13.02.2008

Cole craves competition for qualifiers

Brendan Cole has already ticked one box this year. Now it’s time for the rest.

The 26 year-old went through the 2007 domestic season without producing a sub-50-second run over the 400m hurdles, but less than a month into this year he stopped the trend dead in its tracks.

That was with a 49.93 effort in Canberra on January 26, not quite as quick as he would have liked but pleasing nonetheless.

“That was the next step,” he said after his run. “As I said, there’s still some more steps to go before getting qualifiers and making the (Olympic) team. I think baby steps is the way to go at the moment.

“It’s pretty hard out there by yourself and it basically showed that I had a pretty planned race. It’s good I ran sub-50 but there’s still a way to go too.

“(Canberra was) the first comp that we really put a lot of emphasis on, knowing that it was going to be Canberra, Sydney and nationals - the three big domestic competitions for the year. The first step’s been taken and hopefully a bigger one can be taken in Sydney.”

Cole’s biggest obstacle has been the quality of his competition on domestic soil, with lanes often taken by emerging athletes, runners outside of their pet event and some that just don’t pose the desired challenge.

The 12 best runs in 2007 by an Australian at home and overseas were held by Cole, making it difficult for the three-time national champion to determine how he’s really travelling.

“It is a little bit hard to gauge but there’s a good chance that if I had a number of good guys in front of me or next to me running as fast or faster, it could really pick me up a notch,” he noted. “So it’s hard to tell exactly where you’re at.

“(Because of that) I think it’s really weird going over to Europe and Asia and running, when you’ve got guys who are out there in front of you at the second hurdle instead of being in front of them.”

That happened at the Osaka Grand Prix in May, when Cole ran 49.90 to finish seventh. A month later, he pushed for a victory in a season’s best time of 49.72 in Belgium.

However, Cole’s personal best time of 49.36 - set in the semi-final of the 2006 Commonwealth Games - still stands.

Even that equates to an Olympic B-qualifier (49.50) in this year’s standards, with two A-qualifiers (49.20) and the national title required for automatic selection to the team.

One athlete who may push Cole to those times is visiting Jamaican Gregory Little, who has a personal best of 48.95.

The 24 year-old is part of 100m world record holder Asafa Powell’s posse, in Australia to compete in Sydney and Melbourne.

Cole will also run in Melbourne.

In 2006, Cole beat defending champion Chris Rawlinson in Canberra in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games - an important result ahead of his debut in an international championships.

And American LaBronze Garrett competed in Melbourne and Brisbane last year, with their head-to-head battle ending at one apiece.

“He’s a mid-48-second runner so to come out and beat him at least once was kind of nice and confidence-building,” Cole said of Garrett. “I think he came over here expecting to be able to get a couple of easy wins.

“I did learn a bit at nationals last year when I raced him. It had been a similar season, I hadn’t had a lot of competition so to have someone come out and beat you in the last 100 was a learning experience and a good lead-up to my European campaign.”

The ACTAS scholar has pencilled in Europe again for this year, should he need to hit the skies to seek his qualifiers.

“It’ll all depend on whether I can get these qualifiers out,” he confirmed. “If I don’t get them by nationals, I’ll probably go quite early…early May for the Osaka Grand Prix and late May for the test competition in Beijing.

“I plan to do that and if I still need to chase qualifiers, I’ll probably head from Beijing straight over to Europe. That’s the plan, but if I do the qualifiers here I’ll probably wait a bit longer until late in the European season.”

Coached by 2000 Olympian Matt Beckenham, Cole will have to run the fastest times of his life over the coming weeks to ensure his chances of Olympic selection. And he knows that.

But given his determination, character and ability, the least you can do is support him.

By Steven Lavell

See Brendan Cole, Gregory Little and a host of Australian and international stars at the Sydney Grand Prix (February 16)  and World Athletics Tour Melbourne (February 21). Click here to purchase tickets