Inside Athletics #8 April 2009 by Inside Athletics

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ISSUE 08 apr 09 www.insideathletics.com.au

AUSSIEALLCHAMPS THE HIGHLIGHTS

ICARUS, PHOENIX OR BUMBLEBEE JANA’S FUTURE FLIGHT PATH

! s a g n a r e h t f o e ris sergey bubka A DOMINANT FORCE IN ATHLETICS PLUS: MELBOURNE GRAND PRIX SYDNEY TRACK CLASSIC CHAT WITH BLAKE LUCAS VISIT WWW.INSIDEATHLETICS.COM.AU FOR THE LATEST NEWS

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athletics inside

ISSUE 08 apr 09

inside this issue

4 editorial 5 MAKING TRACKS 6 AROUND THE TRACKS

7 GEAR TO GO 8 RISE OF THE RANGAS 10 sYDNEY TRACK CLASSIC 12 MELBOURNE GRAND PRIX 14 2009 NATIONAL CHAMPS

18 THE BOSS IS BACK

20 ZATOPEK 22 THE LEGENDARY: SERGEY BUBKA

25 A BRIEF CHAT WITH BLAKE LUCAS 26 PACIFIC SCHOOL GAMES 28 JANA’S FUTURE FLIGHT PATH 32 CALENDAR 33 THE LAST LAP

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thletics athletics

MAK ING TRA MAKING TRACKS CKS ALEX ROWE With a strong and powerful build Victoria’s Alex Rowe is a talented middle distance runner. The 16-year-old convincingly recently took out the 800m at the Pacific School Games in a modest time by his standards of 1:52.37. With the experience of finishing second in last season’s Australian under 20 championships and with a swift personal best of 1:50.63, Rowe is hoping to continue Australia’s strong tradition in junior 800m running by being selected for the world youth championship in Bressanone, Italy.

Welcome! The end of the season a the start of an er 2009 is the start of a new Olympiad which will culminate with the Olympic Games in London in 2012. Like the start of any new cycle, 2009 is a year of change for sports which have their pinnacle at the Olympics. It is no different for athletics. Like the sport, Inside Athletics is also changing. Where we had previously existed as a flat PDF file distributed by the Athletics NSW website, as you can see by reading this, we are now hosted on our own website and on a more dynamic, page turnable platform. This enchanced viewing experience is just the start of what we have planned to improve our coverage of the world’s greatest sport. With a consolidation of the national level meets the domestic season seemed shorter and sharper than it has before. What it might have lacked in quantity did not diminish its quantity. In fact, had it not been for miserable weather in Melbourne prior to the World Athletics Tour meet, we’d probably be heralding its success from the rooftops. Our Olympic medalists produced exceptional performances at home and abroad since our last edition, but it is Tristan Thomas who graces the front cover of this issue. Every season throws up an athlete who has worked tirelessly during the winter and rises to a new level during the summer. We hope that there will be plenty more like him each year leading into London. One of the biggest changes within the sport at a national level was the appointment of Eric Hollingsworth as national high performance manager. The job is one of the toughest in Australian sport and has been described by a number of people within the athletics community as a poisoned chalice. From what we’ve seen so far we hope that Hollingsworth is immune, because he has not only set forward a vision for the next four years but has the resolve to follow through with it. The blooding of a number of athletes, some who ‘only’ achieved B-qualifiers, for the world championships is exactly the right thing to be doing at this stage of the Olympic cycle. Along with Hollingsworth, the selectors who actually picked the team, including the newly appointed Steve Moneghetti and Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, should be congratulated. However, and rightfully, Hollingsworth has made it clear that if athletes don’t make the most of these opportunities that they won’t be getting another. We’re looking forward to the action that will unfold in the leadup to Berlin as well as covering all of the local winter action that will take place back at home. See you around the tracks!

Inside Athletics is an independently owned and operated online magazine which is editorial in nature. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed in the magazine are those of Inside Athletics and do not represent the official views of Athletics NSW.

Tim McGrath

www.insideathletics.com.au editorial enquiries: tim@insideathletics.com.au advertising enquiries: david@insideathletics.com.au

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thletics athletics

AROUND THE TRACKS BRONWYN THOMPSON RETIRES After three Olympic Games, two world championships and two Commonwealth Games, Australian long jump record holder Bronwyn Thompson has retired from competition. Thompson will be best remembered for her victory at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and becoming the first Australian to leap 7 metres in the long jump, which she achieved in 2002. In recent times Thompson has made her presence felt more in the boardroom than on the athletics track, being a director of Athletics Australia by way of her position of chairperson of the Athletes Commission. IAAF announce Diamond League The Golden League will be a thing of the past after this European summer, being replaced by a more expansive Diamond League that will include some non-European meets. The key features of the new competition will be the pairing of meets to enable the even distribution of all events throughtout the season and the IAAF centrally contracting the star athletes of the sport (such as Usain Bolt) rather than each meet spending enormous portions of their budget to just on one or two athletes.

SUPER SUPPORTERS! Meet sisters Stephanie, Danielle and Kirsten Kalemusic and their friend Maddi. They are four of the biggest and best athletics fans around. They attend every major meet in Sydney and always come ready to cheer for their favourite athletes!

FORREST SLASHES PERSONAL BEST Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arkansas based distance runner Shawn Forrest recently improved his 5000m personal best by a whopping 18 seconds to run 13:28.81 at a collegiate meet in the United States. The B-qualifying performance catapults him into contention for this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world championships. Forrest, who as a prodigious junior once lapped the entire field during the Australian junior 5000m championship, initially struggled when he moved to the University of Arkansas in 2005. However, over the previous year he flourished to finish second in the NCAA 10000m last season and also clock a 28:24.44 personal best. Image courtesy Randy Miyazaki

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Salute: The true story of an unsung Australian hero

the landy era: from nowhere to the top of the world World class athletics was something that happened overseas, not in Australia. And then, on 13 December 1952, John Landy ran a mile at Melbourne’s Olympic park in four minutes 2.1 seconds. In those few minutes he reignited the race for the sub four minute mile and inspired a generation of Australian athletes to challenge the world at distances from 880 yards to the marathon. Others, notably the charismatic coach Percy Cerutty, and Landy’s Helsinki Olympics teammates Don Macmillan and Les Perry, played significant roles in this flowering talent. Following Landy, Herb Elliott rose to the top, winning the 1500 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, smashing the world record. From 1954 to 1968, Landy, Dave Stephens, Elliott, Albie Thomas, Ron Clarke and Ralph Doubell broke world records. Elliott and Doubell became Olympic champions; Landy, Al Lawrence, Dave Power and Clarke took Olympic medals. Derek Clayton set world records in the marathon. Pat Clohessy, on whom Landy was a formative influence, coached Robert de Castella to a world championships gold medal in the marathon. John Landy was not only the influence, but it was undeniably his era; he was its first, and greatest, start and he directly inspired and advised many of the subsequent athletes and coaches. He led Australia from nowhere to the top of the world. The Author: Len Johnson was the Age’s athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, ten world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is also a former national class distance runner (2:19:32 marathon) and trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.

FUTURE STAR! Rosie Lawson Queensland’s Rosie Lawson made a breakthrough performance by taking out one of the most competitive events at the Pacific School Games, the 16 years girls 100m hurdles. With Australian under 16 90m hurdles record holder Carly Rodger in the field, Lawson got a fast start and held her technique through to the line take a victory by more than a tenth of a second and clock her first legal sub-14 second performance and world youth qualifier with a run of 13.58 seconds.

