Narromine product and current Australian Olympic athletics selector Melinda Gainsford-Taylor was delighted by the results at Rio and can see only better things in future Games.
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Australia may have only scored a silver and a bronze during the track and field at the most recent Olympics in Brazil but a host of up and coming athletes made finals.
“We made more finals than we had in a long time and a lot more top eight performances and we were so close to gold in the discus and pole vault,” Gainsford-Taylor, who was in Dubbo at the weekend, said.
“Overall the performances were fantastic and a lot of those were from debutants.
“Someone like Ella Nelson in her first Games, missed out on the final by one one hundredth of a second.”
With so many young athletes, the likes of Nelson, Morgan Mitchell, Brooke Stratton and Cedric Dubler, showing plenty of promise during their first time on the big stage, Gainsford-Taylor feels their efforts can only get better next time round.
“Your first Olympics is almost more just about the experience,” she said.
“While you want to run well, in reality it’s something you’ve dreamt about since being a child and that can all be a bit overwhelming.
“But dealing with that comes with experience and for them to do so well at their first try is a really good thing.”
With those youngsters hoping to be some of the more older heads at the Tokyo Games in 2020, Gainsford-Taylor was setting out to find the next athletics gem while hosting a athletics seminar at Dubbo’s DCL Park on Sunday.