| Tragedy inspires Samuels to gold |
 |
|
SCOTT GULLAN Sunday Tasmanian August 23, 2009 AUSTRALIA'S newest world champion, discus thrower Dani Samuels, has dedicated her stunning victory to her late father who died in an accident five years ago. Mark Samuels was a keen triathlete when he was knocked off his bike and died in 2004 and yesterday his daughter rocked the athletics world by reeling off two monster personal best throws to become the sixth Australian to win a world crown. After staring at an early exit in the final, the 21-year-old Sydney university student improved her lifetime best by more than 2.5 metres to claim gold and become the youngest discus medallist in world championship history. Samuels revealed afterwards that she had deliberately tried to keep her emotions in check in Berlin as the memory of her father had overwhelmed her at last year's Olympic Games. "It was definitely a big, big thought last year and it is always hard because his birthday is always around, it is on August 16, so it is always hard because it is around the start of a major championships," she said. "I tried not to let myself think about it this year even though it is in the back of my head. "I think I was too consumed by it last year because my family was over and even my mum said Dad would have been so, so proud, he would have been so happy to be there and watch me in the Olympics." She admitted she felt like a failure when she was unable to win a medal in his honour, instead being eliminated early from the final and finishing ninth. This year she sat down and decided that in a way she had to let him go and move on with a whole new attitude to life. "I took it a bit too seriously last year," Samuels said. Samuels, who turned her back on a promising basketball career, started at odds of 40-1 in the final and pocketed just over $70,000 for her heroics which included producing a clutch throw to avoid being eliminated from the competition. She then threw a personal best with her fourth throw of 64.76m before repeating the dose to clinch the gold with a monster 65.44m. "I don't know what to say, it's just been fantastic," said Samuels, who hails from Bankstown in western Sydney. "To be able to pull it out at a world championships, a PB is just everything an athlete dreams of." |