“I’m a firm believer that in a victory ceremoney for the Olympics there’s three guys who stand up there. Each one’s given about a square metre of God’s earth to stand on ans what any one of the three chooses to do with his little square metre of earth at that stage is entirely up to him.” - Peter Norman. This documentary, about Australian 200m record holder and 1968 Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman, his epic race against Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their subsequent protest on the victory dias, is a must see for anyone interested in the history of our sport and the impact that it can have on humanity. The film, which traces the history of the three protagonists in one of the most famous images of the twentieth century, is as awe inspiring as it is thorough in its coverage of the events leading up to and surrounding the famous black power salute given by Smith and Carlos in Mexico City. Even for those who have read far and wide on the sport, this documentary will open your eyes to the momentus nature of what took place in Mexico City.

thletics athletics

rise of the rangas!

4Steve Hooker is the most recent global sporting star with red hair, continuing a long tradition of successful rangas in other sports such as Boris Becker (tennis), Jack Nicklaus (golf) and Shaun Pollock (cricket).

Tallent and Milburn had quieter seasons compared to their Beijing success; although Tallent broke the Australian 5000m walk record, Milburn didn’t manage to replicate the same level of performance that saw him run 44.80 seconds in the 400m last year, but still managed selection A ranga, of course, being the for the world championships. sometimes derogatory but more often The real revelation of the season than not Australian colloquial term was the ranga with the brightest of endearment for a red head. The hair of all, Tristan Thomas. The term’s derivation - a contraction of former Tasmanian, who the word orangutang – is has been based at the somewhat apt considering Australian Institute of Sport the level of performances It’s the rise of the rangas this year. It’s in Canberra for the last few achieved recently, which going to be a very good year for red heads. years, has always had the is not too disimilar from promise to do something on the superhuman strength the world stage. wind conditions and unsuccessfully that the red furred apes possess. While still at school in 2003, attempted 6.10m, but dominated For example, take Steve Hooker. Thomas took an unprecedented Evgeniy Lukyanenko, the Olympic Olympic champion. Olympic record quadrella at the Australian All holder. It would have been easy silver medalist and man ranked Schools championships, winning for him to bask in the limelight of number one in the world last year by the 200m, 400m, 800m and the his success in Beijing during the the esteemed Track & Field News. domestic season and just worry He followed this up with a impressive 400m hurdles, the event that he has consistently shown most promise about the world championships in 5.80m at the World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne, before having to in. He was selected in that event for Berlin in August. Instead, he took take time off to rest a knee injury that the 2006 Commonwealth Games, his vaulting into almost unchartered he had been carrying the whole time. but didn’t progress out of the heats territory only visited before by the First Steve Hooker, then Jared Tallent and Joel Milburn, now Tristan Thomas. Australian athletics is being dominated by rangas!

“

legendary Sergey Bubka. Not once, but twice did Hooker improve his personal best in indoor competition in the United States and Europe. Clearing 6.06m and moving to number two all-time is impressive in itself, but having the ability to back his tenacity to attempt to better Bubka’s world record of 6.15m is another. When he returned to Australia he cleared a 5.95m at the Sydney Track Classic in difficult

”

thletics 09 athletics or improve over the following two seasons, despite capturing his maiden Australian title last season. This year Thomas was a new athlete. He set personal bests over 100m (10.87), 200m (21.32), 400m (45.86), 800m (1:47.83) and 400m hurdles (48.86). The 400m hurdles time came at the Sydney Track Classic, where he defeated Olympic bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson, moving to number two on the Australian all time list. Thomas puts his improvement down to a change in his mental approach and an uninterrupted preparation for the season. “I’m starting to really like the event. I used to hate it because when I made errors I couldn’t handle it. These days I make the same errors but I’m confident enough to keep going,” he said after his breakthrough run at the Sydney Track Classic. “I’ve been injured for a long time before this season. Some people may say that I’ve come from nowwhere, but I’ve been plugging away at it and this year I’ve finally had a clean run. I can thank the AIS physiotherapy for that.” As for whether his red hair has anything to do with his success, the 22-year-old had this to say: “Well, if you go by the percentage of red heads in the population and the percentage of red heads who are elite athletes, I think us rangas do pretty well. “It’s the rise of the rangas this year. It’s going to be a very good year for red heads.”

4 Tristan Thomas had a breakthrough run at the Sydney Track Classic, running under 49 seconds for the first time.

4Olympic racewalkers Adam Rutter and Jared Tallent, seen in action here during the 5000m walk at the Sydney Track Classic, both have red hair.

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SYDNEY TRACK CLASSIC It’s been a long time since Sydney has put on a meet as exciting as the 2009 Sydney Track Classic. Not since the Sydney Olympics has the harbour city seen such a line up of local and international stars supported by a strong, vocal crowd One of the features of any good Australian domestic meet is that it thrusts forward young, developing talent into the spotlight with a world class performance. The Sydney Track Classic certainly had that, in the shape of Tristan Thomas. The 22-year-old had already demonstrated that he was one to watch during the domestic season, with a convincing victory over 800m

at the Zatopek Classic in December and a world championships A-qualifier at the Briggs Classic in late January. However, it was in Sydney where he lifted to another level and defeated a world class opponent in Bershawn Jackson. In the process Thomas moved to number two on the Australian all-time list with his performance of 48.86 seconds.

younger 4 Autograph hunting was high on the priorities for the g! spectators at the meet, and the stars were obligin

One of the ways to gauge the success of any meet is to look at what the crowd does as the program ends. Are they restless and keen to leave quickly? Or, like they did at the Sydney Track Classic, do they hang around hoping that there would be another event on the program to continue the entertainment? The reason why this occurred in Sydney was most likely to do with the penultimate event on the program, the men’s 1500m. It ended up being the most exciting domestic 1500m since the 2004 national championships, a race that saw a fast time and a consistently changing lead. What made the race so excited was how it unfolded and who featured in it: an overly ambitious pace saw the African contingent in the race, Yusuf Saad Kamel and Gideon Gathambia, clear out quickly from the Australian’s, led firstly by Jeremy Roff and then Brad Woods. However, as the bell tolled the two packs had converged and in a sensational final lap Saad Kamel, Collis Birmingham, Jeremy Roff and junior Ryan Gregson put themselves in contention to win.

4Powerfully-built David Oliver scorched the track with a meet record 13.29 second run in the 110m hurdles.

thletics 11 athletics In the end it was the experience of Saad Kamel that held out, crossing the line in a none too shabby 3:36.72 with Birmingham, Gregson and Roff finishing behind him, all in personal bests. The most excited of the trio was definitely Gregson, whose run of 3:37.24 smashed Mike Hillardt’s national junior record by two seconds. The race capped off what was a sensational meet, with David Oliver setting a meet record of 13.29 seconds in the 110m hurdles, Steve Hooker leaping to 5.95m in the pole vault in tricky wind conditions, Dani Samuels defeating Olympic champion Stephanie Trafton-Brown in the discus with a throw of 62.21m and Sean Wroe defeating an all-start 400m field that included a rare appearance from former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell in 45.28 seconds.

4A delighted Ryan Gregson crosses the line in the men’s

1500m taking four seconds off his personal best and two seconds off the Australian junior record.

