VIS scholarship holder and long jumper, Brooke Stratton, has etched her name into the history books with a stunning 6th place finish at the World Championships in London.
The 6th place finish is the highest any female Australian long jumper has finished at a World Championships event. The previous best Australian female result of 7th was held by Bronwyn Thompson (2003) and Nicole Boegman (1993).
After a 2017 season interrupted by injury, Stratton jumped 6.67m in her third attempt to move from 10th into 5th place heading into the final three rounds. She followed this with her final 3 jumps of 6.55m, 6.67m and 6.64m to finish 6th overall.
“I didn’t even know that I was going to be here a few weeks ago, so to place 6th, I just can’t believe it,” Stratton said.
“I had a foot injury that dragged on, then my groin flared up to set me back again. I couldn’t get a decent block of training until I got over here, then I had a few comps and found some form. I knew I wasn’t in fantastic shape, but I’ve still done this,” she said.
“6.67m was enough to put me right up there, but I’m so confident for what’s ahead. Next year, the Commonwealth Games is going to be incredible. They are in Australia and I’m sure the home crowd will push me to bigger jumps.”
Meanwhile, an injury riddled season for VIS athlete Genevieve LaCaze, couldn’t stop her from finding form in the 3000m steeplechase. Finishing 3rd in her heat and securing a finals start, LaCaze became the first ever Australian female to start in a world championship steeplechase final. In the final, LaCaze put forward a season-best time to finish 12th in the field.
VIS scholarship holder, Luke Mathews, narrowly missed out on a finals berth in the men’s 1500m. Clocking a time of 3:40.91 to finish 7th, Mathews finished an agonising 0.31 outside of an automatic advancement to finals. Earlier in the week, Mathews dominated his heat and took the win with a time of 3:38.19.
Image: Getty Images
