Ballarat’s Rod Griffin has been appointed one of three athletics coaches for the national team competing in the Commonwealth Youth Games, which will be held in the Bahamas in July.
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Griffin, who is an Athletics Australia national junior coach in distance, said his involvement in the team was a natural progression, with a number of his own athletes selected in the squad.
While Griffin has been involved in World Juniors, it will be his first Commonwealth Youth Games.
“It’s a terrific thrill and it is going to be so different because it is the first one where I’ve been involved in a team that cuts across a number of sports (not just athletics),” Griffin said.
“There will be a chance to talk to coaches from other sports and learn about what they do… you can always learn, so for me it will be a great education in that respect.”
Griffin said the Australian team has “fairly high expectations”.
“The Australian team usually goes pretty well in distance and hopefully might come back with a few medals,” he said.
“They are all pretty excited after going through a qualification process to make it this far – the standard they had to reach was the top eight in the world for their age.
“It is probably the start of a fairly exciting journey for them and hopefully some of these athletes may be looking at the next Olympics, and if not, certainly the following one.”
