Hamish Kerr equalled the national high jump record of 19 years standing, Edward Osei-Nketia and Zoe Hobbs completed a 100m sprint double and Kelsey-Lee Barber smashed her personal best in the javelin as Australia and New Zealand battled for supremacy on the second day of the Oceania Championships in Townsville.
The day &ndash; evening? night? &ndash; culminated with a massive battle between teammates and training partners Cedric Dubler and Ashley Moloney in the decathlon. A pivotal pole vault battle ended with both clearing five metres, a 40-centimetre personal best for Moloney. A programme scheduled to finish a little after 7pm stretched out for two more drama-filled hours.
Once the extended battle of the decathlon ended, Australia had six gold medals for the day, New Zealand three. The hosts had Barber in the javelin, Matthew Ramsden and Georgia Griffith in the 1500s, Ashley Moloney in the decathlon, Henry Smith in the long jump, and the quartet comprised of Rebecca Bennet, Ellie Beer, Tom Willems and Ian Halpin in the mixed 4x400m relay against Kerr, Osei-Nketia and Hobbs.
<h3>Kerr upsets Starc in the Aussie&rsquo;s own backyard</h3>
When Brandon Starc won the high jump at last year&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games he said how much he loved competing in front of an Australian crowd. He subsequently equalled Tim Forsyth&rsquo;s national record of 2.36m in Eberstadt and won the Diamond trophy in Brussels.
Forsyth set the record in 1997, three years before his New Zealand contemporary, Glenn Howard, cleared 2.30m in Christchurch. New Zealand does not have a long tradition of male high jumpers. Kerr was already second on the all-time list with 2.25m. In Townsville, going head-to-head with last year&rsquo;s Diamond League champion, he equalled Howard&rsquo;s mark without a miss en route before bowing out at 2.33m.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only an equal record,&rdquo; Kerr said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m over the moon.&rdquo;
Nothing much worried Kerr through the competition, which was held adjacent to the drawn-out decathlon pole vault. The vaulters seemed to have trouble with the breeze. Not Kerr, however. &ldquo;The wind was actually a cross-tail for us, which was pretty good, much better than in New Zealand at the moment.&rdquo;
Townsville weather is probably much better than almost all of New Zealand almost every day of the year, in fact, but you fancy day two of the championships would always have been a sunny day for Kerr. He came in at a modest 2.05m, and took each of the seven heights to 2.30m first time.
&ldquo;The whole purpose (of coming here) was to get the Doha qualifier. That&rsquo;s done, now I just want to get in some more good jumps.&rdquo; His next competition is the World University Games.
<h3>Barber continues to build</h3>
Kelsey-Lee Barber had a good 2018 in the javelin &ndash; silver medal in the Commonwealth Games, a personal best 64.57m &ndash; but 2019 may be even better. She topped a consistent series of throws with a fifth-round 65.61m. Teammate Mackenzie Little, winner of the past two NCAA titles, finished second with 57.74m.
&ldquo;I was a little surprised,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I thought it might have been a 64.
