Morgan Mitchell’s unimaginable summer of dominance is complete with her ticket booked to the Rio Olympics.
Mitchell was in a class of her own this season, going unbeaten in the women’s 400 metres and taking out the national title for a second time.
The Western Athletics member had a perfect 12 wins from 12 races to be the undisputed queen of the 400 metres sprint in this country.
The 21-year-old ticked all the boxes, setting new personal best times, Olympic qualifying times, taking out a national title and the piece de resistance, a place in the Australian Olympic team.
“It’s been a very long season but to get everything we wanted done is a pretty surreal feeling,” Mitchell told Star Weekly.
“We wanted PBs, Olympic qualifiers and to win nationals and I managed to end the season undefeated, so I’m pretty happy.
“I sat down with my coach and I said win, lose or draw, as long as I’m learning from every race, that’s all I can really ask for.
“Then when I won my fifth or sixth race in Canberra and the Vic Champs the week after, we realised we’d come this far and hadn’t actually lost, so we set ourselves a little goal of trying to get through the season undefeated.”
Mitchell left the rest of the competitors in her wake to take out the national 400 metres final in a time of 51.84 seconds in Sydney this month.
The Werribee resident thrived on the big stage and felt no added pressure, even with her unbeaten record and Olympic spot at stake.
“This year I haven’t felt any pressure at all,” she said. “It’s the Olympic year, let’s just set goals and see if we can achieve them.”
Mitchell’s Olympic dream was born in 2012, when she had to decide between netball and athletics.
It was an agonising choice at the time, with her selection in the Australian under-19 netball team coinciding with the World Junior Athletics Championships.
“I went to the netball nationals that year; we got the win and I made the Aussie squad,” she said. “Then I also went to the athletics nationals and won there, and made the Aussie team for the 400 metres at world juniors in Spain. I realised I missed athletics too much and I really wanted to give it my all to make this team.
“I told my coach, look, I’d like to come back to athletics.
“I just want to go to Rio, it looks exciting, a pretty inviting place.
“It’s really quite incredible to think four years on that I’ve punched my ticket to Rio.”
Mitchell’s season was predicated on a revamped training regime under new coach Peter Fitzgerald.
She has also improved her in-race tactical nous under Fitzgerald’s watch.
“Every race that came, my coach would just sit me down and go ‘look, you’ve worked hard enough for this’,” Mitchell said.
“We’d see who was in the lane beside me and then we’d try to use race tactics against their strengths and then I’d pull it off.
“I trusted the hard work we had put in and it really all came down to that.
“I felt a lot fitter than I have ever been.”
