Victory in the Oceania Championships has propelled Ballarat's rising high jump star Yual Reath into the world's top 10 for the first time, and looks all but certain to have secured his spot on the Australian Olympic team.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
While the 24-year-old remains agonisingly close to the official Olympic qualifying mark of 2.33m - jumping 2.28m to win the Oceania Championship in Fiji - it seems a mere formality that the two-time national champion will be on the plane to Paris once the Australian athletics teams in announced, expected in early July.
At the Oceania championship in Suva, Reath outlasted the field in what proved to be an All-Australian, and in-fact all Victoria trifecta, hitting 2.28m to defeat Roman Anastasios, who jumped a personal best 2.25m and finished in second on a countback from Joel Baden, who also reached 2.25m.
Reath picked up 170 ranking points for the victory, equivalent to that of a Diamond League success.
It took Reath a bit of time to get going, telling The Courier he didn't start hitting his stride until 2.28m, but once he found his rhythm, he was able to focus on the job.
He said despite winning the Golden Grand Prix event in Japan two weeks ago, the Oceania victory was far-and-away his biggest result so far.
"Throughout the whole thing, I was pretty much just finding my groove, I didn't really find it, I couldn't quite figure out the run up," he said.
"It was an unusual competition in some ways because I didn't come in until 2.15m and the bar had actually started at 1.60, so I found it was a really long wait, so it was a matter of keeping warm and trying to stay to stay, job around.
"I think around the Olympic they'll probably be starting around 2m and above. The weather was nice and warm, so fortunately I didn't get too cold too quickly.
"I went to 2.31m, everything was completely over and it was just the ankle that tapped it back down, I've sort of now got that hunger to get out competing again."
Reath though will spend most of the next month in Ballarat, particularly working on strengthening his legs in a bid to be ready to go again at the start of July.
"For the next few weeks we'll do a lot of strengthening work, just getting things right, then on July 14, I'm off to Germany for an event there which should be really big and then I'm hoping on July 20 to get into the London Diamond League, then into the Olympic training camp after that.
"I've heard they should announce the team in early July, I'm happy with everything, to finally tick it off, hopefully I'll be going to the Olympics now.
"Right now, to win Oceania, it's my best result, with the points, it's equivalent to the Diamond League, I can now hold onto those for the next two years until the next Oceania competition in two years."
Meanwhile, sprinter Cooper Sherman has finished second behind fellow Australian Luke van Ratingen in the 400m at the championships.
Sherman's time was one of his best, breaking 46 seconds again, finishing in 45.97 seconds. Sherman led deep into the race before 2023 Australian champion van Ratigan finished the stronger to win in 45.84 seconds.
Sherman's coach Neville Down said he was happy with the run.
