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Athletics Australia’s national series moves to Sydney this weekend with the Resi Sydney Track Classic at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre on Saturday night, as the build up continues to the opening leg of the Telstra A-Series in Canberra later this month.
The meet features many of the stars of Australian sprinting in the men’s 100m along with entertaining middle distance battles and a string of quality field event performers.
Following his fast times of 10.09 wind-assisted and 10.21 (a world championship qualifying performance) in the Perth National Series Meet, dependant on his recovery and the conditions, Joshua Ross will decide on Saturday whether or not he will face the Sydney trio of Matt Shirvington, the versatile Daniel Batman and the consistent Ambrose Ezenwa in the hallmark 100 metres event. After his wind assisted 10.15 in Perth, Sydney-based Nigerian Anthony Alozie also poses a danger.
Australia’s new sprint queen, Sally McLellan, will enter the Resi Sydney Track Classic buoyed with confidence from two quick runs last weekend in Perth – 11.46 and 11.36, with the later equaling her personal best but for an illegal tailwind. Queenslander Melanie Kleeberg will put the most pressure on McLellan.
The women’s 800m will see the continuation of Tamsyn Lewis’ return to the two lap event, but she may not have the race to herself. Commonwealth Games 1500m finalist Lisa Corrigan and rapidly improving Victorian Madeleine Pape look the most likely to challenge Lewis’ almost decade long stranglehold on the event.
The men’s 400m will see a match race between Athens Olympic and Melbourne Commonwealth Games 4x400m medallist Mark Ormrod and his AIS training partner Casey Vincent.
The 800m will see the rivalry continue between dual national champion and Commonwealth Games finalist Nick Bromley and nationals runner-up Werner Botha. The pair have crossed paths twice so far this season, with Botha triumphing in a tactical leg of the Medley Relay at the NSW Relay Championships, but Bromley showing a clean pair of heels at the Zatopek. Bromley appears in good form after spending the European summer training in London with Craig Mottram and with a fast pace guaranteed to be set by former NSW Champion Todd MacDonald (600m in 1:19), Bromley will attempt to reach at least the ‘B’ standard of 1:46.60 for this year’s World Championships in Osaka.
The men’s 1500m will be a much anticipated battle between three of Australia’s top milers. Dual national champion, Lachlan Chisholm, will be seeking to avenge his failure to make the Commonwealth Games team when he comes up against Commonwealth Games finalist Jeremy Roff, who set his personal best in winning last year’s event.
Throw into the mix the find of the season so far - Brad Woods - who will enter the race on a high following his victory at the Zatopek. Woods, originally from Dubbo but based in Sydney for the last two seasons (he shares a house with Roff and his family), has improved his personal best by an amazing 14 seconds over the last calendar year and now has his sights set on qualifying for the World Championships.
Despite the withdrawal of 2000 Olympic Champion Reuben Kosgei, who has been forced to miss his much anticipated debut at 5000m due to the onset of patella tendonitis, some Kenyan magic will still be on show in the men’s 5000m - which doubles as the NSW Championship. Caleb Ngetich, who has only been running seriously since 2005 and already boasts personal bests of 8:15 in the 3000m Steeplechase and 13:12 (at altitude) in the 5000m, will be using the event as an indicator of his fitness after the first two weeks of his three month long training Sydney training camp.
Trying to keep up with the lanky Kenyan will be some of the best of Australia’s distance runners, with Olympic steeplechaser Peter Nowill, Victorian youngster David McNeil and versatile Mark Tucker likely to be in close pursuit. Former AIS athlete Michael Shelley will also be one to watch, having returned to some good form after lengthy injury setbacks.
In the field events, Robbie Crowther, the world junior long jump champion, is part of the new generation of Australian athletes knocking on the door for selection in major teams and will be targeting the 8.00m mark.
Olympian Petrina Price will have her first competition of the season in the high jump and will face close competition from Western Australia’s Ellen Pettitt, who jumped 1.86m last weekend in Perth. Also in the mix will be Commonwealth Games representative Claire Mallett, who is returning to competition after time off due to a foot injury.
Commonwealth Games representative Kathryn Mitchell and Western Australia’s Kimberley Mickle will hope that competing in each others presence will ensure that they both improve their personal bests to above at least the ‘B’ standard for the World Championships in the javelin, with both athletes’ bests within half a metre of the 59m standard.
Preview by Tim McGrath
source Athletics Australia |
