IT’S official.
Australian, Allcomers, Under-20, Under-18 and Under-16 record holder has a nice ring to it – with Dayna Crees now officially holding these exceptional achievements in long jump, discus and shot put.
Crees, 13, from Berwick, set the records in the F-35 athletes-with-disability (AWD) classification at the schools national championships in 2014 and earlier this year at the Athletics Australia junior championships, but it took a while for her certification to go through.
Despite the long wait, Crees was thrilled to finally gain recognition as one of Australia’s finest.
“They finally have (certified her),” Crees said. “It’s pretty good and quite exciting.”
Her current shot put record is with the 2kg shot put, but should have been 3kg, but Crees isn’t too fussed about it as she’ll move up weights this year anyway and will push to add the 3kg record to her ever-increasing collection as well as aiming for the running records next.
“I want to try and get close to the records in the 100 and 200 – as I haven’t broken any records in them,” Crees said.
The athletic all-rounder – who seamlessly switches from 100/200m sprinter to long jump, discus and shot put field star – is already targeting a few more awards to add to her wall.
Her 2.70m jump this year is an unofficial world record in the long jump too, but Crees can’t claim the record yet as she’s not classified internationally … yet.
That could change very quickly as she is setting her sights this year on the biggest prize of them all – representing Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
“Aiming for the Rio Olympics and there’s a competition in Switzerland – the World Youth Champs – and we’re also aiming for that as well,” Crees said.
“For the Olympics with the 100m, the B qualifier is 18 seconds and my time is 18.21, so if I get below that I’ll get a B qualifier.
“Hopefully I can get that by the end of this season maybe – we don’t know when they’re going to start picking people, but we want to get it done earlier in the season.
“I’ve got the Victorian All Schools in November and that will be one of the ones I’ll aim for to get a good result.”
The St Francis Xavier Year 8 student is working hard away from the track and field ahead of her biggest athletic year so far and in the meantime she’s also developed a taste for high-calibre swimming as she’s joined the Casey TigerSharks and has participated in a number of meets.
She wanted to thank her coaches Gordon Talbot and Eric Fuimuina and her parents for their support of her ever-rising athletics ambitions.
