Hard work pays off for Clio
FROM Smithfield to Uganda. That is the athletics journey of distance runner Clio Ozanne-Jaques (above) who will represent Australia at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala on Sunday. Ozanne-Jaques, 17, is coached by Cairns’ Jill Boltz, an Olympian who represented Great Britain in 1988 and 1992. Boltz said she believed Ozanne-Jaques had always had the potential to represent Australia.
FROM Smithfield to Uganda, – that is the athletics journey of distance runner Clio Ozanne-Jaques who will represent Australia at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala on Sunday.
Ozanne-Jaques, 17, is coached by Cairns’ Jill Boltz, an Olympian who represented Great Britain in 1988 and 1992.
Boltz said she believed Ozanne-Jaques had always had the potential to represent Australia. “Everything has fallen into place this year,” Boltz said. “She works very hard, and last year had to focus on finishing Year 12 but she also had to find time to decide where she wanted to be with her sport.
“She would train at 110 per cent and now she is exactly where she deserves to be.
“Clio is not just a great athlete but also a terrific role model to the younger athletes in the group.
“This is such an exciting time for athletics and running as a sport, there is renewed enthusiasm on the back of the Nitro Athletics series and coming into the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.”
Ozanne-Jaques finalised her preparations on the Gold Coast before flying to Africa.
“I have dreamt of wearing the green and gold for as long as I can remember, and growing up in Far North Queensland we have challenges that other runners don’t have like the extreme weather and the distance we need to travel for competitions,” she said.
“I think it makes us a lot stronger and determined.
“When the uniform and kit arrived it was quite surreal, it wasn’t that long ago when I would get excited about making the state squad. Now I will be travelling to Africa with some of my running idols.
“This will be a very steep learning curve for me, everything from competing at such a high level, international competition, to running against the Africans.
“They are the powerhouses of distance running and we will be on their turf. It’s exciting.”