Wins for Pape, Buster and Birmingham in Gothenburg

Confidence-boosting wins were the order of the day for a number of Australian athletes at the Folksam Grand Prix in Gothenburg, Sweden overnight.

Victorian Madeleine Pape kicked off her international season on the best possible note, crossing the line in 2.03.29 over the two laps, to defeat Poland’s Joanna Kus (2.03.38) and Sudan’s Muna Jabir (2.03.84).

The 24-year-old has been plagued with foot problems since booking her ticket to Beijing back in March, and only resumed track work a month ago. Based in Cologne, Germany for her five-week stint, Pape’s Olympic campaign is finally back on target as she prepares to take on the world’s best on the European circuit.

Beijing-bound training partners Craig Mottram (1500m) and Collis Birmingham (3000m) also added wins to their belts. Dropping back to the shorter distance, Buster crossed the line in 3.36.66, well clear of countryman and steeplechase specialist Youcef Abdi who clocked 3.42.98. Recording 7.56.17, Birmingham defeated Kenyan Silas Sang (7.57.94) and Swede Johan Wallerstein (8.06.83) in the men’s 3000m.

In just his second competition since returning from injury,
Paul Burgess cleared 5.45m to finish fourth in the men’s pole vault. The former World No 1 propelled himself 5.56m over the bar in Zhukovsky, Russia two weeks ago - his first major competition in ten months due to an infection in his ankle.

World youth champion Vicky Parnov, who will be heading to the Polish city of Bydgoszcz shortly for the IAAF World Junior Championships, cleared 4.20m to place second in the women’s pole vault.

Full results can be found here