It’s her birthday this week (but in an exclusive interview with My News Feed, we agreed not to state her age).
While her birthday is a special milestone for Beaudesert’s Riley Day, she won’t be out celebrating, well, not too much, while in training for the Olympics.
“I’m thinking about doing something in September, six months after my birthday” she said.
Riley Day pic courtesy of David Tarbotton
“It happens every year – it’s just another day”.
In Mid-April she competes in Sydney for the National Championships. Pending the outcome, she’ll be on her way to Japan for this year’s Olympics.
“It’s not a done deal” she said, despite an amazing result earlier this year at Homebush in qualifying events.
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.
So, what happens after a life in athletics?
“perhaps I’ll become a coach, or I’m (currently) studying a Bachelor of business in sports management, so perhaps I can go into something like managing teams but I definately want to stay in athletics.
HISTORY: (courtesy Athletics Australia)
Riley Day: pic courtesy Fred Etter
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 womens 150m.
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 completed Year 12 the Beaudesert State High School before studying nursing at Griffith University. She is guided by her long-time coach Donna Thomas
