17.09.2009

City Games to reignite great English rivalry

The countdown is now on to this weekend’s Great North City Games, where five members of Australia’s world championships team will again don the green and gold to spearhead the Aussie charge.

The inaugural event sees 26 of Australia’s top athletes take on a quality line-up of English track and field stars, all out to stake their claim on the long-standing rivalry between the two great sporting nations on the streets of Newcastle.

Kicking off the action for Australia tomorrow afternoon will be James Filshie and Joel Pocklington in the men’s pole vault, with Scott Martin and Dale Stevenson to line up in the men’s shot put.

Filshie, who boasts a personal best height of 5.25m, and Pocklington, who placed 12th at the World University Games in Belgrade in July, will take on Britons Steve Lewis, seventh at last month’s world championships, and Luke Cutts, who finished 13th in Berlin.

Joining them in the action on day one of the Games will be Aussie powerhouses Martin and Stevenson, who meet UK duo Carl Fletcher and Jamie Williamson.

Martin, a stalwart of the Australian athletics circuit with Olympic, Commonwealth and world championships representation to his name and a 25th place in Berlin last month, is one of the most experienced campaigners on the Australian team and as captain, will no doubt be looking to get the meet off to a good start on Friday night.

Lining up alongside the skipper is Dale Stevenson, who placed 21st in the shot put and 15th in the discus throw at the World University Games in July.

On Saturday the program heats up with the women’s 100m hurdles set to get the action under way along the river Tyne. To be contested on a specially constructed four-lane 200m track, the event will feature former world youth, world junior and Commonwealth Games representative and recent fifth place-getter at the World University Games, Lauren Boden.

She will be joined on the start line by Jump Start to London athlete Shannon McCann, the reigning U23 national 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles champion and a rising star of the sport.

Donning the red and white for England will be Sarah Claxton, fifth in her semi-final at the Berlin world championships and a two-time Olympian, and young gun Zara Hohn.

In the men’s 110m hurdles event, World University Games representative John Burstow joins U20 national 100m, 200m and 110m hurdles champion Daniel Martin in taking on England’s Andy Turner, fifth in his heat at last month’s world championships in Berlin and a two-time Olympian, and Will Sharman, who finished just outside the medals at the world titles, crossing the line in fourth.

The women’s two-mile race sees a strong band of Australians in action, with 2004 world cross country champion Benita Willis joining reigning national 10,000m champion Lara Tamsett on the streets of Newcastle.

A four-time world championships representative, three-time Olympian and two-time Commonwealth Games contender, Willis enters the event as one of the most highly-credentialed athletes on the program as she looks towards a fourth Olympic Games appearance in London in 2012.

Rounding out the Australian start list are Nikki Chapple and Eloise Wellings, who together with Willis and Tamsett will face English quartet Katrina Wooton, Emily Pidgeon and cross country specialists Charlotte Purdue and Faye Fullerton.

The mile event will showcase some of the rising stars of Australian middle distance running, with U23 national 800m and 1500m champion Kelly Hetherington joining U20 national champion over the same two distances Selma Kajan in the action. Katherine Katsanevakis and Holly Noack will also line up. They are set to take on local hopes Lisa Dobriskey, Jenny Meadows, Jemma Simpson and Hannah England.

Dobriskey, the silver medallist over 1500m in Berlin and 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist over the same distance, is one of the spearheads of the English team and will no doubt be out to assert her dominance over the mile this Saturday night.

The men’s mile sees Collis Birmingham, Nick Bromley, Mitch Kealey and Brad Woods take on English hopes Andy Baddley, Mo Farah, Shaun Moralee and Mark Draper.

Birmingham, 16th in Berlin over 5000m and Baddeley, who contested the semi-finals of the 1500m at the same meet, headline the event.

In the long jump pit, World University Games representatives Shaun Fletcher (sixth) and Henry Frayne (12th) take on Greg Rutherford, fifth in Berlin with 8.17m (0.7), and Chris Tomlinson, eighth with a leap of 8.06m (-0.2).

The men’s 60m sprint pits recent world titles 4x100m relay runners Anthony Alozie and Matt Davies against world championships relay bronze medallist Tyrone Edgar and young English talent Richard Kilty.

Davies will back up for the 150m event alongside Berlin teammate Sean Wroe, who placed eighth over 400m at the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, Greece at the weekend, to take on British sprint sensation Marlon Devonish, seventh in his semi-final over 200m in Berlin and a two-time Olympian, and Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun.

Athletics fans can catch all the action from Newcastle at midday this Sunday, September 20 on ONE HD and be the first with all the news and results live at athletics.com.au all weekend.

The Great North City Games will be followed on Sunday by the Great North Run.

On Sunday, November 29 the Great Run series heads to Melbourne for the Great Australian Run. The 15km run through the streets of Melbourne will start and finish at Albert Park. Enter at www.greataustralianrun.com.au