Riley Day has raced her way onto the Australian team bound for Tokyo with a breathtaking display of speed to win the 200m
It all played out over the weekend during a qualifying athletics event at the Homebush Olympic Stadium in Sydney.
Riley Day pic courtesy of David Tarbotton
Day recorded her seventh fastest 200m time by an Aussie ever.
She just dipped under the very fast 22.80sec Olympic qualifying, finishing in a time of 22.77sec.
A big birthday win for Riley, who turns 21 at the end of March.
HISTORY: (courtesy Athletics Australia)
An up and coming sprinter from Beaudesert, Riley Day burst on to the Australian athletics scene with stunning victories over 100m (11.73) and 200m (24.18) at the Australian All Schools Championships in 2016.
Selected to compete for Team Australia at the Coles Nitro Athletics Melbourne in the weeks that followed, the then 16-year-old faced-off with Usain Bolt on the second leg of the mixed 4x100m relay at Lakeside Stadium, before competing days later to take victory over Olympian Jenna Prandini in the women’s 150m.
Riley Day: pic courtesy Fred Etter
Day is a member of the Beaudesert Little Athletics Club and has also tasted success at this year’s Australian Junior Athletics Championships, winning both the 100m (11.59) and 200m (23.26). Selected for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau in July 2017, she won gold in the 200m in a time of 23.42, as well as silver in the 100m (11.59). She added gold in the mixed 4x100m relay. While in the Bahamas she was named in the 200m in the Australian senior team for the 2017 IAAF World Championships, courtesy of an IAAF roll down. Aged 17 she became the youngest Australian 100m/200m athlete to compete in an individual event in the history of the championships and also the youngest female competitor overall in the championships. She placed seventh in her 200m heat in a time of 23.77.
After a low-key start to the 2017/18 domestic season, Day ran a 100m PB of 11.52 in January. At the Australian Championships/Commonwealth Games trials, she predictably won the 100m in 11.56, but astonished the athletics community by clocking 22.93 in the 200m final into a 1.7m/s wind. The time was the third fastest in Australian junior history behind the high-altitude performances of Raelene Boyle and Jenny Lamy in Mexico City, and also moved Riley to number 13 on the all-time list.
Day has just completed Year 12 the Beaudesert State High School,and has begun studying nursing at Griffith University. She is guided by her long-time coach Donna Thomas
