Sally celebrates Australia Day

Sally McLellan produced the highlight performance of Saturday’s Canberra Athletics Classic, recording the fastest 100m hurdles ever by an Australian on Australian soil.

The 21 year-old Queenslander was just one hundredth of a second outside her own Australian record set in Osaka last year, clocking a time of 12.72 seconds.

From the stands, McLellan was unperturbed by the slightly overcast conditions and heavy week of training in the lead up to the event.

“I’ve been training hard all week and did a heavy plyometrics session yesterday,” she said following the race.

“My legs did not want to move today; I was expecting 13 seconds by the way I felt.”

Earlier in the program McLellan won the 100m in 11.42 seconds in relatively still conditions (0.2 m/s headwind).

However, she admitted that she felt out of sorts following the run, so much so that she approached coach Sharon Hannan with concern ahead of her pet event.

“When you’re at the start line, you can only do whatever you have in you with whatever you have left and obviously it worked,” she said.

“I’m just a little bit in awe at the moment. I’ve been training through these competitions. To be able to step out at a small meet like this - compared to overseas - it’s fantastic to run a time like that.”

The conditions weren’t as warm as has greeted athletes over the previous few years of the Canberra meet, traditionally held on the Australia Day long weekend. As a consequence the performances in the short sprints and jumps didn’t produce anticipated qualifying standards for Beijing.

However, it was a day out for another Queenslander, Jarrod Bannister, who produced an A-qualifying launch of 82.60m in the javelin throw.

Despite the best efforts of the World Championships representative, he was pipped by New Zealander Stuart Farquhar (83.23m) but should be happy with the result and the quality of his competition.

Other athletes who did rise to the occasion were the 800m runners. Tamsyn Lewis, Madeleine Pape and Lachlan Renshaw all recorded Olympic B-qualifiers, with Lewis and Renshaw taking victory in their respective events.

For Lewis, attaining the standard meant little with the 11-time national champion already having secured the coveted A-standards in Europe last season; for Pape and Renshaw it was a breakthrough performance and their first qualifiers for the Olympic Games.

“I ran 1:47.00 nearly two years ago,” explained Renshaw, 20, who won the men’s event in 1:46.90. “It’s great to do a PB after two years.”

Renshaw followed the pace closely through the first lap of 52 seconds before convincingly pulling away from the rest of the field in the final 200m. The Sydney University student will next race at the NSW State Championships on February 8-10, where he is keen to challenge the A-qualifier of 1:46.00.

“I’ll be going for it the whole way,” he said. “You’ve got to do it. There’s no point in running slow times when the Olympics is at stake.”

Lewis was equally impressive in the women’s event, passing through the bell in 59.7 seconds on the way to a victory of 2:00.48. In second was Pape, who clocked a very creditable 2:01.24.

“The faster I go, the faster the rest of the field goes,” said Lewis after the race. “It’s nice to have us running down close to the two dead mark again.”

The dominant performance in the field was from New Zealand’s world champion Valerie Vili, who threw a huge 19.72m in the shot put. The kiwi is looking forward to competing further during the domestic season, at the Sydney Grand Prix (February 16) and Australian Championships in Brisbane (February 28 – March 1).

“I’m in pretty full on training at the moment. Anything over 19.50m is good,” she said. “I’m looking forward to Sydney and Brisbane before the World Indoors in Valencia in March.”

Western Australia’s Ellen Pettitt cleared her second B-qualifier of the season in the high jump with a leap of 1.91m.

Local athletes were at the forefront in the 400m hurdles events. Brendan Cole took out the men’s race, dipping under the 50-second mark for the first time this season with a run of 49.93.

Nineteen year-old Lauren Boden finished second in the 400m hurdles behind Ireland’s Michelle Carey. Carey, the training partner of Jana Rawlinson, finished strongly down the home straight to pull away from Boden for a one-second victory in a time of 56.91. Boden faded slightly over the last 50 metres, crossing the line in 57.95 seconds.

The stars in the men's sprint were upstaged by Victorian Daniel Burgess who sped to a big personal best of 10.34 (+0.1) in the C final of the 100m.  The 22-year-old has progressed through the ranks of the pro running scene in Victoria and smashed his previous best of 10.42 set in Melbourne in October last year.

Adam Miller won the A 100m in 10.41 seconds and backed up later in the meet for second in the 200m (20.81 seconds) behind New Zealand’s James Dolphin, who took victory in 20.73 seconds. Adding some international flavour to the meet, Makelesi Batimala from Fiji took out the women’s 200m in 23.67 seconds ahead of three-time Olympian Lauren Hewitt.

Click here for the full results

Courtesy Tim McGrath (on behalf of Athletics ACT)