4Aaron Rouge-Serrett exchanges the baton with Matt Davies on the final leg of the 4x100m ahead of

Jamaica. Asafa Powell ran Davies down but the team clocked a world championship qualifier of 38.96.

4Steve Hooker showed that he’s in

a class above everyone else in the world at the moment in the men’s pole vault with a clearance of 5.95m.

4Tristan Thomas

produced a gutsy run in the 400m hurdles to defeat Bershawn Jackson.

4 Sally McLellan had a busy schedule,

winning the 100m (11.39), 100m hurdles (12.84) and running the back straight leg of the 4x100m.

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MELBOURNE GRAND PRIX THE FLAGSHIP EVENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN ATHLETICS SEASON IS ALWAYS THE MELBOURNE GP. EVERY YEAR IT BRINGS TOGETHER THE BEST OF AUS AND MANY OF THE STARS FROM OVERSEAS Melbourne is known for its four seasons in one day approach to the weather. Unfortunately on March 5th, the date of the Melbourne leg of the World Athletics Tour, only one season presented itself: winter. The cool, windy conditions turned what should have been a brilliant meet following the action a few days prior in Sydney, into a fairly ordinary one. One result demonstrates how ordinary the conditions were: the men’s 100m. Asafa Powell was the headline act and had suggested that to run 9.9 was an easy thing for him. If you’d seen him apparently walk down Matt Davies in the final leg of the 4x100m in Sydney the Saturday prior, you’d probably believe him. Powell, looking majestic, could only muster 10.23 seconds in the 14 degree temperatures and 1.4 metre a second headwind which Melbourne’s doomed Olympic Park

4Sarah Jamieson was pushed all the way to the line by Kaila McNight to record a two tenths of a second victory in the women’s 1500m.

t the 4Collis Birmingham kep on the back

distance fraternity straight on their feet with a . classy run in the men’s 5000m

4 All attention was on Asafa Powell but the weather spoiled his

chances of becoming the first to break 10 seconds in Melbourne.

thletics 13 athletics

4 Sally McLellan extended her undefeated streak on Australian soil to two years with victory over Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster in in the 100m hurdles in 13.06 seconds

4World Champs here I come! greeted him with. The times were reflected elsewhere, with Tristan Thomas not managing to break 50 seconds in the 400m and Sean Wroe being the only runner in a deep 400m field to break 46 seconds. Even the superman of Australian athletics, Steve Hooker, could manage ‘only’ 5.80m in the pole vault. Yet, the men’s long jump delivered the rare and unexpected result of having two Australians over 8 metres in the same competition for the first time since the 2000 Olympics where Jai Taurima and Peter Burge jumped to 8.49m and 8.15m respectively. The distances were not quite as long in Melbourne, but Fabrice Lapierre’s 8.18m and 8.11m from new kid on the block Mitchell Watt secured them A-qualifiers in an event where they have been notoriously hard to come by in the past decade. Whilst the conditions conspired against the other explosive events, they were suitable for the slowertwitch muscle fibres of the middle distance and distance athletes. In fact, the performance of the night went to Collis Birmingham, who took out his first national 5000m title in an A-qualifier of 13:16.26, thus cementing his place in the Australian

4 Jeff Riseley celebrates winning the the men’s 1500m after making a long run for home. team for the world championships in Berlin. Birmingham showed his strength in the later part of the race, pulling away from Great Britian’s sub 3:50 miler Andy Baddeley over the final laps to score an impressive four and a half second victory. The women’s 1500m saw Sarah Jamieson have to fight tooth and nail to the finish line after a strong challenge from Kaila McNight, who clocked a personal best of 4:11.83 behind Jamieson’s 4:11.62.

4 Mitchell Watt was second in the long jump in a personal best of 8.11m.

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2009 AUSSIE CHAMPS Championships are to athletics what test matches are to cricket. They are longer, more protracted and often contain duller patches that the sport’s more abbreviated forms. Yet, for purists they are the end all and be all of the sport. Tim McGrath looks at the highlights of three long days of competition at the 87th Australian championships.

One could be forgiven for having a sense of deja vu at this year’s national championships. It was the third year in succession that the event was held in the vacuous ANZ Stadium in Brisbane and again attended by a small but loyal crowd of enthusiasts who conregated on the stainless steel benches of the steeply staired grandstand of the home straight. Some results seem as if they could have been plucked out of the previous two year’s meets, such as Joshua Ross winning the men’s

100m and Nick Bromley winning the 800m by unleashing his trademark kick off a slow pace. But while many things stayed the same, many changed. It was not quite a changing of the guard, but new faces were thrust more into the spotlight. In all, of the 35 national titles on offer, over a third (12) were won by athletes who had not won the event before. One of the more impressive breakthroughs came from Blake Lucas, who became the youngest man to ever win the pole vault and one of just 70 athletes in the long history of Australian athletics to win a national title whilst under the age of 19. Whilst having already tasted international competition, Jeff Riseley and Madeleine Pape both claimed their maiden national titles, in the 1500m and 800 respectively. It was the first time that Riseley had toed the line in a national 1500m final, having concentrated on the 800m in previous years. A fast pace was served up by Ireland’s

4The women’s 1500m saw an exciting race with the podium positions changing a number of times on the final lap.

David Campbell, which provided a springboard for the Victorian to clock a new personal best of 3:35.71 and gain automatic selection for the world championships – a welcome relief for an athlete who has had to rely on the discretion of Athletics Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee’s selectors for his past two representative berths. “One of the good things about tonight is being able to compete when it matters. It’s something that I haven’t done in the past – I went to world champs and bombed out, I hadn’t won a national title – so it was really important to get out there tonight and win for my confidence,” said Riseley after his race. “My last two [selections] have been questionable and the selectors have been really favourable towards me and we had to fight pretty hard, so its really good for me to be able to do it on my own.” There were others more experienced at winning – Tamsyn Lewis for example, who clocked up her fourteenth and fifteenth national

thletics 15 athletics titles in winning the 400m (for the fifth time) and 400m hurdles, which she plans on pursuing over the coming years. The 400m hurdles was a thrilling race between Lewis and 20-year-old Lauren Boden, with Lewis’ determination after the last hurdle surpassing Boden and the her more proficient technique over the barriers. An athlete who may well surpass Lewis’ gold medal tally, and even the record 20 gold set by Gael Mulhall, is Dani Samuels, who at the young age (especially for a thrower) of 20 years old has already amassed 8 gold, with five in the discus and three in her part time event, the shot put. Samuels won the double at this year’s nationals with throws of 60.05m and 16.30m, the latter of which equalled her personal best and NSW record. For some athletes the joy of winning, even when they have done it before, was almost uncontainable. The two prime examples were Nick Bromley in the men’s 800m and Sally McLellan, who again took out the 100m/100m hurdles double. “I’m wrapt as! This is definitely the best one of all them because this one was definitely the hardest,” said Bromley of his fourth national

4Linda Allen in the triple jump.

crown after he had recovered from a heartfelt and exuberant post race celebration. For McLellan, who has achieved much higher heights in the world of athletics, her joy at winning a national title and in a quality performance was still clearly evident after the women’s 100m hurdles. “This is probably the first time this season that I have really enjoyed myself,” said McLellan “This is the most excited I’ve been for a while so it is kind of a nice feeling, especially being in Queensland.”

4Tamsyn on her way to a tight victory in the 400m hurdles.

4 Olympic champion Valerie Vili was the standout performer of the meet with an absolutely world class throw of 20.22m in the shot put.

