World U20 Championships 2018 - Finland

Having been selected as a National team coach for the Australian Junior Athletics Team, Coach Cain

assisted the facilitation of the pre-departure camp in Townsville in early June, designed to educate and assist the high performance preparation of all athletes.

On June 20th, we departed for Mannehim in Germany where half the team competed in an elite standard lead up competition, gaining valuable international experience. From here we travelled to Finland for our final physical and mental preparations, based at the Pajulahti performance centre (similar to our AIS).

Amongst many others, one of my key responsibilities was to support five specific athletes and their personal coaches throughout the journey and in to competition. Two javelin throwers, one discus thrower and two decathletes were under my 24/7 watch and guidance.

This World u20 Championships turned out to be Australias most successful in over 20 years. Equally as exciting was that of our five athletes, two were crowned as world champions and another with a silver medal, contributing to a team tally of two gold and three silver medals.

Of particular note to Multus was the outstanding performance of Gary Haasbroek, an athlete I have coached for three years and part of Multus coaching team in 2017. He broke the Victorian decathlon record and won the silver medal, only to be beaten by his fellow Australian decathlete, Ash Maloney.

Attached to the end of this world championships, I attended the IAAF coaches conference, spent time with the head coach of the French National team and his world champion athletes, attended the highest quality athletic meets (diamond league events) in London and Monaco, where I was blessed to witness fellow

St Kevin’s AAC athlete Joseph Deng break Alex Rowe & Ralph Doubell’s long standing 800m national record.

Along this journey I witnessed the training secrets and methods of many elite sporting teams including the German national ice hockey team, the French Rowing & Judo teams, the Finnish figure skating team and the Netherlands relay teams. I shared room’s with many elite coaches, including 3x olympian and director of track & field at Trinity Grammar (NSW), a school leading the way in athlete development and sporting success.

These experiences and many more over my 4 week journey have been eye opening, educational and endlessly beneficial.