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Personal Bests for Breen and Riseley
There were personal bests for both Melissa Breen (ACT) in the 100m and Jeffrey Riseley (Vic) in the 800m on Tuesday night in Europe.
Breen finished second to Tiffany Townsend (USA) in Lucerne (SUI). Her time of 11.27 (wind: +2.0m/s) was three-hundredths faster than her previous best set in Japan in April.
The double national champion said: “I had an awesome warm-up today, I felt really relaxed and excited to run. I’ve had a few up and down meets since being in Europe, some have been really windy and I’ve run okay while others I’ve had headwinds and not been so fast.
“Today I felt really good. It’s the third time I’ve been here so I felt relaxed nothing was new or scary.
“I remember thinking about reacting to the gun, that’s something Sal’s (Pearson) taught me. She told me not to overthink things too much, just know that you have to react and your body will know what to do. She told me ‘just listen for that gun and when it goes you go like there’s no tomorrow.’ So for that, Sal, thanks.
“I felt I got out well, I don’t remember much of the race I just remember crossing the finishing line and thinking surely I’m under 11.30. When I saw the time I didn’t know what the wind was, I hoped it was legal and it was.
“I think it’s about time I had some luck with the wind. I had a few tears, I was very happy. It’s pretty amazing.”
“This is the best prep I could ever have thought of. To run a PB in Europe is awesome. Two or three years ago in Europe I struggled severely with runningfast or running well at all so I guess this is testimony as to how far Matt(Beckenham – coach) and I have come in the last five years.
“We’ve come to Europe, I’m going to the Olympics and I’ve run a PB. Life’s pretty awesome right now.”
Riseley finished in second place in 1:44.48 at the Lignano Sabbiadoro Meeting (ITA)behind Kenya’s Job Kinyor (1:44.39). It is the first time the Australian Olympian has dipped under the 1:45.00 mark this season beating his previous season’s best by over one second.
Lachlan Renshaw (NSW) finished seventh in the same race in a season’s best of 1:45.75. Meanwhile also in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Henry Frayne (Qld) won the men’s long jump with a best of 7.80m (wind: +0.5m/s).
Also in Lucerne with Breen was Lauren Boden (ACT), who clocked 56.98 in the 400mH to finish in seventh, while in the field Alana Boyd’s (WA) 4.51m was enough for second in the pole vault where Kate Dennison (GBR) won with 4.56m.
Kim Mickle’s (WA) best of 60.97m in the javelin secured third place for the world championship finalist, which follows her season’s best at the London Diamond League last Friday.
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