4Tristan Thomas ran his fifth sub

50 second race of the year in winning the men’s 400m hurdle s.

4Sean Wroe lowered his personal best to 45.07 seconds in the men’s 400m.

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4 Tamsyn Lewis has run three personal bests since dropping the 800m from her repertoir.

4Blake Lucas in-flight.

4Dani Samuels rounded off a consistent domestic

season by winning her fifth national discus title. She also was the first Australian in the shot put.

4 Sally McLellan took out the 100m flat and hurdles double for the fourth time.

4 Alwyn Jones leapt to a personal best and world

championships B-qualifier of 16.83m in winning the triple jump.

4Blake Lucas was cool, calm and collected on

his way to winning his first open national title.

thletics 17 athletics Selectors exercise discretion An unprecedented 39 athletes were named in the world championships team following the national championships. Rather than continuing the previous approach of having borderline athletes endlessly chase qualifying times during the European summer in order to secure a spot in the team instead of just focusing on their preparation for the major championship of the year, the selectors named as many eligible athletes as they could who had supported the Australian domestic season. Recently appointed national high performance manager Eric Hollingsworth was quick to point out the strategy behind the shift in policy. “This year is about opportunity – if you don’t perform, don’t expect the opportunity again,” he said. “It’s a big team. We’ve got a four year strategy, and the first year is about finding out what our athletes can do and how they are going to cope with the pressure.” The initial selections for Berlin are: MEN 400m Joel Milburn, John Steffensen, Sean Wroe 1500m Jeff Riseley, Jeremy Roff 5000m Collis Birmingham 10000m David McNeil 400m H Tristan Thomas 3000m St Youcef Abdi 20km W Luke Adams, Adam Rutter, Jared Tallent 50km W Adams, Nathan Deakes, Chris Erickson, Tallent Pole Vault Paul Burgess, Steve Hooker Long Jump Fabrice Lapierre, Mitchell Watt Triple Jump Alwyn Jones Shot Put Justin Anlezark Javelin Jarrod Bannister 4x100m Anthony Alozie, Matt Davies, Johnson, Joshua Ross, Aaron Rouge-Serrett 4x400m Milburn, Steffensen, Thomas, Wroe WOMEN 100m 400m 1500m 100m H 400m H 3000m St 20km W High Jump Pole Vault Discus Javelin

Melissa Breen Tamsyn Lewis Sarah Jamieson Sally McLellan Lewis, Jana Rawlinson Donna MacFarlane Jessica Rothwell, Claire Tallent, Cheryl Webb Petrina Price Alana Boyd Dani Samuels Kimberley Mickle

4 Nick Bromley caused an upset in defeating Lachlan Renshaw in the men’s 800m to claim his fourth national title in the event.

4 Fabrice Lapierre launched himself 8.29m in the final round of the men’s long jump.

4Aaron Rouge-Serrett bounced back from

second place in the men’s 100m to take out the 200m title.

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the boss is back! After almost two years in the athletics wilderness, Joshua Ross returned to Brisbane to capture his fifth Australian 100m crown

The greek philosopher Heraclitus once wrote that ‘no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’ The words ring very true in Ross’ case, for although he was on the same track that two years prior he had set his blistering personal best of 10.08 seconds on, much had changed for him. A change in coach. A change in location. A change in his outlook, not just on sprinting, but on his life. “2007 was the worst year of my life. It feels like a whole blur to me. But it’s made me stronger mentally,” said Ross after his win in Brisbane, where he recorded a time of 10.34 seconds to edge out training partner Aaron Rouge-Serrett by two-hundredths of a second. “I wasn’t enjoying life. It was about

finding myself, Josh Ross. It had nothing to do with being an athlete.” Ross’ torment over the past two years has been well documented. His depression in the lead up to the world championships in Osaka in 2007 was only too clear to everyone who saw him race. He was an athlete that simply didn’t want to be on the track. The mood continued throughout last domestic season, where Ross raced only once to a mediocre 10.88s in Canberra. “I almost gave up last season. I didn’t even watch the Olympics and hardly even watched nationals. I didn’t even want to smell a track. I found my mojo and went away and thought about things and the love of the sport came back – it’s always been inside of me.” He refound his mojo by moving to Melbourne to be coached by Adam Larcom and train alongside Aaron Rouge-Serrett. But it wasn’t easy. “I didn’t even have a place to stay when I moved to Melbourne. He’s helped me out so much financially

and put a roof over my head,” said Ross of the support that Larcombe has provided off the track as well as on. The two-time Stawell Gift winner’s form wasn’t great in the lead up to the national championships, with fourth in Sydney and eighth in Melbourne to his name along with a relatively sluggish season’s best of 10.40 seconds to his name. Despite the times he was posting in races, the turning point for Ross came a couple of weeks prior to the nationals. “Adam Larcom is my coach and we’ve been training like animals all season. It’s a great atmosphere and great set-up. It’s very professional,” said Ross. “Definitely when I started running some good times in training and I beat Aaron [Rouge-Serrett] a couple of times in training and he’s been the in form runner all season, once you beat him once or twice you start to get more confidence back. “I always knew in the back of my

“

thletics 19 athletics

I always knew in the back of my mind that I am beter than everyone, that I am the best.

”

mind that I am beter than everyone, that I am the best. “It’s just been about getting positive messages back in my mind again. I lost a lot of confidence during the season getting smashed by everyone, but I got out there today and luckily it all came on the right day.” Ross has taken the opportunity to reinforce these messages by leaving notes for himself on everyday items in his home, as well as writing messages on the palm of his hand before each race. Prior to the national final, his palm contained a sentimental message about his grandmother, who passed away last year, as well as more aggressive calls to action like ‘be hungry like a dog’ and ‘no one can beat you’. Whatever it is that has rejuvenated Ross, there is certainly still some way to go before he rekindles the form that he showed midway through the decade, where he was virtually undefeatable amongst Australia’s sprinters. Athletics Australia’s approach in directing Ross and the other members of the six man squad selected to contest the 4x100m to focus solely on the relay in Berlin allows him the time to regain that form, without being judged unmercifully by the stopwatch on every occasion. Heraclitus may have been concerned about the approach of men in crossing rivers, but there is now every opportunity for Ross to build a bridge over the troubled waters he has encountered in the past and move forward with his career.

4The infield display clock showing the winning time of this years national championships. Inset: Ross on his way to victory

A CAREER OF HIGHS & LOWS: 2003 Bursts onto the athletics scene by winning the Stawell Gift off a mark of seven metres 2004 Wins the 100m at the national titles and is selected for the Athens Olympics, where he makes the quarter finals. 2005 Becomes only the second man to win Stawell twice and off scratch. Retains national 100m title and makes the semis at the world championships. 2006 Wins nationals again but is knocked out in the semi finals at the Commonwealth Games. 2007 Under relatively unknown coach Emil Rizk clocks 10.08 to win nationals and also captures the 200m. Obviously fatigued and depressed, runs poorly in Osaka to exit in the quarter finals. 2008 Runs only one race during the domestic season and doesn’t qualify for Beijing.

4Ross showed he still had all of his moves with some unique dancing after his victory.

