The Virtual Stadium

Athletics Australia has developed a central hub for the athletics community, The Virtual Stadium, to ensure we keep moving, stay engaged, keep safe, keep fit and stay healthy during the COVID-19 restrictions.

The content is divided into three key themes: Keep Safe, Keep Fit and Stay Healthy.

Keep Safe is an area where you will find information from leading Australian athletes, including highlights from the 2020 Summer Super Series and videos from the athletics community.

Keep Fit is an area where you will find personal updates from Australia’s best track & field athletes and coaches.

The Stay Healthy area is a space where you will find information from Coles Supermarkets and the Athletics Australia Health and Nutrition Team about healthy eating habits. Here you will also find the weekly Q&A sessions with some of Australia’s leading sports professionals.

To access the Virtual Stadium, click HERE.

2020 ACT Track & Field Championships

The 2020 ACT Track & Field Championships were held at the AIS from 24 January to 27 January.

Woden athletes thundered home with a total of 65 medals from the Championships and many top 6 placings.

Click HERE to read more and check out some pics!

Australian All Schools Championships

Congratulations to Joshua Phongkham who brought home a bronze medal in the U14 Boys 100m event at the 2019 Australian All Schools Championships.

The Championships were held over in Perth in early December 2019 under very hot conditions. Woden athletes put in some great performances representing the ACT and we are very proud of them all!

To see full results, please go to the Athletics Australia website HERE.

 

2019 London Marathon

Congratulations to Eliza Ault-Connell  who crossed the line in fourth place in the Women’s Wheelchair category at the London Marathon on 28 April 2019, with a time of 1:50.02.

It was the second fourth placing in two weeks for Eliza who also raced the Boston Marathon on the 15th of April.

Well done!

2019 World Masters Indoor Championships – an athlete’s perspective….

First thing I want to say is, if you ever get the chance to attend and run an indoors meet, it will be the best experience in your athletics career.

This trip was the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.

On Monday 25th March, I lined up for the 60m heats. The gun went off and away I went. I placed 3rd in my heat which wasn’t enough for me to progress straight to the final of 8.

I went back to the apartment slightly disappointed as my time of 7.36 wasn’t quite my best time of the season. I had run 7.21 earlier in the year and this time would have allowed me to progress to the top 8. The next day I was curious just how close I had come to the Australian Indoor 60m Masters Record. I opened the document online and slowly came to the realisation that I had set a new 60m M35 Australian Record.

Thursday came around after two relaxing days in Torun. I had been blessed with some luck and been drawn lane 5 for my 200m heat. The top 2 of each heat would automatically progress to the semi-finals. The key was to actually win my heat to get a better lane draw for the semi.

I went out in usual fashion – really hard. The difficulty would be negotiating the second bend at speed. A tight little 200m track requires a different race strategy then running outdoors. I made a slight error around the second bend, but I did enough to stay in my lane and win my heat. This meant I received lane 6 for my semi.

Next thing I know its Friday and I’m standing at the start line for the 200m semi-final. William Little and I had discussed my race strategy the night prior. I figured I had nothing to loose and to absolutely hammer the second bend. As I came out of that 2nd bend, I stumbled significantly and almost fell over, wiping alot of speed off the home straight run for the line. I placed 3rd in my semi final which wasn’t enough to make the final. But hey I placed 8th in the world in my age group.

This was my second World Champs in a row, with not the result I had hoped for. Disappointed was an understatement. Next up we had the 4x200m relay. We had a strong team, but anything can happen in relays – dropped batons, injuries, bumps and people falling over battling for position.

I was reasonably nervous but very determined. We had lane 3 which is a tough lane to run from, especially with a very tight second bend, compared to the outside lanes. I decided to get some advice from the team captain Jay Stone on this one. I asked him to teach me his second bend strategy.

Well I nailed the 2nd bend this time. I was able to get us into 3rd at the change to William. Will ran one of the bravest legs id ever seen in a relay. He took command of 3rd position at the break and even decided to go around 2nd place. The change to Ashley was clean. Ash ran a monster leg from lane 2, refusing to yeild to Great Britian (GB) for 2nd position.

The change to Jay was slick and at speed. GB dogged their change and Jay was away with plenty of space. My emotions are in overdrive at this point. I’m yelling at Jay, willing him on for his entire lap. I gain his attention in the last 15ms, we make eye contact and Jay gives Will and I a fist pump celebration.

We had done what we set out to achieve, the open age Australian Record and the added bonus of a silver medal. Of all the medals I’ve won in athletics, this one is the most special and my clear favourite.

Note: as Australia had never sent an open men’s team to contest a 4x200m relay at World Indoors, our time of 1:33.25 is the new Open Men’s Australian Record.

When our team won this medal and set a new Australian Record, all my emotions exploded. I cried tears of joy, relief and happiness. So much effort, a number of failures and alot of adversity all lead to this moment.

This trip has tested me to my absolute limit both physically and mentally. Coming home with a Silver Medal and two Australian Records has made it all worthwhile.

Adam Farlow

ACT 3000m Championships

Congratulations to our Woden Thunder distance athletes who put in a fabulous effort at the recent 2018 ACT 3000m Championships.

To read about their success, please click HERE.

New ACT U20 Record!

A big shout out to Woden athlete, Tom Agnew, who broke the ACT U20 100m Record during a warm-up race in Jämsä, Finland, in preparation for the 2018 World Under 20 Championships in Tampere.

Tom ran 10.48s to break the existing record of 10.51s held by Edward Nketia.

A fantastic effort from Tom – CONGRATULATIONS!

Click HERE to read about Tom’s experiences at the World U20 Championships.

2018 Gold Coast Marathon

Congratulations to Eliza Ault-Connell on her performance in the Gold Coast Marathon on 1 July 2018. Eliza competed in the Wheelchair Marathon event, crossing the line as the second fastest woman in 1:51:22.

Madison De Rozario won the event in 1:48:21, with both women replicating their 1-2 feat from the Commonwealth Games back in April.

Eliza certainly loves her marathons!

To read about Eliza, go to our Athlete of the Week page, HERE.