Patterson a world champ
LEONGATHA’S Eleanor Patterson has been crowned world junior high jump champion after winning gold at the IAAF Junior World Championships in the Ukraine at the weekend.
Up and over: Leongatha’s Eleanor Patterson soars over the bar on the way to a gold medal at the IAAF Junior World Championships in the Ukraine at the weekend. Photo courtesy Athletics Australia.
Patterson jumped a personal best of 1.88 metres to take the honour.
After being the last to qualify for the final, the 17 year old left all but one competitor behind when she cleared 1.82m.
Her jump of 1.85m secured her gold over Italian Erika Furlani but Patterson pushed on, and succeeded, with a 1.88m jump but failed to reach the 1.91m she had pushed herself to.
Asked if a gold medal was always her goal, Patterson said: “No, a PB was the goal. Whatever comes with a PB I’m happy with. It was gold this time, which is good.”
Asked how she felt about her new status as the world youth high jump champion, a humble Patterson responded: “Yes, it sounds very nice, happy with it.
“The competition went pretty good. I was fairly clean overall until that 88. But then I cleared that in the end. I was upset that I didn’t get the 91 but that’s next time.”
Patterson was joined by her parents, Helen and Mark, in the Ukraine as well as coach David Green and his wife Lyndall.
Mrs Patterson told The Star Eleanor said she would not be on the podium without her coach and his commitment to her training, nor without the support of his family.
“We would also like mention our thanks to everybody who supported her by coming to her fundraising night or donating money to help get her to Ukraine,” She said.
South Gippsland Shire Council Mayor Kieran Kennedy said that this is a great achievement that needs to be recognised.
“I will be following up with her family and hopefully having a dinner to congratulate her on this great achievement,” he said.
“I really think this is something that needs to be done.”
News spread quickly after her win in the early hours of Saturday morning, Australian time.
Patterson was the talk of the town and social media, and was flooded with messages of congratulations.
Fellow Australian athletes congratulated the teenager on her success through Twitter, including included Olympic gold medallist pole vaulter Steve Hooker.
Even though Patterson reached her personal best of 1.88m, she was 4cm off the youth championship record and still 21cm clear of the female world record.
The community of Mary MacKillop College, where Patterson attends, was proud of her achievements.
“We’re absolutely delighted for her,” college principal Michael Delaney said.
“She’s done a fantastic amount of work to reach that level and she deserves every success.”
The members of the Leongatha Little Athletics Club, where Eleanor once competed, also commemorated her achievement.
“We are very proud of her efforts. She has done us all proud,” committee member Robyn Colwill said.
“It’s fantastic to think she has got as far as she did and got a PB and the gold as well.”
Ms Colwill said that to her knowledge, no past members of the club have held a world championship.
The Pattersons will return home later this week after visiting Germany.
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Posted by Jacob De Kunder on Jul 16 2013. Filed under Featured, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