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ZATOPEK 2008 Australia’s premier distance running journalist Len Johnson described Australian 10000m running as being at a low point in the lead in to this year’s Zatopek Classic. The results from the night show that it might be on the way back up. Victories to university students David McNeill and Lara Tamsett breathed a breath of new life into what had become a fledgling event over the past few years. The event, named after Czech distance running legend Emil Zatopek, has a long history dating back to 1961 and has seen record breaking performances from Ron Clarke (world record in 1963) and Australian records to Carolyn Schuwalow (1993) and Shaun Creighton (1996). The high point for the event was undoubtedly the period from 1994 to 2000, where an array of international athletes provided the much needed competition to push Australian athletes and took out the event each year. But since the number of internationals has declined, interest in the meet, other from the die hard distance fraternity which congregate on the back straight, has wallowed. This year’s men’s race had all of the ingredients which had made past editions successful: international

4Michael Shelley leads the pack.

athletes in the form of US collegiate 5000m champion Bobby Curtis and Austrian record holder over 1500m, 3000m steeplechase and 5000m, Gunther Weidlinger; the vastly improved defending champion Collis Birmingham; the exciting talents of Michael Shelley, who had hinted at his longer distance pedigree when continuing on from his pacemaking duties at the Gold Coast Half Marathon to win in a swift debut of 62:27; and David McNeill, the Northern Arizonan based Victoria who had sat his exams early in order to fly back to Australia in time to contest the race, which also doubled as the national title. It didn’t disappoint. Although the pace was far from electrifying during the early stages, it was solid enough to separate the athletes named above, along with plucky Victorian Liam Adams, by the time the half way point of the race was reached. A couple of kilometres later Curtis, making his debut at the distance and perhaps showing his inexperience at it, surged away from the benevolent pack which had shared the lead throughout the race. For a lap or two it looked as if it was a decisive winning move. But the combined efforts of Shelley and Birmingham, with McNeill in toe but without Weidlinger, who had pulled out with calf cramps, reeled in the American. For a few laps Shelley looked the goods as Birmingham gradually lost contact, and he entered the bell with Curtis and McNeill on his shoulder. It was the final lap where the old adage of distance running came into play: it’s not how much speed you have, but how much you’ve got left in the tank. Shelley and Curtis both possessed sub four minute mile clockings either over the imperial distance or its metric equivalent, but it was McNeill who let loose with 300m to go, easily striding away with a 56 second final lap to clock a personal best and world

championship B-qualifier of 28:03.02. Both Shelley and Curtis also went under the standard with their runs of 28:06.74 and 28:08.96. The women’s race, even by the admission of the winner, was a rather dull affair but launched 19-year-old

4Lara Tamsett was dominant. Lara Tamsett onto the national stage with her first Australian title. Tamsett, who won last year’s Lisa Ondeiki junior 3000m race at Zatopek and had recorded strong victories in fun runs over winter, entered the event without ever having won a senior national medal or having run 10000m on the track. In lapping the entire field and clocking a time of 32:56.19, Tamsett showed that she has the potential to develop into a class athlete, with her efficient style and mental resolve (Tamsett ran the final three quarters of the race by herself after the early pacemakers dropped out) likely to be most suited to the marathon in years to come.

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WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY: David McNeill on his performance: I was really surprised because by my own standards. I had a pretty disappointing NCAA cross country nationals. The last few weeks I sort of struggled a bit in training and haven’t been able to work at the normal paces that I usually do. But I think today that worked a little bit in my favour because I was probably a little bit more rested. I’m very happy with the result. On his tactics: My tactic going into the race was just to hold on as long as I could. I guess I wasn’t really all that confident about doing any leading and quite honestly didn’t feel like I had the energy left to get up there and push the pace. You always feel a bit guilty about doing no work but I did my best. Lara Tamsett on her 10km debut: I felt pretty good in the first half and then I got to twelve laps to go and thought ‘holy crap, I’m only half way’ On her future: I’m looking forward to running some more 10k’s, hopefully with more competition which will keep my mind off the lap counting. Sean [Williams], my coach, probably sees me as being a half marathon and marathon runner, but hopefully not for a long time yet. On what the victory means to her: I put the improvement down to what I’m destined to do – I think the longer the better for me. Sean has been slowly increasing my mileage and targeting the longer races. It’s a great feeling. Especially tonight, which is a bit of a tribute to Kerryn McCann who was a great icon who I always looked up to. My aunt, Liz Miller, who was a bit of a runner, had a lot to do with her during her career. It’s a sad night but also a special night.

4Bridey Delaney easily won the Ondieki 3000m.

4Tristan Thomas isn’t scared to run more tha one lap

Tristan Thomas The breakthrough performance of the Zatopek Classic was a swift 1:47.83 800m run by 400m hurdler Tristan Thomas. The 22-year-old former Tasmanian, who has been based at the Australian Institute of Sport for the past few years, had shown exceptional early season form by also recording a 400m personal best of 46.09 seconds at a New South Wales Allcomers meet in the lead up to Zatopek. Thomas’ dabble with the two lap race adds a new dimension to the event, which despite a resurgence of athletes capable of running around 1:48-1:49 in recent seasons, has, with the notable exception of Lachlan Renshaw, failed to produce an athlete with the potential to break through on the world stage. “I think it’s always been the myth that I could do eights. I think I can do them but I am very happy running 400m hurdles,” said Thomas following his win at Zatopek. “For me it had almost become a fear to try something harder, so I just wanted to do it just to get it out of my system and see whether I was fit enough to tackle it.” Although not ruling out contesting more 800m races this season, Thomas plans to continue to make the intermediate hurdles his main event. “I want to choose to be a four hurdler. I don’t want to be a four hurdler because I’m not good enough to do the eight or the four; I want to be good enough at all of them and then make that choice. “I think the event needs that.”

4James Nipperess (3rd from left) won a closely

contested Decastella 3000m with a strong kick.

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THE LEGENDARY SERGEY BUBKA When one thinks of sporting dominance certain names rear their heads: Donald Bradman in cricket, Michael Jordan in basketball, Tiger Woods in golf. When one speaks in athletics terms a name that cannot be escaped is that of Sergey Bubka

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thletics 23 athletics No athlete has single handedly done so much to raise the profile and level of performance of their event as Bubka did with the pole vault in the almost two decades where he was virtually untouchable inside the competition arena. The IAAF commenced its world championships in 1983 and it was not until 1999 that a name other than Sergey Bubka was inscribed on the gold medal presented to the winner. Six world titles. The next most successful athletes in any one event are Haile Gebrsealassie (10000m), Hicham El Guerrouj (1500m) and Michael Johnson (400m) with four wins a piece. It wasn’t just championships where Bubka made his mark. In fact, he is probably better known for his exploits as a record breaker. From 1984, where he set his first world record of 5.85m in improving Thierry Vigneron’s world record of 5.83m, Bubka set an unparalleled 17 world records outdoors and a further 18 indoors. The number of records set

was in part due to commercial considerations. Large bonuses were paid to Bubka by his sponsors as well as by meet promoters for setting a world record. Bubka obliged by improving the world record by one centimetre increments, up to the 6.14m (outdoors) and 6.15m (indoors). The manner in which he increased the world record has always left some doubt in the minds of athletics fans as to whether he achieved the maximum height he was capable of. But the one thing it did do was display how completely dominant he was; to this day holds the top 15 performances of all time in the event, and jumped over six metres more times (45 performances) than everyone else in history put together (42 performances). The only smudge on an otherwise impecable athletics resume is Bubka’s record at the Olympic Games. Partly by circumstance and partly by the tumultous nature of the event, he only stood on the podium once during his career in the greatest

