Racing into the future
and cold conditions but she was no match for another young gun, Bella O’Grady, who posted the best time of the day over the one-lap trip.
O’Grady, a world junior championships representative, is better known as a sprint hurdler and sprinter but stepped up to the 400m, where she notched an outstanding personal best of 53.89sec, just over a second outside the Commonwealth Games B qualifier.
O’Grady’s time was even more impressive given she ran from Lane 8 on a cold and wet day and had to push into a brutal headwind in the final stages.
“She’s stepped up from the 100m hurdles and the latter half of this domestic season she’s run 100m and 200m and now she’s up here to run a 400m and she beat them all,” meet organiser Sharon Hannan said.
More than 670 athletes are taking part in the three-day meet at Parklands, with a contingent of about 265 from the US among them.
Former world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Dani Stevens will hone her preparations for the London world titles tomorrow when she competes in the discus final.
Stevens (nee Samuels), a former Gold Coast resident, became the youngest discus world champion when she won gold in Berlin in 2009 and followed up with a win at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.
She heads into London in good form after finishing second in May’s Diamond League meet in Beijing and hopes to continue her form on the Coast tomorrow.
Olympic finalist Damien Birkinhead warmed up for London by throwing 20.79m in the shot put yesterday, notching another Commonwealth Games qualifier on his way to winning the event.