OLDS — Local discus thrower Rachel Andres is working on another way to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo after disappointing results in two previous meets in Australia.
She says the pelting rain the country received a couple of weeks ago was a big factor. The rain helped douse several bush fires that had been burning in that country for months.
Andres and her coaches are now hoping she can qualify for a third meet in Australia which takes place March 20 in Brisbane. Andres describes that meet as “very prestigious.”
“I am entered for the meet, but waiting for confirmation on whether I have made the cut,” Andres wrote in an email.
“The meet director has told me that there will only be six women taken for the discus. And with prize money on the line, it is possible I won’t be chosen. But hopefully I hear good news.”
If she doesn’t make the cut for that one, Andres is looking at entering meets that will occur in California and Arizona starting in April.
“(They’re) not as high-level as the Australian meets, but still better than what we have in Canada and earlier in the year,” she wrote.
Andres was asked if she has enough money to cover the cost of going to those other meets.
“I do, as long as I keep a close eye on budgets and get a good deal on flights and accommodations,” she wrote.
Before her first competition Feb. 13 in Canberra, Andres had been feeling pretty confident.
In fact, before that date, she’d been throwing farther than ever before, getting close to the Olympic automatic standard of 63.50 metres.
It started out warm and dry on the day of the Canberra meet.
But that didn’t last.
Down came the rain.
“It started raining as soon as competition warm-ups started,” Andres wrote. “I struggled with the ring being slippery and disc slipping out of my hand.”
On her last throw, Andres got the distance she was looking for.
Unfortunately, there was an issue with that one, too.
“I knew it was the one, and I watched it too long instead of finishing my reverse. Because of that, I fell out of the ring and fouled the throw,” she wrote.
“It would’ve easily won the competition as it was around 59 m.
“I completely went for it on that last throw when I knew I had a good grip in the ring. So I know the throw is in there.”
Andres finished in second place with an official throw of 53.35 m.
“That mark won’t help my world rankings at all,” she wrote.
Trinity Tutti, another Canadian, took first place with a throw of 55.92 m.
During the second meet on Feb. 15 in a suburb of Sydney, Andres took first place with a throw of 53.15 m.
“(That) wasn’t the throw I was going for while in Australia, but this second meet was always just meant as an extra meet before going home. The Canberra one was the meet I had geared up for and was ready to throw a huge mark at,” she wrote.
Andres agreed it is ironic that her downfall was rain and mud, given the fact that athletes were initially worried that smoke from the wildfires could harm their health and performances.
“The smoke was such a huge concern and then they had a deluge of rain as I was flying there,” she wrote, adding temperatures remained pretty constant, at around 25 C.
