Episode 18: 7 June, 2019 – With special guest, Nana Adoma Owusu-Afriyie

For Episode 18 Sean and Tim are joined by one of Australia’s leading sprinters, Nana Adoma Owusu-Afriyie. Nana is not long back from the World Relays in Yokohama and a blistering performance over 200m at the Osaka World Challenge meet.   Nana discusses her career to date, plans for the short to medium term and touches on the long lasting coaching relationship with Tony Marsh.   Also in the episode Sean provides and update on what’s been happening across the globe in athletics while on the domestic front the XCR season is now well underway.   With not one but two hot topics to discuss, Sean and Tim delve into why it is so hard for elite Australian athletes to stay in the sport, or stay aligned to our country and some very questionable selection practices recently beg the question are the Australian selectors still up for the job?   Feature interviews include Craig Mottram about his involvement in developing young athletes and life post competition in general, plus we caught up with 100m sprinter Antonio Vaitohi just after he’d finished his 4km cross country leg at Jells Park.   Out on the cross country circuit DTT has been fortunate to also catch up with Pole Vaulter Cassidy Bradshaw and we also had a chat to Emily Guy after her big long run at Wings for Life in early May.   A very excited Nick Earl has been selected as part of a marathon development squad for England athletics and will slip the English vest on in Toronto later this year. DTT spoke to Nick about his recent move to Tasmania and what it means to be running for England. Joel Tobin-White and Alexandra Patterson both recorded wins at the 8km Cross Country at St Annes so their post race interviews wrap up the coverage from XCR Rd 2. Timeline  0:00:00 to 0:01:00 Intro and welcome to Nana Adoma Owusu-Afriyie 0:01:01 to 0:30:49 International wrap including the World Relays, Diamond League meets, Gotsis Multis and various other European and Japanese results 0:30:50 to 0:55:32 Spotlight on Nana Adoma Owusu-Afriyie 0:55:33 to 1:07:49 Hot Topic – Trae Williams to Rugby 7’s, Eddie Nketia to New Zealand, Jordan Gusman possibly to Malta and big question marks over Sasha Zhoya’s future. What if anything are Athletics Australia doing, or can do to retain athletes? 1:07:50 to 1:13:02 Feature interview with Antonio Vaitohi 1:13:03 to 1:22:02 Feature interview with Craig Mottram 1:22:03 to 1:43:20 XCR coverage including the recent event at St Annes Vineyard in Myrniong 1:43:21 to 1:49:02 Hot Topic – late changes to selection windows, athletes selected then de-selected, non certified courses used for selection. What’s going on with the Australian selectors? 1:49:03 to 1:57:38 Other results including the SMH Half Maarthon, Leonora Mile and Christchurch Marathon 1:57:39 to 2:01:40 What’s coming up and episode wrap