&ldquo;Normally I have a few competitions before I put one on the board. I&rsquo;m very excited.&rdquo;
Barber is headed to Europe at the end of the week. &ldquo;Nothing&rsquo;s locked in. I&rsquo;m hoping to get into a couple of Diamond Leagues.&rdquo;
<h3>Osei-Nketia and Hobbs king and queen of Oceania</h3>
A couple of months ago, Edward Osei-Nketia was eligible to run for both Australia and New Zealand. He had just won the 100m at the Australian titles when he announced he was opting for New Zealand.
Now, he was back winning the Oceania title for his chosen country. Osei-Nketia, just turned 18, dwarfed most of his rivals in the final. He looked to have won as he crossed the line just ahead of young Australian Jake Doran, but there was initially some confusion when it appeared Doran had been declared the winner. With that sorted out, Ose-Nketia leapt the trackside fence to celebrate with his teammates. His 10.34 edged Doran by 0.05.
Minutes later, he was joined as Oceania 100m champion by Zoe Hobbs, who got out fast, blunting Naa Anang&rsquo;s usual advantage off the blocks, and held the lead all the way to the line to win, 11.56 to 11.67.
Osei-Nketia, who was still in the midst of his post-race interview, summed things up neatly: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a really good feeling for New Zealand being the king and queen of the sprint,&rdquo; he said.
<h3>Moloney wins titanic battle in decathlon</h3>
If one event can epitomise a competition comprising 10 different disciplines, the decathlon pole vault did. World U20 champion Ashley Moloney came into it with a lead of just 68 points over training partner Cedric Dubler. Moloney&rsquo;s PB was 4.60m, Dubler&rsquo;s 5.20m.
At the end of it, both men walked away with 5.00m, a result Dubler would have taken at the start but which Moloney could seemingly only dream of. Moloney&rsquo;s style was one to give his pole vault adviser &ndash; six-metre man Paul Burgess &ndash; nightmares as he watched on alongside the pair&rsquo;s coach, Eric Brown. Picture a frog lying on its back and flying through the air and you&rsquo;ve got something like it.
He did produce one classic jump, one of the numerous third-attempt clearances achieved by both athletes. But Moloney got over 4.40m, 4.50m and 4.60m at the first attempt, 4.70m at the second and 4.80m, 4.90m and 5.00m at the third.
Dubler looked a lot better, not that it did him much good. He came in confidently at 4.70m, then shook that confidence by requiring all three attempts. Same at 4.90m and again at 5.00m. And there it ended, Moloney still 68 points clear.
On paper, it was still either man&rsquo;s gold medal, not much between them in the javelin and with Dubler having a substantial edge at 1500m. But a 54.38m throw by Moloney saw him pick up an extra 41 points on Dubler&rsquo;s 51.66m and when Moloney finished just six seconds behind Dubler in the 1500m, he consolidated the win.
Neither man reached the World Championships qualifier of 8200, but Moloney&rsquo;s 8103 was an improvement on his senior debut at Gotzis last month while Dubler was again over 8000 with 8031, in an event where few Australians have ever gone beyond that traditional measure of decathlon excellence.
Len Johnson for the IAAF

