08.10.2009

On the Hunt for glory

Australian distance athletes Jeff Hunt and Cassie Fien are set to earn their international stripes this Sunday when they take on the world’s best at the 18th IAAF world half marathon championships in Birmingham, England.

For 27-year-old Hunt the road to the world titles has been near perfect, highlighted by a podium finish at the national cross country championships on his home course in Nowra, New South Wales, in August.

“My preparation and everything has been going really well, there are no complaints at all and I’m pretty excited to be going over there,” Hunt said.

Hunt, who gained selection to the world championships following his impressive fourth placing at the Gold Coast half marathon in July in a time of 1:02.44, finished second at the Australian cross country titles the following month, crossing the line in 39.37 behind Victorian rival Clint Perrett in 39.13. 

The New South Welshman, who clocked back-to-back personal best times over 10km on the Gold Coast, will take to the start line on Sunday looking to better that effort in the company of the world’s best distance runners.  

“I’m just looking to consolidate the performance I put in on the Gold Coast, so to run in the 62-minute bracket again as a minimum is what I’m after,” Hunt said.

“You can't go in and say top-20 or anything like that when I’ve never run a global championships before so I want to just put in a good performance and be happy with the result.”

Hunt has left nothing to chance in his preparation for the 21.1km run, clocking up countless kilometres en route to the Birmingham start line.

“Week in, week out it’s 160-170km, it’s consistent training with the same structure and regular maintenance,” he said.

“There’s nothing really specific you need to do when you’re training for a distance like this, it’s not like training for a 1500m or anything so it’s just a matter of keeping up the kilometres.”

Eritrean athlete Zersenay Tadese will start favourite in Birmingham and be joined on the start line by a host of African challengers and international hopefuls.

“Tadese would have to be a pretty strong favourite to take his fourth title in a row but the Kenyans have a really good team, their five guys are probably the five fastest guys in the field with the exception of Tadese so they’ll be looking for the team title and possibly even the individual title, anything can happen on the day,” Hunt said.

Following Sunday’s run Hunt will turn his attention to his first international marathon in Beppu, Japan, in February, where he hopes to kick-start his campaign for Commonwealth Games selection.

“My marathon debut will be in Beppu in Japan, which tends to be a race where guys run pretty well and I’ll be looking to run the qualifier there for the Commonwealth Games and hopefully my first really major track and field team will be the Commonwealth Games in the marathon or who knows, the 10km if I run fast enough at the Zatopek in December but the goal is that we think I’m going to be a good marathon runner,” he said.

With the Beppu marathon and Commonwealth Games selection in his sights, there will be no rest for Hunt following this weekend’s hit-out.

“I’m going to have a very easy week afterwards and then probably another half-easy week and then I’ve got to get prepared for the track season,” Hunt said.

“I’ll be doing the New South Wales 3000m and I’ve got a stint for two weeks up at Falls Creek at the end of November, then I’ll race the Zatopek and after that it’s back to Falls Creek for three weeks, the world cross country trials in Melbourne in January and then Beppu three weeks later.”

It’s a busy few months for the emerging marathon runner but for now all eyes are on the 18th IAAF world half marathon titles, where Hunt and Fien will carry the hopes of the nation along the Birmingham course.