RT Journals: Brenton Rowe: World University Games

The WUG’s Athletic program runs from the 16th-21st of August in Shenzhen, China, and I arrived on the 12^th after spending 2 months competing in competitions around Europe. I will be competing in the 1500m on the 16^th in the semi-final and hopefully in the final on the 18^th. 

I was selected to represent Australia at WUG after a solid domestic season over summer in which I met the qualifying time on a number of occasions and placed third in the men’s 1500m at the Australian Championships. At the time of notification from Athletics Australia I was back home on the farm working hard and having a short break after competing at the Stawell Gift in the Herb Hedemann Mile.

I had also been thinking about competing for Austria for some time, as I have dual citizenship (my grandparents emigrated from Austria in the 50’s). I had to make a decision as there was a short turn around to confirm for the Australian WUG Team. Having never competed for Australia before, meant that if I was to compete for Australia this August it would potentially mean that I would not be able to compete for Austria at best for at least one year, but most likely two years. I chose to withdraw from the Australian team and continue contact with the Austrian Athletics Association. Whether this is the right decision or not, time will tell; but I hope I can look back and say that it was the right decision for me in the future.

I arrived in Europe mid-June and was keen to get some good training in on the track before competing in some meets planned in July. After an easy week off the place I was keen to get some good training in, but unfortunately I got a chest infection, which cleared up after another easy week of training and a seven day course of antibiotics. By then I was just keen to string some weeks of training together, and had planned to race some races over to the west in the Netherlands, Germany and also Switzerland.

I continued with this plan and thought it would at least be good training. My first race was a 1500m in Uden (NED), 3:43, followed by a 1500m in Eindhoven (NED) and then a 1500m in Bottrop (GER), in 3:42. The plan was to then travel to Luzern in Switzerland for a good 3km, but again managed to catch a cold and whilst I considered racing, didn’t feel up to it on the day. Returning to my Vienna base and getting back into a decent training regime and completing some good track sessions gave me confidence ahead of the Austrian National Championships in Innsbruck, which I placed second in both the 1500m and the 800m.

I am now enjoying the Chinese hospitality and trying to avoid the hot and humid conditions, however I am sure that once I return to South Eastern Australia in late August I will be missing the hot conditions.

Brenton