Hamish Kerr equalled the national high jump record of 19 years standing, Edward Osei-Nketia and Zoe Hobbs completed a 100m sprint double and Kelsey-Lee Barber smashed her personal best in the javelin as Australia and New Zealand battled for supremacy on the second day of the Oceania Championships in Townsville.

Moloney defeats Dubler, Kerr upsets Starc in high jump at Oceania Championships

When Cedric Dubler told his mother that he wanted to do the pole vault, Australian athletics can be thankful that her reaction was to call the local athletics club.
&ldquo;I watched Steve Hooker win the gold medal in Beijing,&rdquo; Dubler recalled, &ldquo;and I told Mum, &lsquo;I want to do that&rsquo;.&rdquo;
Rather than replying, as might be expected, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s nice,&rdquo; Dubler&rsquo;s mother got on the phone to the local University of Queensland athletics club to enquire as to whether they knew someone who could teach the event.
They did, and the young 13-year-old Cedric Dubler was on the way to adding another sport into an already very active kid&rsquo;s life.
A little further along the way Dubler met his coach, Eric Brown, took up the decathlon, took fourth and second places at successive IAAF World U20 Championships and qualified for selection to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, becoming the first Australian representative in the decathlon since 2000.
&ldquo;I was an active kid,&rdquo; Dubler said, &ldquo;always outside on the roads whether it was on a skateboard, riding a bike, or just running around. I did a lot of different sports: football, soccer, cross country.&rdquo;
This would not have been an atypical background for Australian kids a few generations back. In his autobiography, The Measure of Success, the late Ron Clarke described how he and his older brother Jack ranged far and wide around their local suburbs in Melbourne when they were growing up, but it is not so common now, especially in big cities in these risk-averse times.
<h3>Shaped for the decathlon</h3>
Anyway, it turns out that Dubler was shaped for the decathlon, both physically and mentally, by his environment.
Even so, it was something of a surprise when he achieved the Olympic qualifying standard in winning the Australian title in Sydney this year.
At the turn of Olympic year his best stood at 7197 (with the senior implements; he had done 8094 with junior equipment). He improved to 7785 at his state combined events championships in January, a few days before his 21st birthday.
Nevertheless, the leap to 8114 at the national championships in Sydney on 1 April was no surprise either to Dubler or coach Brown.
&ldquo;I did expect it,&rdquo; Dubler said. &ldquo;My results in some of the individual events were better than expected, others were not.&rdquo;
Coincidentally, Dubler&rsquo;s score exactly matched the personal best of New Zealand&rsquo;s Brent Newdick, the last Oceanian athlete to top 8000 points. Newdick was a guest in Sydney this year but last bettered 8000 in 2012 and set his personal best in Gotzis in 2011.
When the young Cedric Dubler turned up at the University of Queensland with Steve Hooker&rsquo;s gold medal triumph still in the forefront of his mind, he was initially coached in pole vault by Ben Turner. But when Turner moved to another position two years later, Dubler joined up with Eric Brown.
Brown had already had success with combined events, most notably coaching Jason Dudley, who took a bronze medal with 8001 at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Brown was excited by Dubler&rsquo;s potential from the start but took a softly, softly approach initially, continuing to let him stick to the vault.
<h3>From debut to world U20 silver in two years</h3>
&ldquo;After a while, Eric suggested I try a decathlon. &lsquo;I want to see how you go&rsquo;,&rdquo; Dubler recalled him saying.
Dubler did fine. Within a year he was the national U17 champion and qualified for his first World U20 Championships in Barcelona, finishing a creditable fourth. Two years later, in Eugene, it was silver and now it is on to Rio.
Although he gets plenty of input from outside &ndash; sports psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning &ndash; Dubler says that Brown remains his coach.
&ldquo;I find it a lot easier with just one voice. Eric knows me, he knows just how much training I can take, and it&rsquo;s just easier to communicate with one person than a whole group.&rdquo;
Dubler values the input of his sports psychologist, whom he sees every two weeks at the moment. One of the areas they have worked on is coping with the demands of competing over two days.
&ldquo;How to handle the nerves; how to switch on and switch off, (The decathlon) is two days, but you have to focus on one event at a time,&rdquo; said Dubler.
Since the national championships at the beginning of April, Dubler has stayed in Australia, training. Based in Brisbane, the furthest he and Brown have travelled is further north up the coast to Townsville where they did a block of training and a competition in the warmer weather.
<h3>Ready to make a point</h3>
&ldquo;Things have started to come together. We&rsquo;re at the pointy end now.
&ldquo;With the decathlon, it is a constant battle between you and your body, between the training you want to do and what you&rsquo;re capable of doing,&rdquo; added the prodigious Australian.
Dubler is built more along the lines of Olympic champion and world record-holder Ashton Eaton than the stronger throwing type of decathlete.
&ldquo;My strong points are running and jumping. The throws are the events where I need to focus over the next few years, but I see myself as young with a long career ahead of me.&rdquo;
As to Rio aspirations, Dubler is aiming for top eight. &ldquo;Another 2-300 points on my nationals score should place me quite well.
&ldquo;The Olympics is that next level up. I&rsquo;m in a good position, I&rsquo;m very fit and mentally in a good space.
"I&rsquo;m an underdog, not much will be expected of me.&rdquo;
If things go to plan, this might be the last occasion Cedric Dubler will be able to say that.
Len Johnson for the IAAF

When Cedric Dubler told his mother that he wanted to do the pole vault, Australian athletics can be thankful that her reaction was to call the local athletics club.

