Sydney Uni Athletic Club member, Brendon Reading has smashed his 50km racewalking personal best by 24 minutes to win Silver at the Australian 50km Racewalking Championships. The Championships doubled as the selection trial for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, for which Reading qualified along with five other Athletics Australia athletes.
After trailing in third place behind Ian Rayson and Chris Erickson for the entire race, Reading finally caught and passed Ian with one lap to go. Brendon came storming home with a PB of 3:55:03. Brendon’s performance elevates him into 12th position in the Australian all time rankings list and holds the 3rd best performance for an Australian in 2015.
To make the moment even sweeter, Reading has qualified for the Olympics alongside his coach Chris Erickson who will have the unique and tricky situation of both coaching and competing in Rio in the coming months.
Brendon has been racewalking for over 20 years now, having started at Little Athletics. He has quietly been building up to this great performance, after representing Australia as a junior at the World Race Walking Cup and more recently at the World University Games. A ticket to Rio is now being justly rewarded for his hard work and efforts. On making the Australian Olympic team Reading commented “I’m really excited to be selected, it’s been a long time coming”.
