Australian decathlete Ashley Moloney (© Getty Images)
Australian decathlete Ashley Moloney is not in Paris yet, but he now has the 2024 Olympic Games host city in sight.
Moloney, the Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo three years ago, has had three largely forgettable years since. But the 24-year-old is fast putting that behind him. The decathlon and heptathlon featured prominently on the opening three days of competition at the Oceania Championships in Suva, Fiji and Moloney was the most prominent of the combined eventers.
Building on the momentum of an 8367-point performance for fourth place in Gotzis last month, Moloney won the Oceania title with 8182. His series included a discus PB of 46.80m, along with season’s bests in the shot put (14.40m), 400m (47.22), 110m hurdles (14.12) and pole vault (5.00m).
Coming into the championships, he was on the cusp of a place in the 24-strong field to contest the Olympic event. His winning score, combined with the world rankings points for an area championships, may be enough to put him into his second Olympics.
It was a prospect which seemed remote just a year ago when Moloney entered four decathlon competitions, including the World Championships, without finishing any of them. Injury also put him out of the 2022 World Championships. From a high of an Olympic medal at the age of 21 – followed by another bronze in the heptathlon at the 2022 World Indoor Championships – completing just one of six decathlons in two years was quite a fall.
The Oceania Championships have been boosted in quality with the introduction of the rankings system for Olympic and World Championships qualification attracting higher-quality athletes. Two other Australian combined eventers, Camryn Newton-Smith and Tori West, also improved their chances of Olympic competition in finishing first and second in the women’s heptathlon with 6070 and 5951 respectively.
Gollshewsky and Blundell break championship records
Taryn Gollshewsky, another Australian chasing Olympic qualification via the points on offer in Suva, won the women’s discus with a championship record of 60.96m, bettering the previous mark set by 1997 world champion Beatrice Faumuina in 2010. Gollshewsky also won at the Continental Tour Bronze meeting on the eve of the championships with 60.81m, making the most of her time in Fiji.
Jenny Blundell led an Australian sweep in the women’s 5000m, winning in a championship record of 15:26.29 from Holly Campbell and Maudie Skyring. Haftu Strintzos of Australia, chasing a distance double in the men’s event after winning the 10,000m, saw his bid thwarted by teammate Dave McNeill, the three-time Olympian taking the lead for good just before the bell to win the men’s 5000m in 14:02.23.
There was another Australian sweep in the men’s high jump, national champion Yual Reath, winner at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix Continental Tour meeting, took the gold medal with a 2.28m clearance with Roman Anastasios and Joel Baden second and third, both clearing 2.25m.
Sarah Carli of Australia was another to improve her rankings position, taking the women’s 400m hurdles in 56.52.
The fields for the two 100m finals represented a broad cross-section of the most widespread of the World Athletics areas. The women’s field comprised three Australians, two New Zealanders, two Papua New Guinea representatives and the final competitor from the Regional Australia team. The men’s line-up was similarly representative – three Australians, two each from New Zealand and Papua New Guinea with the eighth from the hosts, Fiji.
Australia swept the men’s medals, with Joshua Azzopardi timing his finishing dive perfectly to edge out Australian champion Sebastian Sultana, 10.33 (-0.9m/s) to 10.35, and Rohan Browning third in 10.40.
It wasn’t quite as tight in the women’s race, Ella Connolly’s strong second 50 metres taking her clear of compatriot Ebony Lane, 11.41 (0.1m/s) to 11.53. Papua New Guinea’s Leonie Beu finished third in 11.85.
New Zealand swept the medals in both 1500m races through Laura Nagel (4:22.10), Rebekah Greene and Boh Ritchie in the women’s event and Russell Green (3:58.02), Jamie Mora and Daivd Lee in the men’s.
Tonga also claimed a medal on the fifth day, this one a gold from Atamaama Tu’Utafaiva who won the women’s shot put with a throw of 16.24m. The host nation had also claimed a gold medal to close out day four, Fiji taking out the men’s 4x400m (3:19.74).
Len Johnson for World Athletics
