Mooroolbark’s Tayleb Willis has proven his talent and skill against some of the world’s best athletes after making it through to the repechage round in the Men’s 110m Hurdles.
In his debut Olympic performance, Willis finished fifth in his heat on Sunday 4 August with a time of 13.63.
He was racing his idol triple world champion Grant Halloway (USA) and Perth-born Sasha Zhoya (FRA) who helped him as a junior.
“I think I handled the pressure all right for my first big international. I just gotta bring it back in two days,” Willis told the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).
Willis’ personal best is 13.44 seconds and he has his sights set on Kyle Vander-Kuyp’s Australian record (13.29).
“That’s the goal. I know I’m ready. I know I can do it. I just want his record. That’s all I want,” he said.
“It’s probably one of the longest Australian records there. I know I can do it. I want to do it.”
The repechage round allows athletes to have a second chance, with Willis getting that chance on Tuesday 6 August at 6.50pm Paris local time.
Warrandyte’s Abbey Caldwell also made her name known on the international stage making it through to the 800m semi finals.
In what the AOC called a “smart and gutsy run”, she won heat one of the 800m repechage in a time of 2:00.07.
The 23-year-old on Olympic debut backed up after placing fifth in her heat in a season best of 1:58.49 just 15 hours earlier.
“Over the line, the feeling was definitely pure joy,” Caldwell told the AOC.
“But now it’s relief and pretty much just refocus. There’s still plenty more to do and we’ve got one more, hopefully two more, jobs to complete.
“I’m so excited. I’m hoping that the semi-finals is an opportunity to actually bring out my best. I want to be in that front pack and I want to be challenging everyone. I really want to put my head down and see what I can get out of myself.”
Running the semi final on Monday 5 August, Caldwell impressed, finishing fifth with a time of 1:58.52 but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make it through to the final.
