HEAT ON DAMO
GEELONG shot-putter Damien Birkinhead has smashed the Commonwealth Games Aqualifying distance about 20 times, but he admits the pressure is still on to perform in this weekend’s selection trials at the Gold Coast.
“I have to win or medal on Sunday, and then it’s up to the selectors as to whether they choose me or not,” the 2016 Olympic finalist said.
Despite being unhappy with his performance at the Hunter Track Classic in New South Wales last month, Birkinhead still won the event by more than a metre and a half, throwing 19.55m amid two fouls.
A week later he threw an Aqualifying distance at the Victorian Country Track and Field Championships.
“My start to the year has been pretty good,” he said.
“I’ve had a couple of niggles, which I’m trying to get through, but I’m doing all I can to be in good form on Sunday.”
An Australian record holder, Birkinhead is one of Australia’s most consistent athletics performers, and given his recent domination of shot put in Australia, it is almost certain he will return to the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games in April.
“It’s pretty exciting, the thought of competing in front of a home crowd,” Birkinhead said. “In Rio I saw what it was like with the Brazil people getting behind their team, so the thought of that potentially happening to me is pretty exciting.”
While no other Australian has posted a qualifying distance, Birkinhead’s training partner Matthew Cowie has thrown 13 centimetres less than the Bqualifying distance, and Sydney 18-year-old Aiden Harvey is only 30cm off.
“Hopefully we all perform this weekend,” he said.