Crystal Attenborough

Crystal Attenborough — The Northern Territory’s leading athlete, Crystal re-emerged for the 2005-06 Australian domestic season and has since established herself as one of the nation’s leading female sprinters.

Australian Championships

• 100m: 2005 (U23) – 1st, 2006 – 2nd, 2007 – 3rd (2nd Australian), 2008 – 7th (5th Australian), 2009 – 6th
• 200m: 2005 – 4th, (1st U23), 2006 – 2nd, 2007 – 4th (2nd Australian), 2008 – 9th (5th Australian)

International Championships

• World youth championships: 1999 – 100m 8th (11.94), 200m 4th semi (24.37)
• Commonwealth Games: 2006 – 200m 5th semi (23.88), 4 x 100m 3rd (44.25)
• World championships: 2007 – 4 x 100m 8th qual round (43.91)

Annual Progression

100 metres:

• 1998 11.90
• 1999 11.90
• 2000 11.98
• 2001 12.11
• 2002-04 DNC
• 2005 11.68
• 2006 11.62/11.49w
• 2007 11.43
• 2008 11.74/11.69w

200 metres:

• 1998 24.44w
• 1999 24.25
• 2000 24.33
• 2001 24.85
• 2002-04 DNC
• 2005 24.19
• 2006 23.47
• 2007 23.53/23.45w
• 2008 23.96

Events / Personal Bests

• 100 metres: 11.43 (+1.7) – Canberra, 27/01/07
• 200 metres: 23.47 (-0.5) – Sydney, 5/02/06

Sporting Career

• Crystal was an outstanding junior and impressed in making the 100m final at the 1999 world youth championships in Poland, just failing to repeat the effort in the 200 metres.
• She re-emerged in 2005/2006 after a couple of quiet seasons to take silver in both sprints at the nationals and gain selection in the Commonwealth Games team. In Melbourne she was a semi-finalist in the 200 metres and then anchored the sprint relay team to bronze.
• Again delivered two national silvers and, after trying handicap racing at Stawell over Easter for the first time, joined Sally McLellan, Fiona Cullen and Melissa Kay to qualify for the world championships 4 x 100m relay in Osaka in May.
• Attenborough ran the third leg at the worlds in a team that included McLellan, Melanie Kleeberg and Cullen and didn’t progress from the qualifying rounds.
• In 2008 Crystal had mixed results, following a fifth placing in the 100m at the Sydney Track Classic (11.69) she was runner up in the Melbourne World Athletics Tour event (11.74) before finishing seventh at the national championships (11.99).