THE AUSTRALIAN
Javelin world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber still on cloud nine
By JACQUELIN MAGNAY, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT in DOHA 1:00AM OCTOBER 5, 2019 • H 2 COMMENTS
Kelsey-Lee Barber bounces into a room at Doha’s Curve hotel, her ponytail swishing and she shows no signs of wilting in the 37C heat.
It’s been a few days since her remarkable last-throw victory to claim the IAAF world championship javelin title just a few kilometres of gridlocked traf the Khalifa International Stadium, but the realisation she is now top of the globe is still sinking in. She has had hundreds of congratulatory messages a had a moment to respond to them all.
“I just want to return home and give everyone a big hug,’’ Barber says enthusiastically, anticipating lying on a beach for a few weeks of rest before begi to lead into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Top of the list for an embrace is her 26-year-old training partner at the Australian Institute of Sport, Jayden Sawyer, a world para champion in the P38
Barber saw Sawyer, who has cerebral palsy, triumph at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London and she now feels she has joined his e
“I was so excited for him when he won and now I can talk about it with him on the same level, and hopefully inspire him for a repeat effort next mon World Para Championships),’’ she says.
Barber’s links with the para movement began when she was still in high school in Canberra, known by her maiden name of Roberts and looking for a competed in the Pacific Schools Championships in Canberra, and in the excitement of competing at home threw a huge personal best beyond 45m. Su athletics disciplines she used to do stemming from her primary school days at Corryong on the Victorian border — and discus was at the time a favou called.
A British coach, Alison O’Riordan, was at the time at the AIS with a group of Paralympians and agreed to help out.
All the while Barber, also one of the ACT’s top netball goal defenders, loved combining a team sport with the individual demands and responsibilities events.
The netball training had introduced a weights regime, aiding her strength, but a long-time lure was to compete in the Olympic Games.
Barber wasn’t to know it but 2014 would prove a turning point, not only in her sporting career, but her romantic life.
O’Riordan had decided to return to Britain and an AIS biomechanist with a decathlete background called Mike Barber was filming and analysing her j prepare for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
By the next year the AIS high performance director suggested that Mike Barber, also coaching some younger athletes, might be a good long-term coac agreed.
Their tight professional relationship then merged into a romantic one — the two married last year and what could have been a delicate time has been very successfully handled.
Said Kelsey-Lee, now 28: “We separate our professional lives from our romantic lives, we have always been very good at communicating and it’s why o relationship has always worked so well for us. It also moves across to our marriage as well. “We are very conscientious and also very direct. When it is training time, I am very respectful of Mike as a coach.”
She added: “We try to be direct in having planning meetings, setting up time where we talk javelin and discuss javelin; otherwise it is ‘cool, let’s go for chat about the movie we saw last night or chat about some sports story around the world’.’’
Stream over 50 sports Live & On-Demand with KAYO SPORTS on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Just $25/month, no lock-in contract. Get you and start streaming instantly >
Kelsey-Lee said having Mike in Doha helped keep her emotions in check — even though she had a lacklustre qualifying round and was pacing the wa mix of concern and fury while the second javelin group completed their throws. She ended up 10th of the 12 competitors to go through to the final.
“The best thing is he knows my body language better than anyone so if I am not quite opening up about something he can ask the question and prom she said.
During the final of the javelin competition Kelsey-Lee was fourth going into the final round, having thrown a satisfying fifth-round effort and feeling h in the right position for the release after some advice from Mike.
She felt on a roll, had confidence that she had thrown 67m a few months ago, and she wasn’t satisfied being out of the medal positions.
“I knew I had a better throw in me and it was a matter of being able to put that together,’’ Kelsey-Lee recalls with a broad smile.
“I was asking a bit of a lift from the crowd … it was a matter of taking off and then throw the javelin, being clear-minded. I don’t want technical details head) I want it to be about feel and process.’’
Javelin throwers always talk about how the best throws feel the easiest and the smoothest.
Kelsey-Lee said of that final effort: “It left my hand and I thought ‘ooh that felt nice’ ... and then the best part was to watch it fly and it was still going. I the 65m line and thought ‘oh this is good, I don’t know how good, but I am really happy with this throw’.’’
Kelsey-Lee had thrown 66.56m. Mike was in the crowd pumping his arms in excitement and Kelsey-Lee fell to the track on one knee in shock. It was win.
JACQUELIN MAGNAY, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT Jacquelin Magnay is the European Correspondent for The Australian, based in London and covering all manner of big stories across political, business, Royals and security issue is a George Munster and Walk... Read more