No less than three reigning Olympic and seven Commonwealth champions will join five world and two world indoor gold medallists at the Sydney Track Classic at Homebush this Saturday as the Qantas Australian Athletics Tour continues to thrill crowds across the country.
 
Leading the charge on the track are Asbel Kiprop (KEN, 1500m), David Rudisha (KEN, 400m), John Steffensen (WA, 400m), Sally Pearson (Qld, 200m, 100mH) and Tamsyn Manou (Vic, 800m).
 
Australian Flame Collis Birmingham (Vic) and Craig Mottram (Vic) will be joined on the 1500m start line by Kiprop, who is the current Olympic 1500m champion. At the IAAF world championships in Daegu (KOR) last year he clocked 3:35.69 to add the world title to his extensive list of career highlights.
 
His compatriot Rudisha will make a rare appearance in the men’s 400m against Australian stars including national champion Steven Solomon (NSW) and Commonwealth Games 4x400m relay gold medallists Sean Wroe (Vic), Ben Offereins (WA) and Kevin Moore (NSW).
 
Once again opening his campaign for major championship glory Down Under, Rudisha has set the track ablaze in the two-lap event in recent years. The 23-year-old lays claim to the world 800m record (1:41.01), the world 800m title and two African 800m titles from 2008 and 2010.
 
The 2006 Commonwealth champion Steffensen rounds out the athletes in the hunt for men’s 400m glory and fresh off line honours at the Go for 2&5 Perth Track Classic last weekend he will be one to watch.
 
Pearson, the IAAF World Athlete of the Year and world 100m hurdles champion, will fly in the sprint and sprint hurdle events.
 
In the women’s 200m, she will face off with her Australian Flame relay team mates in Charlotte Van Veenendaal (Vic), Hayley Butler (NSW) and Melissa Breen (ACT), while in the 100m hurdles American NCAA champion Nia Ali and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Andrea Miller (NZL) will push her to the line.
 
A 17-time national champion, Manou joins Adelaide Track Classic 800m winner Kelly Hetherington (Vic) in the women’s two-lap event.
 
Meanwhile in the field, Valerie Adams (NZL, shot put), Stephanie Brown-Trafton (USA, discus), Dani Samuels (NSW, discus), Benn Harradine (Vic, discus), Fabrice Lapierre (NSW, long jump) and Alana Boyd (WA, pole vault) will shine.
 
The Olympic champion, three-time world championships gold medallist, world indoor title holder, two-time Commonwealth champion and the Oceania record holder in the women’s shot put, Adams is arguably the most lauded athlete on the card in Sydney.
 
She’s the red-hot favourite for gold in London and already this year she has thrown 20.35m and 20.19m for victory at meets at home in New Zealand.
 
Brown-Trafton is the reigning Olympic champion, and together with 2009 world champion Samuels, she will duel with fellow Americans Sara Ackmann and Aretha Thurmond in the women’s discus, while Commonwealth champion and Oceania record holder Harradine will take to the circle alongside Russ Winger (USA), who to date lays claim to three victories over the Australian as well as a world lead heave across the National Athletics Series.
 
On the runway, Boyd is set to push for the 4.72m Oceania record of Kym Howe (WA) after a 4.66m clearance for the highest ever recorded leap by an Australian outdoors in Perth. Lapierre, like Boyd, is the Commonwealth champion and the 27-year-old will be chasing an 8.20m Olympic qualifying jump.

Athletics Australia