12.05.2009

Fifty days to go: From Belgrade to Berlin

Fifty days out from the 25th World University Games, Lachlan Renshaw is counting down to Belgrade and looking ahead to Berlin.

The 22-year-old rising star of Australian athletics is just 50 days out from his second World University Games appearance and on the verge of his first world championships berth.

It’s a big year, full of big expectations.

“It’s definitely a big year and I’m aiming high, I want to try to make the final in Serbia and Berlin is definitely a target,” Renshaw said.

In a race against time to qualify for Berlin, the emerging 800m runner has until July 19 to gain selection to the world championships team.

With the qualification deadline looming large on the horizon, Renshaw will soon head to Europe in a bid to book his place on the start line in Berlin.

“I’m planning to get over to Europe and be in good shape to run fast over there so if everything goes to plan that should happen,” he said.

“I’m racing in Germany on June 24 and then in Spain three days later and then I’m off to the University Games where I can hopefully get a fast one out and we’ll see what happens after that heading into Berlin.”

The New South Welshman and member of Athletics Australia’s Target 2012 squad will take with him the confidence of a win at the Osaka Grand Prix at the weekend in the fourth leg of the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

The Beijing representative and former national champion over two laps of the track stopped the clock at 1:47.38 in Osaka to take out the event ahead of countrymen Jeff Riseley (1:47.59) and Ryan Gregson (1:47.94) in a clean sweep of the event.

“It was great, it was my first time over in Osaka and it’s kind of a funny time of year at the moment, we’re sort of in between our season and the European season so we’re just building and for the three of us to finish one-two-three was great,” Renshaw said.

“Ryan’s so young and he’s got such a great range of events from the 800m to the 5000m and to be running such a good 800m can only be good for his 1500m later on in the season.”

But for now Renshaw’s focus is firmly fixed on July’s World University Games and qualification for Berlin the following month.

“The University Games in the scheme of things is not a huge event, but it does give us the opportunity to get into that heat-semifinal-final environment on the international stage and there’s a lot of top athletes there and it’s really good practice,” he said.

“As (Athletics Australia high performance manager) Eric (Hollingsworth) has pointed out it’s basically a practice event for the Commonwealth Games, it gives us a chance to be in a competitive environment and perform with the world’s best.

“At the world championships it might be hard to be able to make it through to the final and put together three good races so the World University Games is just that step underneath where people of my standard at the moment can use it as a stepping stone onto the Commonwealth Games next year, then the world championships in Korea in 2011 and on to the London Olympics.”

Sharing the same pathway through to the London Games are Sean Wroe and Tristan Thomas, earmarked by Renshaw as athletes to watch in Belgrade.

“Sean Wroe will definitely be up there, Tristan is in great form at the moment and it would be great to see him try to emulate some of the performances he’s produced over the season and hopefully I’ll be up there as well,” he said.

The part-time commerce student at The University of Sydney takes into Belgrade the memory of his inaugural World University Games appearance in Bangkok in 2007, an experience he is quick to forgive but keen to forget.

“I got knocked out in the heats in Bangkok and I made a few mistakes and that definitely won’t be happening again, you learn from your experiences and I’m two years older, two years wiser and two years stronger now and a different athlete than I was then.”

Now, with just 50 days to go, Renshaw is fully focused on the job ahead.

“I’ll be training hard, building up and just getting ready to bust out a big one.”

Renshaw will be joined in Belgrade for the July 1-12 event by 38 future stars of Australian track and field, including 2009 world championships representatives Melissa Breen (100m), Dani Samuels (shot put, discus) and Adam Rutter (20km walk).