Young-gun Brooke Stratton, the first Australian woman to make an Olympic long jump final in 12 years, has finished 7th overall in Rio.
Stratton advanced from the qualifying round yesterday with a leap of 6.56m. In this morning’s final, she posted a leap of 6.74m with her fourth jump, an outstanding effort for her Olympic debut.
Stratton entered the Games off the back of a year in which she has taken her jumping to another level, including smashing the long-standing national long jump record. Stratton set the new mark of 7.05m at the Perth Track Classic in March, bettering the previous best of 7m set by Bronwyn Thompson in 2002.
Brett Robinson has produced a super performance in tough conditions to qualify for the final of the men’s 5000m.
On a hot morning at the Olympic Stadium, Robinson finished ninth in his heat in 13 minutes 22.81 seconds – faster than the winning time in heat one – to qualify for the final.
“That was the perfect pace for me,” a chuffed Robinson said.
A patient Robinson knew this was on the horizon, “I’ve had a good six weeks leading into this so I knew I was in good shape." “You’ve just got to hopefully recover as good as you can and keep up as long as you can and if you have good day anything can happen.”
The last Australian to make the men’s 5000m final was Craig Mottram at the 2004 Athens Games. Robinson will contest the final on Saturday 21 August (10:30am, AEST).
