Otis Gowa celebrates winning the Australian Championships 100m final (© Getty Images)
First he beat cancer and now in the biggest boilover in the 86 editions of the Australian Championships, little-known indigenous sprinter Otis Gowa shocked by winning a controversial 100m last night.
“I wanted to turn a few heads. But I've turned a lot of heads now,” Gowa said after upsetting the favourites including Patrick Johnson and Matt Shirvington, who protested after the final at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre in Brisbane.
Follow the dream
Late at night a jury of appeal upheld the referee’s decision to dismiss the protest and so Gowa is the new Australian champion although his time of 10.63 (headwind 1.7m/s) is the slowest winning mark in 29 years. He beat Sydney-based Jacob Groth (10.67), Isaac Ntiamoah (10.68) with Shirvington fourth (10.70) and Johnson last in 10.81
“I'm not sure how I'll celebrate. It's a bit unsure. But I don't think there's been a [upset] result like this before,” said Gowa, 24, who worked for the AFL coaching in Cape York before his boss, Rick Hanlon, told him to give athletics a try.
“He told me, ‘Go follow your dream. There's always a home here if you want to come back but I'm hoping you don't come back.’ I'm still a baby in terms of this sport.”
That he may be, but Gowa, one of a number of success stories in Athletics Australia's government backed indigenous development programme called Jump Start to the 2012 London Olympics could well find himself making his Olympic debut in Beijing later this year in the Australian 4x100m relay.
Yet in early 2006 he had surgery for Hodgkinson's disease, a lymphoma cancer, and was not cleared to resume sport until last March when he moved from Cairns to Brisbane to be coached by Darryl Wohlsen - a 200m finalist at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.
“The hardest thing was getting him over the cancer treatment and back on the track, but he's very talented,” Wohlsen said.
“His ambition all year has been to beat Matt Shirvington and after the semis tonight while waiting to run in the final he said he felt ‘We might be able to get him next year.’ I told him if you play your cards right you'll get him tonight.”
Gowa said he was inspired by Aboriginal athletes including Atlanta Olympic 110m hurdles finalist Kyle Vander-Kuyp, former 100m champion Josh Ross and Sydney Olympic 400m champion Cathy Freeman. He was the Cathy Freeman encouragement award at a national indigenous sports ceremony last year.
Athletics Australia’s indigenous programme coordinator Sally McGrady said Gowa has medical checkups every three months but is able to train as hard as any elite sprinter.
She explained that Gowa was brought up by his mother who lives on Saba Island, one of 250 islands in the Torres Strait off North Queensland. ”She told him there was a dad out there and his dad contacted him,” McGrady explained. His father, from Ghana, now lives in Sydney.
Gowa’s victory could hardly have been predicted. Even his own coach rated him “100/1 to win the title” but fellow Queenslander Jarrod Bannister’s victory in the Javelin throw was on the cards even if a national record of 89.02m has launched him into Olympic medal contention.
89.02m national record for Bannister in men’s javelin
Befitting a potential Beijing medallist, Bannister’s series was consistent and of high quality with three Olympic A-qualifying marks and three more Olympic B-qualifiers.
The biggest throw came on his sixth and final attempt, erasing the national record set at 86.67m in 2001 by NSW’s Andrew Currey.
“I’ve been feeling in the last few months that there was a big throw there and for it to finally come out is just a relief,” said Bannister, 23, a 190cm and 98kg athlete who left Townsville in north Queensland to train with coach Gary Calvert in Melbourne. Calvert coached Petra Rivers, one of the greats of Australian women’s javelin throwing.
“I’ve been sort of injured the past month and I’ve been trying to deal with being injured and having a good feeling in my body that I could throw this long,” Bannister added. “I haven’t been able to do the training that I wanted to but there’s plenty more there in the tank to go so I’m definitely confident for later in this year.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s come together now. Eighty-nine metres won second place at the World champs and 90m won - it’s only a metre more. That can pretty much win any comp. I’ve got to get over there (to Europe) and shake them guys up I guess.”
American Mike Hazle was a distant second with 81.89m ahead of New Zealand’s Stuart Farquhar (78.92m) and Japan’s Ken Arai (76.41m) with all 10 finalists bettering 70m.
The Australian all-comers record is the 90.17m gold medal throw by triple Olympic champion Jan Zelezny at the Sydney 2000 Games.
Anlezark just 2cm better than Martin
Another big Queenslander, 130kg Justin Anlezark, extracted a measure of revenge beating Victorian Scott Martin who annexed Anlezark’s Australian Shot Put record only last week at the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Martin had spun the shot out to 21.27m for an Oceania Area Record, improving on Anlezark’s 20.96m set in 2003. But while Martin has had trouble with a chronic foot injury, Anlezark needed a steel pin inserted into a knuckle on a finger he injured at the Athens Olympics four years ago.
In winning his eighth national title last night, Anlezark bettered 20m for the first time since the last Olympics when he blasted the steel ball 20.21m to win by a mere 2cm - the first time two Australians have ever bettered 20 metres in the same competition.
“A throw of 20.21 would qualify you for an Olympic final and that would be top eight and it’s still six months to the Olympics and I can do a hell of a lot more in six months,” Anlezark, 30, declared.
In other performances, Tamsyn Lewis ran a personal best time of 51.44 to win the 400m from Fiji’s Makelesi Batimala (52.76) and New Zealand’s Monique Williams (52.86); the 1500m titles went to Veronique “Nikki” Molan (4:20.85) and Mitch Kealey (3:40.62).
And Tasmanian mother of two, Donna MacFarlane clinched Olympic selection by winning the 3000m steeplechase national title in 9:36.09 from resurgent former world record-holder Melissa Rollison (9:50.59)
Athletics Australia will provide a webcast of the final day’s action live on www.athletics.com.au from 6:30pm to 9pm Brisbane time.
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
