Young Walpiri track star Telaya Blacksmith looks set to keep improving her already remarkable record after yet another crushing performance at the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australia's Track & Field Juniors Championships.
Due to commitments with the Sydney Swans, Telaya could only compete in the PA U17 100m and 200m events.
Ms Blacksmith's first run was on Saturday where she broke her own 200m Australian Open record (Under 17 & 20) for the third time, crossing the line in 26:13s, besting her previous record of 26:5s.
Pleased with her performances overall, Ms Blacksmith told National Indigenous Times she feels "pretty good about it", specifically referring to her 100m performance on Day Four (Sunday) where she nearly tripped after leaving the starting blocks.
"I think I just pushed off the blocks a bit too hard," she said.
Despite the blunder to start a very short race, Ms Blacksmith regained her composure, recovered and held a very comfortable lead clocking a 12:86s (+1.9), a mere five-hundredths of a second behind her own U20 Australian record of 12.79s.
To put Ms Blacksmith's incredible talent into perspective, her mother Bec told National Indigenous Times that "if she ran that time (26.13s) at the 2000 Olympics she would have got a silver medal".
That silver medal time of 26.13s would have fallen just shy of the gold achieved by Australian Lisa Llorens who ran 26.08s.
Unfortunately, the 2000 Sydney Paralympics was the last time the 200m was offered to T20 Athletes.
Next on Ms Blacksmith's to-do list is continue her training for the upcoming Virtus Global Games held in Paris, France later this June and winter-season football with the Sydney Swans academy.
