After turning up to the trials just to say hello to some friends and for a test run, Jarrod Bannister gave his Olympic medal chances a huge boost with his best javelin throw in nearly two years.
Bannister was already pre-selected for the London Games courtesy of his seventh placing at last year’s world championships, but still threw his third qualifying mark with 82.97m at the Olympic selection trials in Melbourne on Saturday night.
It was his best throw since his 83.17m in April, 2010.
He’s still only in limited training as he emerges from injuries and believes he’s on his way back to his peak of 2008 when he set his national record of 89.02m.
“The sky’s the limit at the moment. We’re gearing for, minimum, what I was throwing in `08 and, when we get to the Olympics, hopefully a bit further,” he said.
“If I can get my back problems right, then I can back to where I was.”
He says he’s currently clear of the back injuries which plagued him since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which he finished sixth with a throw of 83.45m.
“I haven’t done any run-up training or any power training,” he said.
“I just wanted a bit of a test run to see how I’m travelling.
“I knew I was in pretty decent shape. I’ve just been working on a lot of basic short run-up stuff.
“Hopefully we’ll transfer into my longer run-ups later in the year.”
Former world discus champion Dani Samuels, however, is still struggling to recapture her 2009 form.
But her winning effort of 61.30m was not far short of the automatic qualifying mark of 62m, which national high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth rated as a good effort given the wet conditions.
“Dani was pretty solid,” he said.
“It was much more encouraging than some of the other throws this season.
“As long as I can see the curve moving upwards, which I am very comfortable it is at the moment, I am happy because another four months of an upward curve will put her back in the 65m bracket where she needs to be.”
Pre-selected Benn Harradine came second in the men’s discus as he also used the trials as a training session.
Queenslander Julian Wruck won with 61.54m – which should see him added to the team this week as he has previously bettered the A qualifying standard.
