Australia’s diminished world championships return fails to cloud athletics optimism | Jack Snape
The emergence of younger athletes like Gout Gout and success for the usual suspects provided reasons to be cheerful in Tokyo, says the team’s high performance director
Australia’s head of athletic high performance has described Gout Gout’s national debut in Tokyo as “just brilliant” and has defended the team’s overall performance, even though the medal return was down on tallies at the Paris Olympics and at the previous World Athletics Championships in Budapest two years ago.
Australia finished the competition on Sunday with gold in the women’s high jump through Nicola Olyslagers, adding to bronze medals to pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall, javelin thrower Mackenzie Little and Jess Hull, who was on the podium in the 1500m and also made the 800m final. While the tally is down compared to recent major meets, four medals is Australia’s equal second-largest return in world championships history.