18.06.2009

Gregson, Riseley in form in Ostrava

Australians Jeff Riseley and Ryan Gregson have recorded personal best performances at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava overnight.

Two months out from his second world championships campaign, Riseley shaved almost a full second off his personal best time in the 800m to finish third in the ‘B’ event of the two-lap race.   

Twenty-two-year-old Riseley, who will line up in the 1500m in Berlin in August, finished in the B-qualifying time of 1:45.48 to better his previous best effort of 1:46.35 over the two-lap distance.

The performance moves him to number seven on the Australian all-time list and is the fastest performance by an Australian since Grant Cremer's 1:45.21 at the Seville world championships in 1999.

South African Samson Ngoepe (1:45.17) took out the race ahead of Kenya’s Jackson Kivuna who equalled his personal best time (1:45.29).

Gregson, the national U20 junior record holder over 1500m, finished 12th in the meet’s inaugural mile run, crossing the line in 3:59.67 behind Kenyan young gun Haron Keitany in 3:49.57.

Briton Andrew Baddeley (3:51.83) and Kenya’s Gideon Gathimba (3:52.98) rounded out the podium places.

The headline act of the meet didn’t fail to turn it on in the blue-riband event, Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt cruising to victory in 9.77 (+2.1) after a slow start.

"That’s probably the second worst start I ever had,” the world record holder said of his 0.206 reaction time, the slowest of the field.

"I saw that I was behind and I really wanted to run a fast time here, so I really pushed hard to get back. That’s why you saw me really dipping at the line. I’m always good in the second half and that was when I got back into the race.”

In other Australian results from the Czech Republic overnight, Fabrice Lapierre finished third in the long jump with a best leap of 8.13m (+1.5). 

The 25-year-old took the lead in the second round, but was passed by eventual winner Godfrey Mokoena of South Africa who jumped a season’s best 8.33m and Frenchman Salim Sdiri with 8.19m.

The result betters Lapierre’s previous two jumps of 8.02m in Eugene (Prefontaine Classic) and last Sunday’s 8.04m at the Berlin Golden League.

Two-time national steeplechase champion Youcef Abdi finished 13th in the 3000m steeplechase, a race that was dominated by the highly fancied Kenyan trio of Ezekiel Kemboi (8:09.55), BriminKipruto (8:09.95) and Paul Koech (8:10.22).

Abdi, selected to the steeplechase for the world track and field titles in August, crossed the line in 8:38.94, well behind the career best time of 8:16.36 he posted at the Beijing Olympics last year. 

The athletics action moves to La Coruna, Spain, this weekend for the sixth round of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge. Australians Luke Adams, Tom Barnes, Chris Erickson, Jared Tallent and Claire Tallent will all line up to contest the 20km course.

Benita Johnson (5000m) and Collis Birmingham (1500m) will make a special appearance at the Scottish National Championships in Dunfermline.

Closer to home the winter series continues to heat up on the Gold Coast and will this weekend see Sally McLellan (100m hurdles, 100m, 200m), Alwyn Jones (triple jump), Tristan Thomas (400m), Madeleine Pape (800m), Justin Merlino (110m hurdles) and Ellen Pettitt (high jump) in action.

ACT athlete and world championships debutante Melissa Breen will contest the 100m at the AIS on Sunday and Paul Burgess will return to the pole vault runway in Perth after recovering from a hand injury.