Despard desperate to achieve Games dream
After his Commonwealth Games heartbreak, Jacob Despard vowed he wouldn’t compete at a major meet solely as a relay runner again.
His stance has softened now the emotions have faded, but the Hobart sprinter will do everything in his power to secure an individual 100m spot at this year’s Paris Olympics.
The 27-year-old won bronze (10.41 seconds into a headwind) at last week’s national championships in Adelaide, behind teen sensation Sebastian Sultana (10.27) and Josh Azzopardi.
The result looks likely to be enough to be selected in Australia’s team for the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas next month, while he’s also eyeing off one of three spots for the Oceania Athletics Championships at Fiji in June. “I’m always happy to win a medal in the blue-ribbon event, but I’ve got mixed emotions – I came to Adelaide with the goal of becoming national champion and didn’t get that,” Despard said.
“I was happy to get on the podium, but also left me wanting more.”
Despard said the disappointment of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where anchor runner Rohan Browning fell to deny Australia a spot in the 4x100m relay final, took a long time to overcome.
But he’ll be fine with only competing in the relay at Paris if that’s how the cards fall.
“After the Commonwealth Games … I said I never wanted to go to a major champs as only a relay runner again,” he said. “(But) going to the Olympics, no matter what the event is, is pretty special. I went here (Birmingham) in the best shape of my life and ran really well, to have nothing to show for that took a long time to come to terms with.
“I still enjoyed my time there, these things happen. I’m going to try really hard to make the (individual) 100.
“We’ve got a good group of boys at the moment in the (relay) team. I think we can do something special, we’re already knocking of the door of the Australian record.”
Despard conceded his path to a potential 100m berth at Paris was a tricky one.
An Oceania Championships berth would allow him to chase valuable world ranking points, while he will attempt to gain entry into top events in Europe including Diamond League meets.
“I’ll have to go overseas and race in some big meets and run a bit faster than I have,” he said.
“It’s still a chance, but I’ve got some work to do and have got until June 30.
“They’ve got an automatic qualifying time which is ten seconds (flat) and only one Australian has ever run that.
“World Athletics’ goal is to qualify half the field via that and the other half on world ranking positions. At the moment I’m ranked somewhere in the sixties, and it’s the top 48 who go.
“It’s about getting into those races overseas now that have big bonus points, which can be quite hard to get into, but I’ll put my hand up and see what happens.”
Meanwhile, at the junior nationals in Adelaide, Hobart hammer thrower Arielle Cannell added the under-18 hammer throw title to the under20 crown she claimed last week.
Other gold medallists at the time of publication were Sianna Adkins (women’s under-15 javelin) and Palepa Leauma (women’s under-15 discus)