Mitchell Watt

Medal record
Watt at the 2011 World championships Athletics in Daegu.
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Australia
World Championships
Silver	2011 Daegu	Long jump
Bronze	2009 Berlin	Long jump
World Indoor Championships
Bronze	2010 Doha	Long jump

Mitchell Watt, (born 25 March 1988) is an Australian track & field athlete. His main event is the long jump and holds the current Oceania record for the long jump – 8.54m. He is the youngest ever Australian track and field medalist, and he was the first ever Australian Long Jump medalist at a World Championship.^[1]

Childhood

Watt started his athletics career as a teenager and first started getting attention as a schoolboy at Brisbane Boys College, the private and prestigious high school in Queensland. As a 13 year old he competed in the GPS 100m, 200m, 400m relay, 100m relay, long jump, high jump, triple jump, shot put and discus, winning all of his events bar and discus with a respectable 4th.^{[citation needed]}

As a junior he won the All-schools nationals in 1999 (Long Jump), 2000 (Long Jump), 2001 (Long Jump [national record], Triple Jump [national record], 100m). After the 2001 All-schools nationals, he decided to take a break from the sport for over 5 years. He took an interest in Australian Football and Rugby Union. In Australian Football he won two State premierships during high-school (2004, 2005) playing as ruckman. In Rugby Union, he played in the outside backs and was vice-captain of the 1st XV. He was a reserve for The Queensland Schoolboys in 2005, a team which several current Wallabies played in. Since 2007 he has been coached by Gary Bourne, who had previously coached Olympic silver medalist Jai Taurima, and current Australian record holder Bronwyn Thompson.

Career

Mitchell's first major championship was the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin where he won a bronze medal with a jump of 8.37.^[2] He backed this up with another bronze medal at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, despite jumping with a torn adductor tendon.

He won the 2011 Australian long jump title with a personal best of 8.44 m, setting a stadium record at the Melbourne Olympic Park Stadium with the final jump of the final competition that was held at the venue.^[3]

Mitchell won Silver at the World Championships in Daegu, with a jump of 8.33 m in an interesting competition where the winning jumps were made in the second round. The top three jumpers failed to improve on their first and second round jumps.

Diamond League

Mitchell was the 2011 Diamond League Trophy winner for the Long Jump, picking up the $40,000 bonus.^[4]. He won in Shanghai, London, and also Stockholm where he set the Australian record, and had already secured victory before the Final in Zurich. He is the first and only Australian to ever win a Diamond League Trophy. He also finished the 2011 season with the longest 4 out of 5 jumps in the world. ^[5]

Stadium Records

Mitchell currently holds the following stadium/meeting records in the world:

Shanghai (Shanghai Stadium, China) - 8.44m
London (Crystal Palace Stadium) - 8.45m
Rethymno (Vardinoyannia, Greece) - 8.43m
Melbourne (Olympic Park, Australia) - 8.44m

Personal life

Mitchell is currently enrolled in a Law / Economics dual degree at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, where he holds a High Achievement Scholarship for his academic and sporting excellence. He also holds a scholarship at the Queensland Academy of Sport.

Notes and references

External links

• IAAF profile for Mitchell Watt