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Gold Coast hurdler Sally McLellan has broken her own Australian record for the second time in two weeks, clocking a slashing time of 12.53 to finish second at the IAAF World Tour in Monaco.

In her last hit out before she makes her Olympian debut, McLellan was edged out by Commonwealth Games champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica, who sped to victory in 12.49 seconds. Foster-Hylton’s effort was the third fastest in the world this year, with McLellan’s new Australian and Oceania record the 5^th fastest clocked in 2008. (See fact box below)

McLellan’s time betters the 12.58 she clocked in Luzern, Switzerland, two weeks ago and comes hot on the heels of her second place finish to world No.1 Lolo Jones in London on Saturday, where she clocked 12.61.

“Through the race I felt I was very close to Brigitte, so when I saw her time I thought ‘yeah I was real close’ this must be a personal best…to have broken the Australian record is fabulous,” McLellan said.

Since leaving Australia for this European campaign, McLellan has run quicker than her 2007 Australian record time of 12.71 on three occasions, taking her young career to a new level.

The 21-year-old now heads to the Australian athletics team training camp in Hong Kong before moving to Beijing for the first round of the women’s 100m hurdles on 17 August.

In an impressive final international meeting before Beijing, Commonwealth Games 1500m silver medallist Sarah Jamieson finished second in the metric mile in a time of 4:03.03 behind Russian Nataliya Panteleeva who won with 4:02.56. Jameson led until 50m remaining before Panteleeva dashed to the lead.

Steeplechaser Youcef Abdi demonstrated again that he has also risen to a new level in 2008, clocking an equal personal best time of 8:18.34 to finish third.  France’s Mahiedine Mekhissi claimed the victory in 8:17.22, with Kenyan Wesley Kiprotich second in 8:17.95.  Abdi’s time is the same as he clocked in Heusden last year and is the second fastest ever run by an Australian.

Pole vaulter Alana Boyd set a new personal best, clearing 4.56m.  However such is the ever increasing standard in the women’s pole vault, the performance was good enough for only 8^th place.  World record breaking machine, Yelana Isinbayeva of Russia, continued her dominance of the event.  Isinbayeva recently made the Principality her residence and celebrated in front of her new home crowd to once again raise her own world mark, this time to 5.04m – one centimetre higher than the mark she set in Rome on 11 July.

Commonwealth Games 400m champion John Steffensen finished 7^th in the 400m, clocking 46.20, with Great Britain’s Martin Rooney the winner in a new personal best of 44.72.

In other results, Asafa Powell dashed to a season’s best 9.82 in the 100m, Portugal’s Naide Gomes set a new national record to win the long jump with 7.12m, Jamaican Melanie Walker showed that despite the absence of Jana Rawlinson, the women’s 400m will be a high quality affair, clocking 53.43, the world’s fastest this year, in the 400m hurdles

2008 World’s Fastest Times - Women’s 100m Hurdles - as at July 29, 2008