Decathlete Dubler relishing the underdog role – for now

Australians Cedric Dubler and Sophie Stanwell were crowned the combined events winners on Friday (1) at the Australian Championships in Sydney, which also served as the opening round of the 2016 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.
Dubler also clinched a place on the team for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, winning his national title while also achieving the Olympic qualifying standard. His final score of 8114 was a massive personal best by more than 300 points.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a big two days,&rdquo; Dubler said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in the shape of my life at the moment.&rdquo;
Stanwell was locked in a close battle with New Zealand&rsquo;s Veronica Torr coming into the second day of the heptathlon. The Australian led by two points after the first day, but Torr took the lead by seven points with a 5.83m to 5.80m victory in the long jump. Unfortunately, she was unable to continue after that, handing victory to Stanwell.
Dubler, the world junior silver medallist, had improved to 7785 in the senior decathlon at the start of the year. In Sydney he showed right from the first event &ndash; a 100m personal best of 10.71 &ndash; that he was in the mood for further advances.
In a first-day score of 4348, the 21-year-old had three personal bests, and went within two centimetres of a fourth in the long jump.
Following on from his 100m personal best, Dubler jumped 7.72m in the long jump, threw a modest 11.93m in the shot put, then closed out the day with two more personal bests, 2.15m in the high jump and 48.47 in the 400m.
The blitz continued into the second day which opened with three more outright bests: 14.25 in the 110m hurdles, 42.81m in the discus and 4.90m in the pole vault.
The Olympic qualifying mark was by now coming into sharp focus. After throwing 53.29m in the javelin, he was already within 259 points of his PB and he still had one event to go. A 4:55.71 clocking in the 1500m did the trick and brought his tally to 8114.
It would not be a decathlon 1500m, though, without some hint of drama and Dubler alarmed his supporters when he was slapping at his quad muscles as he came down the straight on the first lap.
&ldquo;I was getting cramp in both legs,&rdquo; he explained. Thankfully, the cramps remained at a low level of irritation.
Dubler is now certain to be nominated to the Australian team at the conclusion of the championships.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the dream of every athlete to make an Olympic team,&rdquo; said Dubler. &ldquo;When I was 14 years old I was dreaming about it.&rdquo; Now the dream is about to become reality.
Jake Stein, Dubler&rsquo;s predecessor as world junior silver medallist, took second place with a PB of 7643 ahead of David Brock and New Zealander Brent Newdick.
With Torr sidelined after the long jump, Stanwell was pretty much unchallenged in the heptathlon. A modest 33.28m javelin was largely responsible for the final winning margin being within 100 points. As she did throughout the competition, Stanwell was able to run her way out of trouble. She won the 800 in 2:18:15, almost a full second ahead of Kiara Reddingius, and scored 5572 to take the victory.
Stanwell was equal third-fastest in the 100m hurdles, and won both the 200m and 800m. She won the high jump and was second to Torr in the long jump and shot put, more than compensating for her modest performance in the javelin.
Sydney is the first of 11 competitions comprising the 2016 IAAF Combined Events Challenge. From Australia, the series moves to Africa for the African Combined Events in Reduit, Mauritius on 2-3 April.
Len Johnson for the IAAF

Australians Cedric Dubler and Sophie Stanwell were crowned the combined events winners on Friday (1) at the Australian Championships in Sydney, which also served as the opening round of the 2016 IAAF Combined Events Challenge.

Dubler makes decathlon breakthrough in Sydney

Czech Republic’s Jiri Sykora continued the seesaw sequence of the second day and regained the pole position with one event remaining after he produced a personal best of 60.56m in the javelin.<o:p></o:p>Previous leader Cedric Dubler of Australia set a sixth personal best of 53.63m but this was not enough to retain his lead. <o:p></o:p>Dubler now trails Sykora by 55 points after nine events, the Czech athlete has a total of 7468.<o:p></o:p>Germany’s Tim Nowak threw his implement out to 59.74m and returned to the third spot with 7338 points, well ahead of Russia’s Roman Kondratyev, who totals 7164.<o:p></o:p>Russia’s European junior champion Evgeniy Likhanov is ranked fifth, 12 points behind.<o:p></o:p>Elmo Savola of Finland led the javelin with 62.18m, a personal best, followed by Sykora and Novak.<o:p></o:p>Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF<o:p></o:p>

Czech Republic’s Jiri Sykora continued the seesaw sequence of the second day and regained the pole position with one event remaining after he produced a personal best of 60.56m in the javelin.