arena known to sport. When he did, it was at the top, winning the gold in a Olympic record of 5.90m in 1988. He had been denied the opportunity to compete four years prior while on his rise to ascendency due to the Soviet boycott of the Los Angeles Games. In Barcelona he faced the indestinguished fate of no heighting in the qualifying round, a shock to the sporting world akin to Goliath slaying himself with David’s slingshot. Injury saw him not even attempt a jump in Atlanta. The measure of the man was made obvious the next year in Athens at the world championships. Even when he had set his last world record in 1994 there was talk of his career being on the decline. He entered the 6th IAAF world championships with no other man ever having won the world title, but all expectations were that he would soon lose his crown. His training had been affected by a 25% tear to his achilles tendon the year before which required surgery and he had jumped only once in the lead up to the meet to a height of 5.60m – a paltry offering by his lofty standards. What transpired was what was, and with possible challenge by Steve Hooker’s win in the Beijing, still is, the greatest pole vault competition of all time. Once in the ancient city of Athens, Bubka recorded a season’s best vault of 5.70m in the qualifying round, and then equalled that height on his second attempt in the final. Having cleared that height, Bubka then coolly passed at 5.80m while seven other athletes remained in the competition. After 5.86m, which Bubka again passed, only Dean Starkey of the USA and Maksim Tarasov of Russia were still in the competition. The next height was 5.91m, which he cleared on his second attempt to move into the lead, with Starkey and Tarasov both clearing the height on their third attemp. At the next height of 5.96m, while Starkey went out, Tarasov cleared the height on his first attempt. Bubka incredibly decided to pass. The bar

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was then raised to 6.01m, a height that only Bubka had cleared before (Tarasov’s personal best at that stage was 6.00m). It was a masterstroke. Bubka had transformed a physical competition into a largely mental one. Imagine the situation for Tarasov – to go into a world championship with 6.00m to your name that season and the greatest vaulter in history crippled with injury, to then be standing on the runway at a height that only the great man had cleared before. In a truly astonishing performance for a 33 year old returning from injury, Bubka cleared 6.01m on his first attempt, while Tarasov missed his first attempt. Now desperate to clear a higher height or else finish second on countback, Tarasov was forced to jump at 6.06m, which was far more than he could manage. Bubka was again the world champion.

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BUBKA ON STEVE HOOKER If – or as it seems by his current form – when Steve Hooker breaks Bubka’s world record it will be one of, if not the greatest, athletics performance ever achieved by an Australian. We were privilidged enough to catch up with Bubka during a break in his busy schedule as Senior Vice President of the IAAF to get his thoughts on the event and on Steve Hooker. “It is not a secret that for some time the men’s pole vault was in decline. I think this fact upset not only me but all the fans of athletics and especially the people who loved this kind of sport,” Bubka wrote via email. “Steven has brought it new breath. It is a real pleasure for me that such a pole vaulter as Steven appeared in athletics. He shows to the other pole vaulters that 6.15m is not out of reach. His second in the world best result is a brilliant example for the present day athletes. It makes others strive for higher results and this brings our sport to a higher level, makes it more interesting and more popular. “I think Steven has very good potential. From what I saw I can say that he has all the opportunities for the best result in the world. Now, I can not see him during his training and so I can not say for what result he is ready for in the coming season but I wish him not to rest on his laurels and constantly aim for new results.”

4 Bubka clears the bar at 6.01m in his final championship victory at the 1997 world championships in Athens.

4 The two highest vaulters in history at the Pole Vault Stars

meet in Donetsk, Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of Sergey Bubka Sports Club)

thletics 25 athletics

A BRIEF CHAT WITH

BLAKE LUCAS

By winning the Australian pole vault championship with a height of 5.45m at the age of 18 years and 317 days, Blake Lucas became the youngest ever winner of the event. Formerly from Sydney, but having relocated last year to Melbourne to study Nuclear Medicine at RMIT and train under the watchful eye of pole vault guru Mark Stewart at Box Hill Athletics Club, Lucas has jumped higher than Steve Hooker did at the same age. We caught up with him just after his win in Brisbane.

Inside Athletics: At the beginning of the season did you expect to end it as Australian champion? Blake Lucas: No I did not expect that at all. I didn’t start the season really well, I had a bit of a problem getting back up to a full run, but it all came together towards the Sydney Track Classic and came together tonight too which was good. IA: You injured yourself at some stage during the season didn’t you? BL: Yeah, in January I cut my quad wakeboarding, so I had 8 stitches and was out for about 10 days, which put me back a little bit.

IA: What does your coach think about wakeboarding? BL: He’s alright about it, he would just prefer I didn’t do it at this stage of the season. IA: That height (5.45m) tonight was a PB? BL: Yep, a 5cm PB on a 10cm PB last week and a 5cm PB in Melbourne and Sydney. IA: So you must be getting close to the Australian junior record? BL: The Australian junior record is 5.60m by Budgie [ed: Paul Burgess]. IA: Do you think you can get that by the end of this year [ed: Lucas is a junior until 31 December, 2009]?

BL: I think it might be a bit out of my reach at the moment. [ed: a week later Lucas set a

POLE VAULT

world championships B-qualifier of 5.55m]

IA: So what are your goals for the rest of the year?

BL: I’ll jump at the under 20s in April and then go back into base training before the world uni games in Serbia.

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pacific school games

4 Competing on her home track, Canberra’s Melissa Breen was the star performer of the Pacific School Games. Breen took out the sprint double in 11.35w and 23.52.

The 2008 Pacific School Games were the largest athletics carnival ever held in Australia with over 2700 athletes contesting 571 track and 182 field events over seven days of competition in Canberra. Although the meet produced exceptional results all round – more than one in five events had meet records broken in them – the highlights were undoubtedly in the sprints. The fast Canberra mondo track, coupled with consistently strong tailwinds were a recipe for swift times. The highest quality performances came from local girl Melissa Breen, who proved that her eighth ranking Australian all-time performance a month prior on the same track was no fluke, with a sensational sprint double of 11.35 seconds in the 100m (wind-assisted) and 23.52 seconds, the fastest 200m by an Australian woman this year. However, the 18 year old’s most electric performance was her anchor leg for the ACT 4x100m team, where she made up a deficit of over ten metres to record victory.

nine girls broke 12 seconds in the 100m: Melissa Breen Larissa Pasternatsky Ashleigh Whittaker Stacey Hearne Phillipa Symes Karlie Morton Lauren O’Sullivan Catherine Brennan Maddie Pirie Claire Cuttler

ACT NSW VIC QLD NZL NSW QLD VIC NSW VIC

19 years 17 years 15 years 17 years 16 years 15 years 16 years 16 years 13 years 16 years

11.35 11.71 11.83 11.85 11.86 11.87 11.90 11.91 11.91 11.93

+3.8 +3.5 +1.9 +3.8 +4.7 +1.9 +4.7 +4.7 +4.0 +4.7

4Western Australia’s Tessa Maroni finished third in the very competitive 15 years high jump.

thletics 27 athletics With most of the athletes who have represented Australia at the most recent editions of the world juniors and world youth championships either having finished school or bypassing the event, a new wave of talented juniors had the opportunity to shine. In all 15 qualifying performances for the 2009 world youth championships were set: WOMEN Rosie Lawson QLD Carly Rodger NSW Denise Snyder VIC Shani SleemanNSW Molly Grau VIC Amy Pejkovic NSW Alix Kennedy NSW Ash Whittaker VIC Karlie Morton NSW

16 years 16 years 16 years 15 years 16 years 15 years 16 years 15 years 15 years

100m hurdles 100m hurdles High jump High Jump High jump High jump Discus 100m 100m

13.58 13.72 1.81m 1.79m 1.76m 1.76m 44.14m 11.83 11.87

MEN Mitchell Tysoe NSW Cameron Hyde NSW James Vine VIC Ben Talakai NSW Huw Peacock TAS Luanga Andria QLD

16 years 16 years 16 years 16 years 16 years 16 years

110m hurdles 110m hurdles 110m hurdles Discus Hammer Javelin

13.62 13.81 13.94 56.96m 69.88m 71.84m

4Jake Hammond leans at the finishing line to take out the 17 years 100m in a wind assisted 10.51

e 4 World junior representativ inated the

Kimberley Mulhall dom up. throws in the 17 years age gro

4Commonwealth Youth Games rep

Amanda Bartrim won the 17 years pole vault with 3.81m

4Ella Nelson (centre) took out the

sprint double in the 14 years age group.

