Commonwealth Games: Sarah Walsh's Oceania title eases disappointment

Unfortunately for Walsh, they don't feature any of her events as most of her rivals come from countries outside the Commonwealth.

The T64 long jumper won gold at the Oceania Athletics Championships in Mackay last week, but will now enjoy a competition quiet period before knuckling down in preparation for what is to be a busy couple of years to follow.

"There's just not enough of us within the Commonwealth to put out a field and that's totally understandable," Walsh said of the upcoming Games.

"The host countries usually pick and choose what they will be good at and what events can fill out a full field of athletes.

"Now's just a really good chance for me to go into some winter training and work hard for the next few months and prepare for world championships and Paralympics next year and the following year."

Walsh carried her form from the Tokyo Paralympics into the Oceania games.

She finished seventh in Tokyo last year with a jump of 5.11 metres, just 64 centimetres short of the bronze.

The 23-year-old leapt well beyond her Tokyo mark to take gold in Mackay with 5.38m.

"Being able to head up to Mackay and jump a season's best to take out the Oceania Championships was pretty amazing," Walsh said.

"I knew that I had been in really good shape, it was just about executing what I knew I was capable of doing in competition.

"I knew that if I did it all properly and correctly that a big jump was there and that's exactly what I did this week.

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"The postponement of the [Tokyo] Games gave me a chance to change my technique and work on a few things.

"It's probably taken me a bit of time to settle into that and for my body to get used to it."

The University of Canberra student wasn't the only Canberra athlete to star at the competition with Alesha Bennetts winning gold in the under-18 400m hurdle.

Other Canberrans Helen Pretorius, Nick Donaldson and former-Canberran Kelsey Lee Barber performed well to take home medals in their respective events.

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