26.03.2009

Lewis looks to world stage

To many in the stands in Brisbane last weekend, Tamysn Lewis’ win in the 400m hurdles seemed an overnight success but the 30-year-old Victorian has been plotting her rise for months.

As nine-time national champion and reigning world indoor champion in the 800m, Lewis’ defect to the one-lap hurdles event has surprised many within the athletics community.

Her rapid rise to win the national title has surprised almost all.

But for Lewis and brother/coach Justin, the national championship has been many months in the making and is just another step along the road to achieving her goal of an international-level final.

“(Justin) watched the Beijing Olympics very carefully and he sent me a text while I was overseas,” Lewis said.

“I got it and read it and thought, ‘this is a bit strange’ because he said to me, ‘that’s it, you’re running the 400m hurdles'.

“I called him and he said, 'yep, Marty’s going to coach you'.

“Marty (Barrow) is a 110m hurdler and he’s already in my training group so I got back from Beijing and had a month off and took some downtime and got straight into the hurdling but I’ve not done anywhere near enough.”

While Lewis has reigned supreme on the national 800m circuit for more than a decade, her future in the sport came down to a simple game of numbers.

“You’ve obviously got the great athletes in (the 400m hurdles) like Jana (Rawlinson), Melaine (Walker), the Russian girl (Yuliya) Pechonkina and there’s obviously a few others, but the depth does (wane) a lot more than the women’s 800m does,” she said.

“I remember when I was a kid and we had (Catherine) Freeman racing (Melinda) Gainsford and there was Tania van Heer and Nova (Peris) and there was so much depth that it pushed you to run really fast.

“I think if Lauren (Boden), Jana and I can work together we can be a real force overseas.”

While Lewis is the first to admit she has a long way to go to gain that long-coveted place in an international final, she has the motivation – and the belief – to make it happen.

“I did (say) that I wouldn’t be doing it unless I thought I could do it,” she said.

“My goal is to make a world final and if I believe I’m closer to it in the 400m hurdles, I’ll do the 400m hurdles.

“I think the thing that my coaches will take out of (Saturday night’s) run will be that I hurdled appallingly. I stuttered at nearly every (hurdle) coming home.

“I just ran at that last hurdle like there was no tomorrow, I was either going to hit it and fall or make it over and chase (Boden) down so the 800m helped at the end of that.”

Having gone over the hurdles only a handful of times in her career, Saturday night’s win in a time of 56.27 was a surprise even to Lewis, delivering her a new personal best (formerly 57.90), national title, B-qualifying time and selection to the world championships team in both the 400m and hurdles events.

“That was so exciting, I just did not expect to win at all,” she said after the win.

“My (coaches) said to me last week I was doing (this event) at nationals and I nearly decked them, I swear to God I thought, ‘oh my goodness,’ I had only run four of these things and I hadn’t got through a race without hitting one so I thought they were crazy but I guess I owe them a dinner after all this.

“It’s really exciting when you do a new event, I’ve come to nationals and run 400m and 800m and won them before but this is like my first nationals again.

“I didn’t expect to win my first national back when I was 19 and I didn’t expect to win this so it’s so, so exciting.

But whatever success lies ahead for Tamsyn Lewis, nothing will take away from her heroics in Valencia in 2008.    

“The (800m) world indoor gold medal is the best thing I’ve ever, ever done,” she said.

“It was the best day of my life… I wouldn’t give that day up for the world.”