shorter distance will be his focus in the lead-up to Finland.
“I’m focused on this three-month training block ... it’s been the goal for the past four years so it’s pretty exciting,” he said.