Jack’s 2020 vision in focus

THE Tokyo Olympics are one year away today ... and Jack Hale has some work to do. Tasmania’s fastest man needs to lower his personal best time for the 100m from 10.19sec to 10.05 if he is to qualify. Part of his preparations this year will be the Christmas Carnivals across Tasmania.

ABOUT one metre stands between Tasmania’s fastest man Jack Hale and fulfilling his Olympic dream.

With Tokyo exactly one year away today, Hale has to lower his official personal best of 10.19sec to 10.05sec to qualify for the individual 100m. However, the old qualifying time is not the only way athletes can gain entry.

The International Association of Athletics Federations has introduced a complicated tennis-style ranking system that allocates points per event that could also lead to Olympic qualification.

Hale, ranked 46th in the men’s 100m worldwide and a high of 35th, said this could also open the door for him.

“Definitely as an individual [is the goal for Tokyo],” Hale, 21, said.

“Qualifier is 10.05 seconds so I’m about a metre off that or so. I’ve got another 11 months to really prepare and go for it so if I can just hit that, that would be perfect but obviously a new points system and based off last season and how I went in the domestic races there is no problem with me making it.

“I’ve just got to back it up consistently and run slightly quicker.”

Part of Hale’s preparations will be at this year’s Christmas Carnivals across Tasmania, but there will be one major change. For the first time in the 132-year history of the Burnie Carnival, it will be run on New Year’s Eve, not New Year’s Day.

It means there will be two Burnie Gift and two Burnie Wheel winners in the same year for the first time.

Burnie Athletic Club president Ricky Aitken said the change was made after a healthy conversation at the club’s annual general meeting last week.

“We acknowledge it’s a major break in tradition,” Aitken said. “But we feel while the club is performing well at the moment, it’s the time to make structural changes like this to continually evolve.

“With competition in the national calendar tight, this compresses the time needed for visiting athletes’ schedules.

“It also drops the costs in keeping athletes here, so we can attract more for the same investment.”