| Australian champion flies like the wind in one giant leap for mankind |
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AAP April 19, 2010 AUSTRALIAN Fabrice Lapierre became the sixth-best long jumper in history under any conditions, producing a mighty leap of 8.78m in the final round of the Commonwealth Games selection trials in Perth yesterday. However, a 3.1m per second tailwind made the jump illegal for record purposes. But Lapierre, the world indoor champion, was still thrilled to have produced such a massive leap. Only Americans Mike Powell, Bob Beamon and Carl Lewis, Soviet athlete Robert Emmiyan and Cuban Ivan Pedroso have ever jumped further, and Pedroso's jump was also wind-assisted. In a high-standard competition, Chris Noffke finished second, moving to fourth on the Australian alltime list with a jump of 8.33m with the help of a legal tailwind. Meanwhile, world and Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker missed out on the chance to have a crack at Sergey Bubka's longstanding world record of 6.15m at the selection trials. Hooker was untroubled in claiming a third national crown with a successful clearance at 5.80m. But he then missed twice at 5.95m and once at 6.01m to bow out. Hooker would have pocketed a $100,000 bonus had he been able to break Bubka's record in Perth. In the women's event, 15-year-old pole vaulter Liz Parnov confirmed she would be the youngest member of the Australian team at the Commonwealth Games this year after smashing her personal best with a clearance of 4.40m yesterday. By any reckoning, she is way ahead of the curve. The speed of her progression may have surprised just about everyone, including coach and father Alex Parnov, whose star-studded squad also includes Hooker, Alana Boyd and Parnov's older sister Vicky. As the daughter of Alex Parnov and the niece of Sydney Olympics silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva, Liz Parnov was born to vault. "I want to try and do more PBs because there's never a limit for pole vault," said Parnov, who will head to Europe in June to tackle the sport's biggest names on the grand prix circuit. "I never want to put a limit on how high I can jump. Once you do that you're going to stop raising the bar." Parnov's winning height of 4.40m at the WA Athletics Stadium - where she claimed top spot after beating Boyd on a countback - was the highest ever cleared by a 15-year-old. The only disappointment was that sister Vicky, who four years ago was the second-youngest woman to represent Australia in track and field at a Commonwealth Games, was fourth. Liz Parnov has made giant strides this season, improving her PB from 4.15m to 4.30m and then 4.40m on Saturday night. She likes the idea of being the "youngest person on the Games athletics team" but will not let it limit her. |