Report: men's decathlon javelin – IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014

Australia’s Cedric Dubler extended his lead in the decathlon after posting a personal best in the 110m hurdles with 14.08. His effort followed on from three personal bests on the first day.<o:p></o:p>Dubler followed home Russia’s Roman Kondratyev, who ran the fastest time of all competitors when winning the fifth and final heat with 14.04. <o:p></o:p>Norway’s world youth champion Karsten Warhom and Germany’s Tim Nowak produced the third-fastest time with 14.14 each. <o:p></o:p>With six events completed, Dubler now has 5293 points, ahead of Kondratyev with 5205. Warhom ranks third with 5195.<o:p></o:p>Second after day one, Russia’s European junior champion Evgeniy Likhanov ran a modest 14.87 and fell to fifth place in the standings with 5146, five points behind Czech Republic’s 2014 world junior leader Jiri Sykora.<o:p></o:p>Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF<o:p></o:p>

Australia’s Cedric Dubler extended his lead in the decathlon after posting a personal best in the 110m hurdles with 14.08. His effort followed on from three personal bests on the first day.

Report: men's decathlon 110m hurdles – IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, the only junior to run faster than 28 minutes this year, fulfilled his role as favourite for the men’s 10,000m by triumphing over 25 laps of the track at Hayward Field in 28:32.86 to take the first gold medal of the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014, on Tuesday (22).Cheptegei held off a strong challenge from the Kenyan duo Elvis Cheboi and Nicholas Kosimbei in the final two laps, finishing with final 400m of 59.6, to capture a memorable victory.Cheboi came home second after being unable to respond to Cheptegei's final move with 200 metres to go, crossing the line in 28:35.20, while Kosimbei was third in 28:38.68.After four events in the heptathlon, Great Britain’s Morgan Lake leads at the end of the first day with a total of 3821 points.&nbsp; Lake topped the lists in the high jump, in which she jumped a British junior record of 1.94m and the best ever mark by a junior heptathlete, and the shot put to establish her lead.Her closest pursuer is the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser, whose first-day total stands at 3652 points. Visser won the 100m hurdles first thing in the morning with a sizzling 13.24, itself the best mark in a World Junior Championships heptathlon, and was second in the 200m to end the afternoon. Cuba’s defending champion from 2012 Yorgelis Rodriguez, a little below-par, was third with 3561 points.Dubler decathlon delightAt the halfway point in the decathlon, Australia’s Cedric Dubler leads with 4329 points.Dubler set three personal bests, including an impressive 7.74m in the long jump, which was the best distance ever seen in a decathlon at the World Junior Championships, and 48.75 in 400m.Russia’s European junior champion Evgeniy Likhanov, who took the lead after the high jump being the equal best high jumper with Dubler at 2.09m, finished the first day in second place with 4281 points.Norway’s world youth champion Karsten Warhom, the leader after the first two events, came back to the fight for the medals by running the fastest time in 400m with 47.22. It propelled him to third place in the standings with 4238 points, two ahead of Russia’s Roman Kondratyev.In the morning’s 100m heats, the US sprinters threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the world.World junior record-holder (subject to ratification) Trayvon Bromell reinforced his status as the favourite by winning his heat in a speedy 10.13, a full 0.1 faster than his compatriot Kendal Williams, who was another heat winner.Another sprinter who made a major statement of intent was Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who flew to 11.18, the fastest time in the women’s 100m heats.Next best in the original heats was her compatriot Desiree Henry, who clocked 11.36 when winning her heat.However, Ecuador’s Angela Tenorio was initially disqualified for a false start in the heats but her team lodged a successful appeal and she had an individual re-run at the end of the first day’s programme.With a target time of 11.79 to qualify for the semi-finals, and the rapt attention of the crowd, the world youth bronze medallist scorched down the track in 11.27. Kenya’s Jonathan Kiplimo Sawe