4Kuey Diew is a name to watch

in the future after taking out the 400m/800m double in the 15 years.

4Sam Baines improved his own AUS U18 110m hurdles record with a classy run of 13.28 seconds over the 91cm barriers.

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Icarus, Phoenix or Bumblebee:

Jana’s future flight path The career of every athlete has its ups and downs. Ever since Jana Rawlinson announced herself to the international athletics community in claiming gold at the inaugural world youth championships in 1999, the highs and lows of her career have seesawed to greater heights and to lower depths than any other Australian athlete of her generation.

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Icarus In Greek mythology Icarus attempted to escape Crete with the use of a pairs of wings made of wax and feathers. Before he flew to his escape he was warned by his father not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by dizziness from flying, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realised that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. The myth is often interpretted as a caution against ‘flying too high.’ Like the melting of the wax of Icarus’ wings, did Rawlinson’s success at a young age contribute to her fall? Jana certainly tasted success early. A competent sprinter and sprint hurdler in her Little Athletics days, by the age of 15 she had set NSW underage records in the 200m hurdles and the since discontinued 300m hurdles. A year later she had added the

4Jana Rawlinson (then Pittman) competing for Oceania at the World Cup in Madrid in 2002 at the age of 20.

thletics 29 athletics this, while she was still at school. excel at it is equally taxing. Despite 400m to her repertoir. It wasn’t hard Her first gold in senior her strong build, Jana’s body had an to see what event she might end up competition came two years later enormous amount of stress put on it pursuing. at the Commonwealth Games by the time she was 21 years old. In 1999, at the age of 16 under in Manchester in 2002. Then, Something had to give. It did so the guidance of her then coach, despite Russia’s Yuliya Pechonkina almost at the worst possible time. Jackie Byrnes, she took out the entering the following year’s world It all came to a head in 2004, when 400m hurdles at the inaugrual world championships as the overwhelming she broke down in the Weltklasse youth championships in Bydgoszcz, favourite, having broken the world meet in Zurich, just 15 days out from Poland. the opening round of A year later she the women’s 400m equalled the world hurdles at the Athens junior record with a The 400m hurdles is a brutal event on the body. Olympics. A slight run of 55.20 seconds The training needed to excel at it is equally taxing. tear to the meniscus and then won the of her right knee was selection trial for the originally thought to Olympic Games, record just weeks before the be much more serious and almost where she just missed qualifying for certainly ruling her out of the Games. championships, she came out on the semi finals by one place. Weeks For days she was in the media top with a sensational personal best later she became the first athlete to spotlight as the story developed. of 53.22 seconds – a time that still ever win the 400m/400m hurdles Few athletes garner their own stands as her personal best. double in an IAAF championship by terminology in the media through winning gold in both events at the The 400m hurdles is a brutal event their behaviour. Rawlinson’s name world juniors in Santiago, Chile. All of on the body. The training needed to

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”

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4 In 2007 Rawlinson returned to world class competition soon after the birth of her first child & recaptured the world title that she had first won in 2003.

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members of the Australian athletics team competing in a home championships, but they were also members of the women’s 4x400m team. Australia won the women’s 4x400m. But, of course, not without some drama, with the English team being disqualified for an infraction at the last change For Jana to enter an Olympic year favourite for the Phoenix involving their gold and to leave without a medal was shattering. anchor runner The myth of the changing the phoenix appears following year in front of the parochial position on which she was put onto in Indian, Egyptian and Greek home town crowd in the Melbourne the track. mythology in relation to a firebird The tension between Jana and which at the end of its life cycle builds Cricket Ground. But the success Tamsyn was evident and played a nest, which along with itself ignites, didn’t come without drama. out in the media, with inneundo Earlier in the season Jana had burning to ashes. The phoenix is then about whether and/or who had been involved in a public war of reborn from its ashes, and starts a protested to the officials to cause the words with Tamsyn Lewis, who was new lifecycle. disqualification. In actual fact, it was focusing on the 400m that season. For Jana to enter an Olympic year a decision that the track referee had To put it succinctly, the pair were favourite for the gold and to leave already independently. not on good terms with one another. without a medal was shattering. Her So what was a Phoenix-like return To complicate matters, they were rise back to the top of world athletics to a high level of athletics competition not only two of the most recognised didn’t go as smoothly as anticipated: is synonymous with the inexactly rhyming term ‘Jana drama’ in the psyche of the Australian public, if not from before the dramas leading into Athens, then certainly from that time on. In the end with the aid of surgery she was able to compete in Athens, but faded to fifth place in the final.

despite running some good races in the European summer of 2005 (including a run of 53.44 seconds) she developed a stress fracture in her back and was unable to defend her world title in Helsinki. However, she did manage to regain her Commonwealth Games title the

“

”

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4The Rawlinsons, Jana and Chris, embrace after Jana’s sensational victory in the 400m hurdles at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

thletics 31 athletics for Jana turned out to be another Icarus-like fall from the graces of the Australian public. The amount of negative attention even had her contemplating packing her bags and basing herself in England. Reinventing Jana: from Pittman to Rawlinson Shortly after the Commonwealth Games Jana Pittman became Jana Rawlinson when she married Chris Rawlinson, who was also a Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion. By December that year the Rawlinson’s had a third member to their family, son Cornelis. Marriage and motherhood brought about a remarkable change in Rawlinson - a soothing, calming effect. Under expert medical guidance Rawlinson trained right up to and including the day that she have birth and was quickly back in shape soon afterwards. In fact, just eight months after giving birth she had returned to the top of her event, taking her second 400m hurdles world title in Osaka. After Osaka, Rawlinson raced the World Athletics Final and the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, but a toe injury that transferred itself into a number of lower leg problems kept her out of the 2008 Australian domestic season and cruelly forced her to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics. The bumblebee Neither Icarus nor the Phoenix are the flying creatures one would first associate with Rawlinson. Many, if they were to make any association, would think of the tattoo of a bumblebee that the 26 year old has on her stomach. The reason, according to Rawlinson: aerodynamically a bumble bee should not be able to fly, but it does not ‘know’ that and flys regardless. While the story of the bumblebee’s apparent lack of aerodynamics is somewhat of an urban myth based

4Rawlinson sits trackside with her son Cornelis at the 2008 Pacific School Games.

around one of many aerodynamic formula, the idea so perfectly conveys Rawlinson’s approach to success. Nothing, other than the injuries which she has suffered at the most inoportune points in her career, will prevent her from achieving success. If she can be on the track, she will be, and when she is, she is very hard to beat. A new challenge from an old foe The 400m hurdles is an event which lacks depth, internationally, but especially nationally; Rawlinson hasn’t been defeated in the event by an Australian since she was 18 years old. In fact, no Australian has finished within two seconds of her in a 400m hurdles race since 2003. That may change, with Tamsyn Lewis recently adding the 400m hurdles to her bow. The 15-time Australian champion over 400m, 800m, and this year, the 400m

hurdles. Lewis feels that there is more scope for her to make the final of a global championships in an event other than the 800m – whether that be the 400m flat or hurdles. “I think by this time next year I’ll be a lot more proficient over the hurdles,” said Lewis at the national championships. Their clash, if it ever does eventuate, is one sure to be covered widely in the media. It may well not occur until next domestic season, where it would provide a much needed domestic rivalry. For Rawlinson there are much more pressing issues at hand, such as returning to the track to race prior to attempting to become the first Australian athlete to win three global titles in the one event. Whether Rawlinson’s faunal emblem is best represented from this point on by Icarus, the Phoenix or a bumblebee, one thing is for sure – her flight path will be interesting viewing.

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CALENDAR

APRIL 4-6 Australian U23/U20 Champs 4 Peter Nowill Shield XC 5 Run for the Kids 5 Rotterdam Marathon 5 Paris Marathon 11-13 Stawell Gift 11-13 Carifta Games 17-19 Mt SAC Relays (Walnut, USA) 18 Jells Park XC Relay 18 Nickey Carroll Shield XC 18 Meeting Grand Prix IAAD de Dakar 19 Vienna City Marathon 19 Turin Marathon 20 Boston Marathon 23-25 Penn Relays (Philadelphia, USA) 25 Tasmanian Short XC 26 London Marathon 26 Hamburg Marathon 26 Madrid Marathon MAY 2 NSW Road Championships 2 Jamaica International 2 Payton Jordan Cardinal Inv (Palo Alto, USA) 3 Salzburg Marathon 3 Jenny Lund Shield XC 5 Abuja CAA Super Grand Prix 8 Qatar Athletics Super Grand Prix 9 Osaka Grand Prix 9 Oregon Twilight (Eugene, USA) 9-10 21st Multistars 9 Lardner Park Cross Country 9 NSW Novice Cross Country 9 Queensland XC Relays 10 Prague Marathon 16 Queensland All Schools XC 17 Adidas Track Classic (Carson, USA) 17 Great Manchester Run 17 Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon 24 Grande Premio Brasil Caixa de Atletismo 30 Freihoferâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Run for Women 30 Reebok Grand Prix (New York, USA) 30 Sandown Road Race 30 NSW Cross Country Relays 30 Queensland XC Championships

www.insideathletics.com.au

thletics 33 athletics

The last lap!

With Tim McGrath

The Ethics of Pacemakers in Championship Distance Races I’ve had a lot of people ask me parties involved. old footage of Coe or Ovett run what I think about how the In one way, what occurred was fast times in races that were real national 1500m final unfolded. probably of no great consequence contests, than it is watching El Presumably people ask me to the outcome; Riseley has Guerrouj following a rabbit like a this because I have a particular been the form miler all season safety car travelling at high speed interest in middle distance and more likely than not had for three quarters of the distance running, having dabbled in it everyone’s measure no matter before the race really begins. in the past, but also because what tactics were employed by Yet, our sport has an obsession the silver medalist in that race, the rest of the field. Nor is it the with time. It probably always Jeremy Roff, is a very close friend first time that athletes have paced has, but seems to have built up of mine. in championship distance races. momentum dramatically in the Without a doubt in my mind, Think Youcef Baba pacing for mid ‘50s as the quest to break the national 1500m final was Morrocan teammate Hicham El four minutes was pursued by paced to a schedule Roger Bannister and that was ideal for John Landy. Both The question isn’t whether it is happening... Jeff Riseley i.e. even achieved the mark, both The real question is, should it be happening? with the assistance of paced at the world championships pacemakers, but notably A-standard. Surprisingly, Riseley Guerrouj at the Sydney Olympics their championship results would himself stated after the race ‘he (which didn’t have the intended probably only make them a didn’t know anything about that’ results - a pacemaker is only footnote in the history of middle in regard to the pacemaking done as good as his ability to do the distance running rather than by Ireland’s David Campbell for job well). Also think of most being deserving of a whole the first 1100m of the race, prior Australian men’s 5000m or to him pulling out. I’m not sure if 10000m championships of late the response was out of naviety where a good field has been or if he was being economical assembled. with the truth, but simply put, The question isn’t whether it its a bit hard to believe that an is happening. It clearly is, and athlete with Campbell’s form (he often condoned either explicitly had only run 3:40.98 during the or by the acquiesence of event domestic season) would lead a organisers. The real question is, race at such a fast pace and then should it be happening? just pull out with a lap to go if There are some who question that wasn’t his intention prior to the utility of pacemakers to the race. Of course, that doesn’t middle distance and distance necessarily mean that Riseley was running in all meets, not just in on his plans, but considering championships. I do tend to both are managed by Nic Bideau, agree with them that it destroys 4 Is he in the race or not? David I’m willing to bet that there was much of the romance of a fast Campbell (right) pulls off the at least some level of collusion athlete on athlete race; it is track just after the bell in the national 1500m championship. between at least some of the much more enjoyable watching

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athletics thletics

The last lap! chapter based on the relatively arbitrary times they achieved. Nowdays it is virtually impossible to go find any meet of note in Europe that doens’t have a pacemaker in all of its distance races. Everything is about times. World record attempts. National records. Qualifying times for championships. There seems no way out of the viscious circle that presents itself – if people see slow times at a meet, they will think it was a poor meet. So, therefore, pacemakers are needed to make sure the race is fast and that the meet is of high quality. The one remaining pillar for genuine racing, and it is gradually being eroded, is the championship. Qualifying rounds generally make the cream rise to the crop in qualifying for the final. But what happens if some of that cream is sour?

I have no doubt that athletes who pace championship finals feel that they are doing the right thing, whether for reasons patriotic, communal or financial. However, the fact is that their presence dictates the way that a race will be contested, without them having any intent to be part of that contest. Additionally, their intent will generally not be altruistic, that is, they run to a particular pace for the benefit of one, or perhaps a small group of athletes, but not for all contestants in a race. So, is it wrong? There certainly isn’t a rule against it in the IAAF handbook. The closest to one is Rule 144(2)(c) which reads ‘that the following shall be considered assistance and therefore not allowed: pacing in races by persons not participating in the same race...’

Obviously in applying these rules in a practical context, any athlete who has started a race at the same time as others is ‘participating in the same race.’ But taking that idea a step further and examining the ethical considerations, can we really say that an athlete who at the outset of a race who has absolutely no desire to finish, let alone win, is really participating in a race?

4Justin Rinalid paces Roff and Riseley at the 2008 Zatopek Classic.

next issue:

4WHAT IS AUSTRALIA’S BEST 10KM ROAD RACE? 4AUSTRALIA’S NEXT GENERATION OF SPRINTERS 4BERLIN BOUND: JEREMY ROFF 4STAWELL GIFT.....AND HEAPS MORE!!! HE ALL T T LATES NEWS