26.02.2008

Batman returns

In an Australian season that has lacked the usual prominence of its sprinters, Daniel Batman is more than enjoying the run.

The 26 year-old has been a regular starter at most stops and across 100, 200 and 400 metres.

This time last year Batman wasn’t competing at all, having taken a sabbatical from the track to focus on the set-up of an Indigenous community initiative with wife Nova Peris.

A welcome return this season, naturally fuelled by Beijing ambitions, has seen Batman improve with almost every run.

Victory over world and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner in the 200 metres at the Sydney Grand Prix (20.81) was a scalp to boost confidence, even though the American was in the early stages of his preparations.

And at last week’s World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne, Batman continued his work to win the Peter Norman Memorial (20.84) as Wariner defaulted to one lap.

“It’s been fantastic,” Batman said on Thursday night. “It’s a real world sport and a real world circuit. Unfortunately, Melbourne Grand Prix - one of the biggest grands prix around the world - hasn’t been given as much importance on an international scale with the competitors.

“It’s finally great to see (athletes) willing to travel here and run this early in the season. It’s good prize-money, good GP points and it’s good to see everyone out here. Asafa (Powell) and Jeremy were fantastic. It’s good to see more and more of that as we go.”

Batman is obviously buoyed by his own performances too, which have put him in the box seat for a second national title ahead of this week’s Australian Championships in Brisbane.

The 200 metres, the event which took him to the semi-finals of the 2005 World Championships and 2006 Commonwealth Games, remains his focus.

“I’m putting my most energy into it,” he said. “At the moment I’m hovering a little bit. I’d like to see myself pick up a couple of metres and I just have to work out where I’m going to do that.

“Having a year off is always going to be hard. I’m about seven races into it and I’m probably going to have to race a lot this year. I’m confident that the 20.50s and 20.40s will come and I’ll be able to step up again hopefully.

“It’s definitely the 200 but I think I’m in shape to run a good 400 at the moment. I also think I could run a 10.30, but I’d like to run a 10.20 by the time I’m ready to really run fast.”

Batman has also entered to run the other two distances in Brisbane, but is expected to add just the 100 - leaving the 400 for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia a week later as a member of the Australian relay team.

Athletics Australia confirmed on Tuesday that the experienced campaigner had done enough to earn his place alongside World Championships representatives Sean Wroe, Dylan Grant and Mark Ormrod and the ever-improving Joel Milburn.

It has been almost three years since Batman ran his personal best of 20.44, a time that remains at No. 9 on the Australian all-time list. (He also sits within the top 10 for the 100 and 400).

Yet he makes clear his intentions to better those marks, revealing on Thursday night that the late Peter Norman - the Olympic silver medallist of 1968 - had faith that Batman could near his mark of 20.06.

Granted, Batman’s season’s best run of 20.71, an Olympic B-qualifier, will need to be bettered to take the title and the eyes of the selectors, but form is there.

“I’m feeling pretty good about it,” he said. “Mentally I’m feeling on top of things. I’m just waiting for the times to come. But I think they’ll come in conditions and executing the right race.”

Saturday night might just be it.

By Steve Lavell

The Selection Trials & 86th Australian Championships will unfold at Queensland Sport & Athletics Centre in Brisbane from Thursday, February 28 to Saturday, March 1. Tickets are only available at the gate. Click here for prices and other information