DUER Yoa is planning to use his new Oceania and national titles as springboards to again represent Australia on the international stage.
The Ballarat distance runner produced a personal best to take out the Gold Coast Half Marathon on Sunday.
In winning, Yoa also captured the IAAF Oceania Area and Australian half marathon championships.
He out-gunned Japan’s Hiroyuki Sasaki in a stirring finish, hitting the line six seconds clear.
Yoa clocked one hour, three minutes, 50 seconds – a personal best by almost two minutes.
Another Japanese visitor Masaya Kakihara was third.
Yoa told waiting media that his run exceeded his own expectations.
“I came here to run a PB and I smashed it so that was good,” the 26-year-old said.
“Sasaki sort of set the pace, so some credit to him.
“I knew if I stayed close to him I would keep it up,” said Yoa, who is a past Victorian half marathon champion.
Yoa was part of an Athletics Victoria team, which finished second in the event.
“I’m just happy to be in the team to represent Victoria and I’ll be back next year for sure.”
He said was hoping to compete in the world cross country championships next year to represent Australia, and then possibly run in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Yoa has been racing in top form this year – winning the Sydney10 in May – to follow on wins such as the Launceston10 and Melbourne’s Run4Kids last year.
He has represented Australia in the past, wearing the green gold in the world cross country championships as national titleholder and the Yoa, from Ballarat, International Chiba Ekiden Relay in Japan.
FELLOW Eureka Athletics Club member Kathryn Mitchell's impressive build-up to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games continues.
Mitchell had another win in her latest outing at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland.
She had a best throw of 63.80. Lingwei Li from China was second with 61.79m.
With Rio qualifying mark at 62m, this is Mitchell’s seventh qualifier this year.
She has also thrown 64.37m in Melbourne, 64.37 in Beijing, 63.95 in Perth and 63.93 in Birmingham, 63.25 in Doha and 62.37 in Luzern.
Mitchell, 33, is originally from Cavendish in the western district and first moved to Ballarat as secondary school student to further her athletic career.
She will be competing in her second Olympics in Rio, having finished ninth on debut in London in 2012. In 2014 she threw 66.10m to be third on the Australian all-time women’s javelin list.
