There were tons of great performances at the Australian Olympic trials. As the Aussies finished up their national meet, the big performances came out. Nicola McDermott became the first Australian woman to clear the 2 meters mark in the high jump. Not only is McDermott the Australian champion, she now holds the national record and has a lot of confidence heading into the summer 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Adding 2 centimeters to her personal best, McDermott with the crowd clapping along with her cadence, floated to the pit in what seemed to be just nine strides. Her jump was powerful and glided over the bar to set the Aussie record and break the 2-meter barrier. At 24-years old this isn’t the last we will hear of her.
INCREDIBLE!
Nicola McDermott becomes the first Australian woman to jump over 2 METRES ?????????@AthsAust | @7plus | #ThisIsAthletics pic.twitter.com/kixEW13xL6
— 7Sport (@7Sport) April 18, 2021
In the big highlight of the meet, the men’s 1500m, a great race unfolded. Stewart McSweyn, the 25-year old Australian record holder, took it out quickly with 23-year old university student Jye Edwards close by. Early in the race, the two stars separated themselves from the rest of the field. While the pack was just a few seconds back, it was clear who this race would come down to.
Compared with many other national meets, this event was filled with young athletes. All runners in the 1500m could have been university students. Edwards put on a clinic in drafting. As McSweyn would say later, he had a “good sit,” on the national record holder. The two had no time to mess with championship pacing and took it to one another.
Edwards kept at the heels of McSweyn and forced him into a hard pace, 1:52 through 800m. McSweyn, who has been approved for the 5000m and 10,000m in Tokyo, is a strong versatile athlete. With 150m to go, it seemed like either man could win. As Edwards came around the headwind on the backstretch took its toll on Stewart.
Jye Edwards goes on to win the Australian 1500m title in a meet record 3:33.99. That is the fastest time an Aussie has had to run in order to win the national title. It also earned Edwards an Olympic Standard. McSweyn could make a decision to compete in the 1500m instead of the 5000m and 10,000m in Tokyo, but that has remained to be seen. The world is gearing up for the Olympics as countries like Australia and Ethiopia have their national meets.
