Australia–POLE vaulter Alana Boyd has made big strides in her return from injury and her camp says she’s a chance to qualify for the upcoming Commonwealth Games at a meet on the Sunshine Coast this weekend.
The defending Commonwealth Games gold medalist has overcome ankle surgery which forced her to withdraw from last year’s world championships.
The Sunshine Coast athlete jumped B-qualifying heights at a University of the Sunshine Coast training meet and the Queensland Athletics Club Championships in Brisbane last week.
The events were her first in six months and was she competing off a shortened run-up.
In positive signs in her quest for an A-qualifying height of 4.50m, she cleared 4.40m at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre in Brisbane off a 12-step run- up on Saturday.
Her coach and father, Ray Boyd, said they had no timeframe in which she hoped reach an A-qualifying height, but he would not be surprised if she achieved it at a Queensland Athletics pole vault meet at the University of the Sunshine Coast this Saturday.
“She was jumping off 12 steps on Saturday and the idea is to have her off a full run-up in three training sessions and then to compete in Melbourne on February 12 off a full run-up,” he said.
“We’re taking it as it comes. On the weekend she jumped 4.40m off 12 steps. It (an A-qualifying height) will come. It could even come this weekend.”
While an A-qualifying height would not guarantee her a spot on the Commonwealth Games team for Glasgow, realistically, because of the depth in Australian women’s pole vault, she would be an almost certainty to be on the plane to Scotland.
“She’s going really well,” Ray said.
“The fact that she did so well and did 4.40m, it didn’t come out of left field, but it was pretty good.”
