ATHLETICS: The Commonwealth Games finalist Jeff Riseley (Vic) has headlined a contingent of eight Australians who qualified for Beijing 2015 at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge.
Crossing a narrow second behind David Rudisha (KEN, 1:44.94) in the men’s 800m, Riseley’s time of 1:45.29 is the fastest by an Australian this year and his first qualifying performance for the IAAF World Championships. It sets him up for an impressive showdown with Alex Rowe (Vic, third, 1:47.11) at the Australian Athletics Championships next weekend, with the winner to earn automatic selection to the Australian Flame bound for Beijing (CHN).
“That was good. I knew what he (David) was going to do so I had to just sit in there and give it a crack. I was a bit surprised by how close we were with 100 metres to go, but I thought tonight was a chance to get him after what I saw in Sydney,” Riseley said.
“I was pretty hard on myself after last week. It’s probably the worst possible way to lose, to have someone come over you after leading for most of the last 600 metres, but I just had to put my head down in the 800 and then trust that I would go well.”
Joining Riseley on the IAAF World Championships qualifiers list is Lauren Wells (ACT, 400m hurdles), Alana Boyd (Qld, pole vault), Madeline Heiner (NSW, 3000m steeplechase), Victoria Mitchell (Vic, 3000m steeplechase), Kim Mickle (WA, javelin), Kelsey-Lee Roberts (ACT, javelin) and Sally Pearson (Qld, 100m hurdles).
Wells has hovered around the mark of 56.20 for many weeks, with two performances this past month seeing the Olympic semi-finalist within 0.1 seconds of the required standard for the women’s 400m hurdles. Stopping the clock in an unofficial time of 56.27 today, the performance was adjusted down by judges to 56.19, with the performance also enough to ensure her victory from Cassandra Tate (USA, second, 56.97) and Sara Klein (NSW, third, 58.90).
“I’ve never seen that before. I didn’t really know what was going on. I thought the clock said 56.27 and I thought I’d missed by that much again but the commentators said the new time and I was absolutely like, I’ll take that,” Wells said.
“Sydney last week was the best I have felt so far and out there I was strong. My race plan was different to last week but I feel like I have more to come and that’s the most exciting thing for me.”
Competing in the women’s pole vault, Boyd reigned supreme with her clearance of 4.50m. She entered the competition at 4.32m and battled cross winds to make light work of her opening height, 4.40m and the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships with her third attempt.
Heiner moved to the lead in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with just over three laps to go and never looked back. Crossing the line in 9:31.03, the performance bettered the personal best time she ran in the final at the Commonwealth Games last year and was more than ten seconds quicker than the required standard for the IAAF World Championships.
Magdalene Masai (KEN) crossed second in 9:38.07, with Mitchell rounding out the top three in 9:39.78. Her performance was also an IAAF World Championships qualifier.
“This is still the main event for me so this is a great result. It’s pretty obvious that I’m keen to run some strong fives (5000m) but I’ve got a lot more work to do in that event to be competitive and that’s all on the agenda from here,” Heiner said.
“My plan was to not let any gaps open up so when the Kenyan went I went with her and was able to come to the front from there. It was pretty hard out there to be honest. I haven’t run the steeple since Glasgow and only just started looking at the hurdles pretty recently. I’m pretty happy to come away with the qualifier and the PB is a bonus.”
Returning to the runway where she broke the Australian record in 2014, Mickle placed second behind the Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sunette Viljoen (RSA, 66.62m) in the women’s javelin with her best mark of 66.57m. All four of her legal throws landed beyond the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships.
The third placed Roberts threw 64.59m with her fifth attempt to stake a claim for Beijing 2015. Highlighting her continued improvement after she won bronze at last year’s Commonwealth Games, the throw improved on her personal best by more than a metre.
Pearson rounded out the qualifiers with her 12.95 (w: +0.3) in the women’s 100m hurdles. Second to cross was Michelle Jenneke (NSW, 13.22), with Rochelle Coster (NZL, 13.78) third.
In other highlights at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge, Tom Walsh (NZL), who won silver at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships, improved the meet record in the men’s shot put to 21.37m. Commonwealth Games representative Damien Birkinhead (Vic) placed second with a throw of 20.23m.
Athletics Australia also notes the stunning performance of para-athlete Deon Kenzie (Tas) at the Tasmanian Athletics Championships. Competing in the able-bodied men’s 1500m, the 18-year-old improved the world record for his T37 cerebral palsy class to 4:06.60.
Attention now shifts to the 93rd Australian Athletics Championships to be held in Brisbane (Qld) from 26-29 March. The bookend of the Australian Athletics Tour for 2015, the event will welcome more than 700 athletes for four days of competition with selection to the IAAF World Championships in Beijing (CHN) the ultimate prize.
ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA
