Monique Cilione will represent Australia at the World Junior Athletics Championships next month. 83287_01
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
SEVERAL young Victorian athletes are in Germany preparing for the World Youth Athletics Championships in Spain next month, with a small but exciting contingent hailing from the western suburbs.
East Keilor 17-year-old Monique Cilione, who trains with Keilor-St Bernards Athletics Club, is one of two Australian female javelin throwers, while Werribee’s Morgan Mitchell will compete in the 400m and 4x400m relay, and Williamstown’s Joel Hogarth will run in the men’s 800m.
The athletes were in Mannheim on the weekend to compete in the Bauhaus Junior Gala – the biggest junior athletics event in Germany. About 200 German athletes and 300 invited international competitors took part in the event, which is a traditional lead-up to the most prestigious event for athletes in the Under-20 age group – the World Junior Athletics Championships – on 10-15 July.
Cilione is the Australian under-18 female javelin champion, and claimed a bronze medal at the World Youth Championships in France last year, when she threw a personal best of 52.77m.
Keilor St Bernards Athletics president Ron Stobaus said she would probably need a 57-58m throw to be in medal contention this year.
Cilione has been out of action for the past few months while recovering from a shoulder injury, but Stobaus said she was in fine shape for the world championships. She qualified for the world championships with a 49.63m throw in Brisbane earlier this month.
Mitchell, who trains with Western Athletics Club, qualified for the world championships after winning the under-20 women’s 400m event at the Australian junior athletics championships with a time of 54.66 seconds.
Her goal in Barcelona was to run the 400m in 52 seconds.
She ran 54.64 seconds at the pre-departure meet in Brisbane four weeks ago – her best time yet.
Essendon Athletics Club runner Hogarth ran a qualifying time of 1.50.41 in the 800m event Melbourne Track Classic in March, but ran a personal best on 6 June at the Meeting de Nantes in France, finishing eighth in the 800m final with a time of 1.49.64.
Taylors Lakes resident and fellow Essendon Athletics Club member Johnny Rayner, who won’t be competing at the World Championships, came sixth in that same event.
