Australia’s junior track and field stars had a sensational night at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore producing a gold and two silver at Bishan Stadium on Saturday night, adding to the silver from earlier in the day.

Nick Hough flew over the 110m hurdles to become the Youth Olympic Champion, while team flag bearer Liz Parnov jumped back into form with silver in the pole vault. Brandon Starc rounded out a stellar night at the track claiming silver in the men’s high jump with a massive personal best.

Hough who came into the meet ranked third had to pull out the best performance of his promising career, clocking 13.37 to defeat China’s Dongqiang Wang, 13.41, with Jussi Kanervo of Finland taking the bronze in 13.53.

Understandably the 16 –year-old from Sydney was rapt with the result.

“I’ve been thinking about tonight for the past 18 months and then it all comes down to one 13 second race and I managed to pull it off. It’s a great feeling,” Hough said.

“They definitely pushed me. We were all very close. I’m definitely very happy with that win.”

Hough was a lot more relaxed and his start greatly improved on his heat performance.

“It was a much better start than the heat and I knew with my strong finish if I got out well it would be pretty hard to stop me. I felt great in warm-up and even in the call-room I knew this would be my race.

“I’m hoping to come back in the future and do something a bit bigger than this.” 

Team coach and Sydney 2000 Olympian Matt Beckenham gave Hough some words of inspiration before the race.

“I told him ‘You’ve got the talent, you’ve got the belief and now you’ve got the opportunity’. He wanted it more than the other guys over the last four hurdles,” an elated Beckenham said.

Hough credited his win to his coach in Sydney Anthony Benn who four years ago convinced him to add hurdling to his sprint event repertoire. Before then he had never even thought about hurdling and he knows there is a lot of room for improvement with his technique.

In what was an extremely fast 110m hurdles final, the top four recorded personal bests highlighting the strength of the competition Hough was up against. 

Parnov claimed silver with a jump of 4.25m, just behind Sweden’s Angelica Bengtsson’s best of 4.30m, with Ukrainian Ganna Shelekh taking the bronze at 4.20m.   

Parnov had a battle on her hands from the outset as she went jump for jump with the eventual winner. The 16-year-old from Perth had a strong clearance on her first attempt at 4.25m but couldn’t clear 4.35m to put the pressure back on the Scandinavian. 

The World Youth and World Junior Champion upped the bar to 4.52m after she had won the competition trying to improve on her 4.47m personal best but she was unsuccessful.

For Parnov it is the end of a long campaign which has seen her based in Europe for the past two months and her recent form had been poor by her standards.

“I’m happy its over, that was so intense. She skipped a height and then I skipped a height and I started thinking what if I clear this which I think was a mistake,” Parnov said.

“I’m happy that’s the pole I jumped my PB on and I haven’t been on that pole all European season so that’s definitely a bonus and I think I did the best that I could do today in the sweaty conditions out there.

“After qualifying to be honest I was kind of freaking out but today was another day and I’m really happy with that.”

High jumper Brandon Starc pulled out a stunning 9cm personal best as he jumped 2.19m to claim Youth Olympic Games silver. So staggering was Starc’s performance that if he matched his previous PB he would have landed in 8^th.

The 16-year-old from the Hills district in Sydney cleared all his jumps up to 2.14m on his first attempts before he had to hold his nerve twice, as he cleared 2.17m and 2.19m on his third attempts to secure a medal.

Starc had one final jump to knock off eventual gold medallist, Israel’s Dmitry Kroytor, but couldn’t clear 2.21 metres as Kroytor won on a count back, with Ukraine’s Viktor Chernysh sealing bronze after clearing 2.17m.

Eighteen months ago Starc trained once a week, played cricket, soccer and had a PB of 1.88m. He then started training with coach Alex Stewart, focused solely on athletics and has improved a staggering 31 centimetres.

“I’m over the moon, I’m ecstatic. I wanted a PB and a silver medal that’s unbelievable,” Starc said through a huge grin.

“I thought he had a five or six centremetres in him and he went from 2.00m to 2.07m in one comp before so I shouldn’t be surprised but I am,” Stewart said.

So how did he find a nine centimetre improvement?

“I guess the excitement of the Youth Olympics, adrenaline and the good atmosphere. I was feeling a PB but nine centremetres, I don’t know it is pretty unbelievable.”

Tonight demonstrated what his coach believes is his top quality.

“One of his greatest strengths is his mental ability and how he handles himself in pressure situations. He has shown that tonight and I think he can really go along way in the future,” Stewart said.

In the morning session today Michelle Jenneke opened the medal count with a silver and another personal best in the 100m hurdles. Hough, Starc and Jenneke all hail from the same area of Sydney.

Demii Maher-Smith was the other Australian in action. The Queenslander finished third in the long jump B final, 5.62m. She was disappointed with her place but vowed to come back a better athlete for the YOG experience.

Following what were some fireworks on the track and field, the night fittingly ended with a pyrotechnics display that had the sold out crowd rising to their feet for one last time as the first day of athletics finals drew to a close. 

Andrew Reid
AOC