07.06.2010

Gregson, Corrigan strike gold in Leonora

Australian Flame athlete and national 1500m champion Ryan Gregson and 2008 Olympian and national mile record-holder Lisa Corrigan have taken out Australia’s richest mile foot race, the Leonora Golden Gift, in Leonora, Western Australia, at the weekend.

World championships representative and Commonwealth Games nominee Ryan Gregson stormed home over the final 150m on his Leonora debut to cross the line in 4:16.93 ahead of 19-year-old Brett Robinson (4:18.29), who will line up over 1500m at next month’s world junior championships, and fellow Delhi ticket-holder Jeremy Roff (4:18.75).

In the women's race, Lisa Corrigan (4:47.51) led the field from start to finish to claim her third Leonora title and first win for the season over New South Wales rival Bridey Delaney, who placed second in 4:47.86.

Gregson and Corrigan each took home $7500 and a gold nugget to the value of $1000 for their efforts in Leonora.

On the east coast, Sally Pearson (nee McLellan) headlined the action at the first meet of the 2010 Gold Coast winter series, clocking 12.97 (w:1.7) and 13.08 (w:3.3) to take out the two women’s 100m hurdles events on the program ahead of Jump Start to London athlete Shannon McCann (13.81 and 13.60).

On a big weekend of athletics for the Olympic silver medallist, Pearson also ran 11.41 (w:1.7)  in the heats of the women’s 100m, the quickest qualifying time of the three heats contested.

In the men’s 100m heats track veteran and New Delhi nominee Patrick Johnson posted the fastest time of the day with 10.50 (w:1.2) before recording 21.29 (w:1.5) in the heats of the men’s 200m.

Also on the track, national 800m champion Katherine Katsanevakis (2:02.89) took out the women’s two-lap event ahead of Olympic and world championships representative Madeleine Pape (2:05.06), the Australian Flame athlete going on to  take out the women’s 400m on day two of the meet in 54.30.

In the field, Commonwealth Games nominee Simon Wardhaugh took victory in the men’s hammer throw with a heave of 67.36m.

Just five weeks out from their departure for the 13th IAAF world junior championships in Moncton, Canada, next month, a host of Australian athletes were out in force across the weekend to finetune their preparations for the worldwide meet.

Travelling to the championships with form on their side will be Caitlin Sargent (100m), Rosie Lawson (100m hurdles), Anneliese Rubie (400m, 4x400m relay), Kuey Diew (800m, 4x400m relay), Tom Gamble (4x100m relay) and Steve Solomon (4x400m relay), who all hit pre-departure qualifying standards on the Gold Coast across the weekend.

Also turning on world junior championships pre-departure qualifiers around Australia this weekend were Patrick Fakiye (100m, 4x100m relay), Jake Hammond (200m,, 4x100m relay), Rhydian Cowley (10,000m walk), Dane Bird-Smith (10,000m walk), Ella Nelson (200m), Karlie Morton (200m), Brooke Stratton (long jump), Taryn Gollshewsky (discus throw), Paige Hooper (10,000m walk) and Regan Lamble (10,000m walk), who cut 59 seconds off her previous best time over 10,000m to set a new career-low mark of 47:13 at the Victorian Race Walking Club winter competition meet.

In overseas action this weekend, Victorian Craig Huffer has become Australia's newest sub-four minute miler, clocking 3:59.66 to place second at the Music City Distance Classic in Nashville, Tennessee (USA). Huffer is the 47th Australian to have gone under the four-minute barrier, a feat first acheived by athletics legend John Landy in Finland in 1954.

Also in the USA, former world cross country champion Benita Willis placed seventh in the 32nd annual Freihofer’s Run for Women in New York, crossing the line in 15:48.2. The three-time winner of the event (2006, 2007, 2008) mixed it with the lead group of African athletes well into the race, staying with the pace until hitting the ascent on the third kilometre.

"I was the only (non-African) who went with them," Willis said.

"I gave myself every shot to go for it."

Reigning IAAF world cross country champion Emily Chebet (KEN) took out the event in a course record time of 15:11.1.

Across the Tasman, Australians featured strongly in the Christchurch marathon and half marathon races on New Zealand's south island on Sunday. 

Reigning national half marathon champion Magda Karimali-Poulos took out the women’s 42.195km event in a time of 2:46.31, while in the men’s half marathon event Erwin McRae (2:46.31) and Ben Toomey (1:05.34) made it one-two for Australia, with world championships marathon man Scott Westcott placing fourth in 1:06.09. McRae’s winning time was a new personal best for the Canberra runner.

In the women’s half marathon, Commonwealth Games-bound athlete Lisa Flint finished second in 1:16.53 ahead of Tasmania’s Hanny Allston in 1:18.38. Kiwi Shireen Crumpton took out the event in 1:16.07.

Rounding out a big weekend for Australian athletes right around the world, Peter Nowill claimed the 3000m steeplechase event at the Sparkassen Gala in Regensberg (GER) in a time of 8:50.16, and Olympic and world championships steeplechase representative Youcef Abdi clocked 8:43.00 to place 12th at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme de Rabat in Morocco.