PREVIEW: Australian Junior Championships
Published Tue 14 Apr 2026
14 April 2026
PREVIEW: Australian Junior Championships
Tomorrow the six-day Australian Junior Championships kick off in Brisbane. The NSW Athletes team of over 900 will compete across the ages from under-14 to under-20. As the largest State NSW has enormous talent across the entire team.
There are dozens and dozens of athletes out to defend their national titles from Perth last year, but one of the main focuses this year is the under-20 age group where athletes will chase selection in the Australian team for the World Under-20 Championships to be held on Eugene. A maximum of two athletes can be selected in each event, and the winner is automatically selected while the second team spot is discretionary.
NSW has athletes across the events seeking selection, headed by Izzi Louison-Roe, Mason McGroder, Chelsy Wayne, Fleur Cooper and Daniel Williams who are looking for their second consecutive team. Also, Isaac Beacroft is another looking for his second team, but has already won the selection trial in January and is currently returning from Brazil.
In addition to the above, NSW has another 33 going into the championships with a qualifying performance and we expect more to qualify during the championships. They face varying circumstances to put themselves in the frame for selection. In the women’s 800m, there are 14 athletes with a qualifier and any one of those 14 can guarantee selection by winning the trial. There are a lot of events were there are three or four qualifiers, guaranteeing competition for the two team positions.
We note that World U20 Championships is not the only pathway to senior success. Some of Australia’s current elite who never went to a World U20 Championships (or World Youth or Olympic Youth) are: Reece Holder, Peter Bol, Seth O’Donnell, Liam Adcock, Connor Murphy, Bree Masters, Linden Hall, Cara Feain-Ryan, Lianna Davidson, Andy Buchanan, Rohan Browning, Ollie Hoare, Izzy Batt-Doyle and Rose Davies.
We wish the athletes all the best at the championships, recognising this is just early days in their athletics journey.
David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Action from the 2025 Australian Juniors (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)
