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At 12.30pm this Friday nine sprinters in the first of 19 heats in the men’s 100m will welcome the return of athletics to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the first time since the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
A lot has changed in 50 years - in 1956 the track was only six lanes and was made of red brick dust that was mixed with oil and compacted. The sprinters, such as 1956 Olympic champion, American Bobby Morrow and Australia’s Hec Hogan, had to unclog the dirt from the bottom of their hand-made leather shoes at the end of each race.
Today’s eight-lane ‘mondo’ rubber surface is state of the art, laid by a team of Italian track-experts who travel the world constructing the fastest possible athletics surface. Most sprinters on Friday will wear skin-hugging lycra bodysuits and have 22nd century footwear.
Commencing on Friday, 1340 athletes, made up of grassroots athletics participants from each Australian State and Territory, combined with the majority of the 123-member Australian team that will compete at the MCG in a month’s time, along with 81 international visitors from 14 countries, will be in action. The lure of the MCG has seen a 500% increase in entries for the championships and will be the largest Victorian Championships ever staged.
175 athletes will line up in the men’s 100m, 161 in the men’s 800m, and 120 in divisions of the men’s 5000m.
The Australian athletics team for the Commonwealth Games arrives in Melbourne on Thursday for a four-day Home Ground Advantage camp, and will assemble at Olympic Park on Thursday afternoon to begin their final countdown to the Games.
They will follow in the footsteps of Betty Cuthbert, Shirley Strickland and John Landy who all competed with such distinction in Melbourne 50 years ago.
Of course, the Melbourne Cricket Ground has seen brief glimpses of athletics competition since the Games, however these events have mainly been exhibition races conducted during the cricket.
The Victorian Championships have inspired former champions to leap from the comfort of the couch including Commonwealth champions Steve Moneghetti (5000m), Tim Forsyth (high jump), Nova Batman (nee Peris – 100m) and Sean Carlin (hammer) who are all entered to compete.
Three offspring of VFL stars who are famous for their exploits on the MCG are also entered. Sam Croswell (son of Brent), Breanna Bartlett (daughter of Kevin) and Scott Krakour (son of Phil) will all follow in their father’s footsteps on the hallowed ground.
There are even two athletes with the same name – one famous in Australian athletics for his exploits over the past three years. Joshua Ross – the three-time Australian champion will race in the Athletics Australia Invitational on Saturday night, and his namesake – Joshua Ross, 17, who competes for Box Hill, will line up in the 100m heats of the Victorian Championships on Friday afternoon.
The international stars, who are arriving for the Commonwealth Games, include Olympic gold medallists Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis from England, who will take on Joshua Ross and Patrick Johnson in the men’s 100m
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