08.05.2009

All eyes on Osaka

With under 100 days to go before the 12th IAAF world championships roll into Berlin, the action steps up a gear this weekend at the Osaka Grand Prix.

A troop of Aussie track and field stars will be in action at the Nagai Stadium in the fourth leg of the IAAF World Athletics Tour, home to the world championships in 2007, as the countdown continues towards Berlin.

Headlining the Australian contingent will be Tamsyn Lewis, who after taking out the 400m hurdles at Shizuoka last weekend will line up in the 400m flat, Beijing Olympics silver medalist Sally McLellan (100m), Melissa Breen (100m), Lauren Boden (400m hurdles), Kim Mickle (javelin), national 400m champion Sean Wroe and Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen (400m), young gun Tristan Thomas (400m hurdles), Lachlan Renshaw, Jeff Riseley and Ryan Gregson (800m) and members of the men’s and women’s sprint relay teams.

For the women’s 4x100m relay team the Osaka meet is the final chance to qualify for a berth at Berlin, all bets now hedged on meeting the 43.90 qualifying standard set by Athletics Australia for entry to the world championships in tomorrow’s run.

In the mix to line up for Australia are Lewis, McLellan, Breen, Jody Henry and Alicia Wrench-Doody, who touched down in Osaka earlier this week to take part in a three-day training camp ahead of the Osaka Grand Prix.

Under the guidance of Sharon Hannan, coach of Sally McLellan and one of the top sprint coaches in the nation, the team will be looking to shore up its place on the Berlin start line this weekend.

Josh Ross, Aaron Rouge-Serret, Matt Davies and Daniel Martin will contest the men’s 4x100m relay, with Ross, Rouge- Serret and Davies also set to start in the individual 100m.

But the event to watch in Osaka is likely to be the men’s 400m, which sees Australian one-lap champion Sean Wroe and 2006 Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen line up against Olympic silver medalist Jeremy Wariner (USA) and countryman and bronze medalist at the Beijing Games, David Neville.

Early in the international season Wariner, one of the most dominant one-lappers in the history of the event, has already run 45.06.

For Wroe, who posted a personal best time of 45.07 at the national championships in March, the event launches a hectic lead-in to Berlin that will see the 24-year-old compete at the World University Games in Serbia before races in Lucerne, London and Stockholm.

Steffensen will take a 2009-best time of 45.51 into the event but with a lifetime best of 44.73, has the potential to better that mark this weekend.

The top local hope in the field is former high school sensation Yuzo Kanemaru, whose recent 45.27 is the second best of his career and holds him in good stead to at last crack the elusive 45-second barrier.

In the women’s 400m field Tamsyn Lewis will start favourite, her season best time of 51.42 more than a second ahead of the form Japanese 400m record holder Asami Tanno takes into the event.

Rising star Lauren Boden will be up against a strong field in the women’s 400m hurdles, the one-lap race to feature three of the eight finalist at last year’s Beijing Olympics including silver medallist Sheena Tosta (USA) and bronze medallist Tasha Danvers (USA).

Boden takes into the event a personal best time of 56.11 set in Canberra in March, while of the three Olympic contenders Tiffany Williams, who finished eighth in Beijing, has the fastest time this season of 55.36.

Danvers enters the event with a season best time of 57.15 while Tosta is yet to run a 400m hurdles this season and will enter the race as the dark horse.

In-form athlete of the Australian season Tristan Thomas will line up in the men’s 400m hurdles, the 22-year-old national title-holder set to race alongside former national champion Brendan Cole in the event.

Thomas enters Osaka in blistering form, setting 11 personal best times over the 100m, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles and 800m in the 2008/09 domestic season and claiming the international scalps of Olympic bronze medalist Bershawn Jackson (USA) and Commonwealth Games champion LJ van Zyl (RSA) at the Sydney Track Classic along the way.

The meet sets up an exhaustive few months for the Tasmanian, who will travel to Serbia for the World University Games in July then look to races in Lucerne, Zaragoza, London and Stockholm ahead of the world championships in August.  
 
In other action, the men’s 800m is shaping up as a battle between Australians Lachlan Renshaw, Ryan Gregson and Jeff Riseley.

Of the Aussie trio it’s Renshaw who boasts the fastest personal best time, his 1:45.79 of last year edging out Riseley’s 1:46.35 and Gregson’s 1:51.42, both set in 2007.  

Kaila McKnight will contest the women’s 1500m and in the field Chris Noffke takes on the men’s long jump.

Lewis, Boden, Madeleine Pape and Pirenee Steinert will line up in the women’s 4x400m relay.