was impressive in winning the first 1500m heat in 3:41.35, the fastest of the three heats by far.In fact, all three non-automatic qualifiers for the final came from this heat.Behind Sawe, Slovenia’s Jan Petrac showed a useful turn of speed to come home second in 3:43.15, a national junior record.Omoregie on formFormer European junior record-holder David Omoregie was slick over the barriers in the 110m hurdlers heats, the Briton clocking 13.24, the third-fastest time ever at the IAAF World Junior Championships.The two other expected gold medal contenders, France’s Wilhem Belocian and Jamaica’s Tyler Mason, were also comfortable heat winners in 13.40 and 13.44 respectively, the second and third fastest times of the morning.The formbook was followed in the women’s hammer as Ukraine’s Alona Shamotina and Hungary’s world youth champion Reka Gyuratz, the top two juniors in the world this year, were one and two in qualification, throwing 64.78m and 63.73m respectively.The women’s 800m heats saw all the likely protagonists progress to the semi-finals, with Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdottir the fastest in 2:03.41.However, there was one notable casualty in the women’s pole vault when Venezuela’s area junior record-holder and world youth champion Robeilys Peinado crashed out at her opening height with three failures at 3.75m.The judges decided to call a halt to the competition after 4.10m rather than raise the bar to the automatic qualifying height of 4.15m and advanced 14 athletes to the final, including three athletes who had cleared 4.00m at their first attempt but went no higher.Poland’s Maria Andrejczyk led the way in the women’s javelin qualifiers with 56.23m, with Sweden’s event favourite and defending champion Sofi Flink the only other woman to throw farther than 56 metres with 56.04m.There were only six automatic qualifiers who threw over the qualifying standard of 53.00m, but both Andrejczyk and Flink made it look easy, needing only one throw apiece.There were eight men under 47 seconds in the men’s 400m heats, led by Japan’s Nobuya Kato with 46.23.Event favourites Tyler Brown from the USA and Machal Cedenio from Trinidad and Tobago both won their heats with plenty to spare in 46.45 and 46.60 respectively. Norway’s Nadia Akpana Assa was the best of the women’s long jump qualifiers with a national junior record of 6.39m but there were problems for several jumpers.Among them were Nigeria’s Ese Brume who has jumped 6.68m this year and China’s Asian junior silver medallist Wang Rong. Neither woman could get close to six metres and were eliminated.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei fulfilled his role as favourite for the men’s 10,000m by triumphing over 25 laps of the track at Hayward Field in 28:32.86 to take the first gold medal of the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014, on Tuesday (22).

Day one report: Cheptegei adds to Ugandan gold reserves – IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014

Australia’s Cedric Dubler is the overnight leader of the decathlon following the first five events on day one, the opening day of the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014. Dubler set three personal bests, including an impressive 7.74m in the long jump and 48.75 in 400m, to move into the lead after the final event of the day with 4329 points.Fourth at the 2012 World Junior Championships, he aims to become the first athlete from Oceania to win a world junior title in the combined events.Russia’s European junior champion Evgeniy Likhanov, who took the lead after the high jump, is now trailing in second place with 4281 points. Norway’s world youth champion Karsten Warhom, the leader after the first two events, came back to the fight for the medals by running the fastest time in 400m with 47.22. It propelled him to third place in the standings with 4238 points, two ahead of Russian Roman Kondratyev.World leader Jiri Sykora of the Czech Republic, who topped the standings after the shot put, rounds out the top five with 4206 points.Warhom pushed Germany’s Fabian Christ and Great Britain’s David Hall to set personal bests of 47.67 and 47.85 respectively to complete the top three in 400m.Javier Clavelo Robinson for IAAF

Australia’s Cedric Dubler is the overnight leader of the decathlon following the first five events on day one, the opening day of the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014.