Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017 organized by the Athletics in Queensland of St Lucia, QLD, Australia has turned a meeting dedicated to Croker Norma called QA Norma Croker Shield.
Norma Croker is one of the components of the 4x100 relay team that won gold at the Olympic Games in Melbourne, 1956 and she was the first athlete ever of Queensland to win a medal at the Olympics.
In Rio de Janeiro another athlete of Queensland, Dane Biord-Smith obtained a medal by winning the bronze in 20km walk.
To honor this event, the organizers have also included a walk event in the Meeting over a distance of 3000m track.
The goal of Dane Bird-Smith was to center the new Australian record over the distance.
The old record was outdated 26 years and belonged to Andrew Jachno (10:56.22) established in Melbourne on Feb. 7, 1991.
In 2014 when Dane Bird-Smith raced in Cork Ireland he won the 3,000m race walk in 10.56.23 just missing the National record. He went very close, touching it to 1/100 (10:56.23), and so the performance of Andrew Jachno stood for two and a half years until yesterday.
With his victory in 10:54.70 Dane Bird-Smith has rewritten the history of Australian in this unsual distance and is also the world leader of 2017.
For the history, we note that in the past also the father of Dane Bird-Smith, Dave Smith, briefly hels this Australian record in the past.
Results
3.000m track walk men
Victory to Dane Bird-Smith (AUS) in 10:54.70
Second pale to Wayne Sniman (RSA) in 11:10.22
Third place to Callum Haig (AUS) in 16:43.87
5.000m track walk men
Victory to Luke McCutcheon (AUS) in 21:46.85
Second place to Jamie McCutcheon (AUS) in 23:42.73
3.000m track walk women
Victory to Clara Smith (AUS) in 13:11.12
Secon place to Katya Martin (AUS) in 14:45.67
Third place to Caitlin Hannigan (AUS) in 15:01.02
5.000m track walk women
Victory to Katie Hayward (AUS) in 22:00.13
Secon place to Jessica Pickles (AUS) in 22:24.13
(Co-operatiion by Denice Snith - AUS)