Three Armidale athletes made their way to the Gold Coast on the weekend to take on some of the country’s best runners in a Commonwealth Games trial.
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Para-athletes Will Vince-Moin and Millie Mazzei along with hurdler Karina Brown stepped up to one of the biggest events they have competed at in their athletics careers.
Mazzei was one of the youngest competitors at the 400 metre race and could have let the atmosphere overwhelm her but coach Jay Stone said she kept level-headed and impressed on the national stage for seventh place.
“It was pretty impressive how she managed to maintain focus in that environment, it was really intimidating,” he said.
“I was pretty worried about her because she is only 15.
“She has had issues with nerves in other competitions when she is trying something new but she did really well.
“She was able to focus on what she needed to do in her race.
“It was maybe her second fastest 400 ever.
“To do that when the big pressure was on was a pretty big effort.”
Vince-Moin took on the 800m and 400m events to land a sixth and seventh place.
“He had done a big pb a week or so before and I was worried it might be a bit of a let down because you have a breakthough run and then [ask] can you replicate that again on a big stage?” Stone said.
“He not only replicated it but went faster again.
“He ran a personal best at the Commonwealth Stadium and finished sixth in Australia in the 800m.”
Stone said Vince-Moin’s 400m was a tougher event.
“There were two timed finals and Will got in the fastest of the two finals so he was racing against guys who were extremely fast,” he said.
“Will is very competitive so he wasn't about to let them take off on him.
“He chased them as hard as he could and maybe overextended a little and didn't save himself much to come home with.
“Seventh in Australia is still a great result but he was hoping for maybe a faster time.”
Brown’s 100m event saw some of the biggest names in Australian athletics competing, including world champion and Olympic gold medallist Sally Pearson.
While she didn’t line up against Pearson in the heats, she did take on Rio Olympian Michelle Jenneke.
Unfortunately an early slip up saw Brown miss out on the finals.
“She had a really good warm up, everything was going well, practice was perfect, we talked about finishing her race because she did have a few troubles with the last couple of hurdles,” Stone said.
“She went out and clipped the first one.
“It was a little bit of a downer but she maintained her focus, she kept going through to the end and got the momentum going but it was unfortunate she clipped that first hurdle.
“She was our only able-bodied athlete competing so she did well just to get in the field.”