TRAGIC AUSSIE LOSS
TOWNSVILLE’S 2010 Commonwealth Games javelin champion Jarrod Bannister has been remembered as a talented and popular member of Australia’s athletics teams for almost a decade.
Bannister, a two- time Olympian who also went to two Olympic Games, died suddenly yesterday in the Netherlands, where he had been training.
There were reported to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. Bannister was 33.
Although still training for the jav- elin, in which he was a four- time na- tional champion, Bannister had not t put a qualifying performance up for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April.
“A talented athlete with so much h more to give. You will be missed,’’ tweeted Queensland’s Olympic champion Sally Pearson, a teammate at both Bannister’s Olympics, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, in tribute.
Queensland Athletics CEO David Gynther said Bannister was an outstanding talent in his event.
“Jarrod was one of the best athletes this country has produced in recent times,’’ Gynther said.
“He was a great guy and his own man and he will be missed by many.’’
Bannister won gold at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010 and made the final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and also the 2011 world championships in Daegu, South Korea. Bannister’s best javelin throw of 89.02m, in Brisbane in 2008, remains the Australian record from a career in which he left Townsville for coaching in Brisbane and Melbourne.
It was the second longest throw in the world that year.
Townsville sports stalwarts recall that Bannister was an outstanding young fast bowler in cricket in the same era in which Test paceman Mitchell Johnson played in the city.
The news of Bannister’s passing comes less than a week out from the Commonwealth Games selection trials at Gold Coast’s Carrara Stadium, which starts on Thursday.
Bannister’s first Games campaign was the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. “I extend our deepest condolences Jarrod’s family and friends and to urge the athletics fraternity to support each other at this difficult time,” said Athletics Australia CEO Darren Gocher.
Bannister was banned for 20 months in 2013 for failing to comply with three “no notice’’ tests in an 18month period. Bannister returned to the sport and in 2016 was credited with a best 78.29m in a meet in Germany, but two Australians who had thrown further than he did were se- lected for the Rio Olympic Games that year.
Canberra’s Australian 100m record holder Melissa Breen said her thoughts were with Bannister’s family. “You were the best javelin thrower Australia has ever produced, but may this be a reminder that we are all more than results on a page,’’ Breen said.
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