Boyle warns Day to finalise goals without thinking of medals
COMMONWEALTH Games Games legend Raelene Boyle has cautioned 18-year-old Queenslander Riley Day to “forget the medals’’ and aim solely for the 200m final this week.
Day, the youngest Australian to win the national sprint title, is ranked fourth in the Commonwealth this year with her 22.93 personal best.
But Jamaica’s Olympics sprint double champion Elaine Thompson is among the class Commonwealth opponents yet to run a 200m this early in the year.
“The most important thing for her is forget the medals – it’s a reasonable field so if she makes the final anything else is a bonus,’’ said Boyle, a winner of seven Commonwealth gold medals and an Olympic 200m silver medallist at 17.
“I’m told by a number of people she has good instincts for sprinting. She is quite intense in the gym. She is going to have to relax a bit about herself. But it’s good she has a sub-23sec 200m time at that age.”
Day, from Beaudesert, said she believed she would be able to again lower her personal best at Carrara Stadium but her goal was to make the final. Heats are on Wednesday night.
The two fastest Commonwealth athletes over 200m this year, Nigeria’s Bless Okagbare-Ighoteguonor and Jamaica’s Kevona Davis, have not entered the event.
The third fastest, at 22.90, England’s Dina Asher-Smith, has entered.
While Day has been sensible in not fanning any talk of winning a Games medal, England’s Bianca Williams, who took the 2014 Commonwealth bronze with a time of 22.58, finished just .01 in front of Day when they raced in Brisbane on March 28.
Thompson said late last month she would run only in the 200m and for Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team.
“It’s daunting but really cool, the thought of running against an Olympic champion,’’ said Day, who had a low- key family lunch to mark turning 18 late last month.
“The world titles (last August in which she ran the 4x100m relay) gave me a little taste of what to come.
“I’m not going to put pressure on myself because they are such high calibre athletes. I do hope to make the final.
“There is some pressure with the home crowd, but I’ve been trying to keep life as normal as possible. I’m not going to stop my life because I’ve had the Commonwealth Games coming up.’’