MIA IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Geelong’s Gross takes a step in her quest for a place at the Paris Olympics
A Geelong sprint star has inched closer to her Olympic dream after winning silver at the national athletics championships in Adelaide.
Mia Gross, who turns 23 on Thursday, almost broke a personal best in the 200m at the championships.
However, it was the first time she had qualified for a national final in that event, finishing in a time of 23.38sec, just shy of her PB of 23.16.
The Torquay product, who is a personal trainer at the Royal Children’s Hospital, said her plan was to primarily focus on the 200m event ahead of Paris after a long time specialising in the 100m.
“I’m pretty ecstatic. I would have liked a little bit faster time-wise but I can’t complain,” Gross said.
“I’ve basically been running PBs every single time I’ve run a 200 this season, I’ve been picking it up quite quickly.
“I’m going to put all my eggs into that (basket),
“It opens a lot of doors for me as well.
“I think I’m in faster shape than that (time), so I was a little bit annoyed that I didn’t go out and go a little bit faster.
“But that’s racing and there was a little bit of a headwind.”
The weekend proved to be an emotional one for the Geelong Grammar School product as she finally received her 2022 Commonwealth Games 4x100m bronze medal the night before the Adelaide event – delayed significantly by the lengthy process of drug testing.
“It was finally nice to have the medal in my hands after nearly two years,” she said.
“I went from one high to the next high the next day.
“It was a pretty good weekend for me.
“It was really nice to relive the whole Comm Games moment.”
For Gross, the immediate future is all about collecting as many points as possible and part of that is making a journey to Japan in a few weeks for the 39th Shizuoka International Athletics Meet, while her performances in South Australia has placed her in an optimal position for the Oceania Athletics Championships in Fiji from early June.
“It’s a very long process,” Gross said of Olympic qualification.
“It’s all about getting as many races as you can.
“Everything needs to go perfectly.
“The wind has to be good, the track has to be good, you have to be feeling good.
“It’s just putting myself in as many races as I can to find that perfect race.”
Chasing her dream has come at a great personal financial cost, with Gross having to pay for her own transport and accommodation and having to quit a few jobs to focus on her track career.
“The biggest challenge would be financially supporting (myself),” she said.
Gross said she was looking forward to turning 23.
“(Twenty-three is) young but I feel old,” she said with a laugh. “I’m middle-aged in the track world.
“I’ve hopefully got another eight to 10 years left in the sport.”