Paralympian Jaryd Clifford has broken the visually-impaired T12 1500m world record to run 3:45.18, slicing 3.13 seconds off the previous record held by Abderrahim Zhiou of Tunisia.
On Friday at the Australian Junior Championships Clifford won the Australian under-20 1500m title, which in itself was a surprise to the 18-year-old.
“I don’t know how I did it. I’m concentrating so hard on staying on my feet; maybe it helps me out a bit, I don’t know. When I crossed the line, no one was in front of me, and I was just thinking ‘this is crazy’,” he explained.
Fast-forward to the Sydney Grand Prix on Saturday evening, Clifford made one final attempt to run a IAAF U20 World Junior qualifying time, which he did, confirming his selection to represent Australia in Finland later this year.
“I never expected a National Championship gold medal, I never expected to run a World Record and a World Junior qualifier in the last 30 hours. I can’t believe it,” said Clifford.
Isis Holt has again lowered her T35 100m world record to 13.36 to win the under-20 Para 100m title, putting the performance down to executing the race as planned.
“I didn’t taper for this week because the Commonwealth Games is so close,” she explained. “The goal this weekend was to come out, run, get the process right and just practice racing.
“The time is just a massive by-product of running a race well, and that’s what I’m most proud of. I executed the way I wanted to.”
In other athletics news, Linden Hall ran valiantly in the women’s 3000m to set a new personal best of 8:53.27, moving to 12th all-time on the Australian rankings. Brooke Stratton put the Gold Coast 2018 competition on notice, leaping 6.74m to win the women’s Long Jump, while Australian record holder, Kathryn Mitchell won the Women’s Javelin throw with a mark of 64.84m.
