25.05.2009

Breen, Thomas set for next hurdle

In the countdown to the World University Games and 12th IAAF world championships in Berlin, The Canberra Times reporter John-Paul Moloney took time out at the track this week to touch base with two of Australia's top athletics prospects.

On the eve of a huge few months for track and field followers the world over, all is on track for this Canberra couple, Moloney reports.

She's one of the brightest hopes on the Australian sprinting landscape. He's the nation's new hurdles sensation and a self-appointed hero to flame-haired kids everywhere.

Together Canberra-based Melissa Breen and Tristan Thomas are establishing themselves as Australian athletics' hottest couple, raising hope of success at the Berlin world championships and well beyond.

Breen, 18, showed in 2008 that Aussie female sprinting had a bright future, winning the 200m national title in a world-class time while still at school.

Thomas, who turned 23 on Saturday, has shot into the top three of the 400m hurdles world rankings, putting the likes of world champion Kerron Clemont on notice that this Aussie won't play nice in Berlin.

They started dating in 2006, two years after Thomas moved to Canberra from Tasmania on an AIS scholarship. While Breen isn't supported by the AIS, instead training under local coach Matt Beckenham, it was at the institute track that they caught each other's eye.

In the three years since they've overcome fluctuations in each other's fortunes - including Thomas's long lay-off with osteitis pubis - to reach this point where both have
been selected in the Australian squad for the world titles in August.

Breen said the excitement and nerves were already building for them ahead of their arrival on the sport's second-biggest stage.

"It gets you through the hardest sessions, because you've got something to look forward to at the end," Breen said.

You have to spend only a few moments in their company to realise the differences between Breen and Thomas extend well beyond their track disciplines.

It's not the age gap, although Thomas said he felt compelled to ask permission from Breen's mum before asking the then 15-year-old out three years ago.

In Breen's eyes you see the quiet and fierce determination of someone who has wanted to win in front of thousands since she was a 10-year- old sitting among the roaring crowd at the Sydney Olympics.

She's more guarded and admits she's more absorbed by her own athletics performances than her boyfriend is by his.

Thomas is instantly revealed as gregarious, funny and more than a little off-beat. He's known for his sincere interest in and care for his squadmates, riding the highs and lows of his athlete friends.

He grabbed headlines early this year with his pro-redhead oration after his stunning victory over Olympic bronze medallist Bershawn Jackson of the US in the 400m hurdles in Sydney.

"For all those little kids getting picked on at school, this is for you guys. Believe in your dreams and you can do anything," he said after the win.

As Thomas explained this week, that wasn't just a throw-away line. It was a statement fed by insecurities from his childhood, which he spent in part in southern Ireland with his mum but mainly in Tasmania with his dad.

"I was a little, skinny, red-haired kid with an Irish accent, and it's not that you get teased, but you don't sit very high on the social ladder," Thomas said.

"I guess when you're growing up and becoming the man you are, that's something that was built into me. Through athletics and through having a beautiful girlfriend like Mel, self belief is something that's growing for me."

Belief in Thomas is something his coach Craig Hilliard has in abundance. He thinks Thomas has the potential to not only reach the final of his first world titles but to threaten the likes of Clemont if he lies in striking distance late in the race.

Hilliard described Thomas as "like a great racehorse... he's a great track worker but you know on race day there's another five per cent there."

The trick for Thomas, Hilliard said, was getting his head sorted out.

"He's a guy that if things aren't resolved in his mind, he doesn't rest easy. Those things will keep turning around in his mind until he's solved them and that'll keep him awake at night.

"That can be frustrating because I then know it impacts on his training, whether it's work, study, a whole heap of things. It's like his mind is in perpetual motion."

Different they may be, but Breen and Thomas the couple seem to be the best thing for Breen and Thomas the individual athletes.

In fact Thomas credits Breen with keeping him in the sport.

"When I was injured, if it wasn't for Melissa I'd have gone nuts, I'd have gone spare," he said.

"If I didn't have such a great outlet in Melissa, you'd be sitting around residence getting depressed and who knows what I would have done, I may have left the institute or walked away from sport altogether. In hindsight, as hard as that time was, I was still really happy back then because of this exciting relationship I had.

"It meant I didn't have to self pity all the time because I had something amazing anyway."

For her part, Breen is full of admiration for Thomas, whose refusal to succumb to the pain of hard training was partly inspiring, partly infuriating.

"He's gutsy as," she said.

"He trains till he dies and still walks afterwards. He never lies down after a hard session, I don't know how he can do that."

Exciting as it is to travel around the world together, both say being in a relationship with a fellow athlete has its challenges.

They and their coaches met recently to discuss the potential issues that could arise at the major meets leading to the world championships.

An obvious one is what to do if one performs well and the other badly.

Breen admitted she sometimes found it hard to enjoy a Thomas triumph when she was unhappy with her own performance.

"Sometimes you just want to go to your coach and completely blow up and the last thing you want is someone there hugging you," she said.

Another complication is getting their preparations right. Breen likes isolation before an event, Thomas craves company.

Their compromise is spending lots of time together a few days before an event, but letting Breen have her own space the night before.

When it comes to race day, both agree that their relationship has to be kept off the track.
 
Breen said, "It's not about shutting down the relationship, it's about getting there with your game face on. You're there to compete, you're not there to hold hands."

Thomas added, "On race day you become an animal that has to run. You do that in your own way, but at that time you're not necessarily the kind of person you'd want to be around your girlfriend or boyfriend."

The Breen-Thomas partnership will tackle the World University Summer Games in Serbia in July. It will be its main test run before the world championships.

While Breen said there still hadn't been a race meet where both of them had been happy with their efforts, she feels "it's bound to happen".

Perhaps Berlin will be that place where this fast-moving couple really gets its act together.

By John-Paul Moloney
www.canberratimes.com.au