27.04.2009

Gibney Athlete of the Meet at Penn Relays

Australia’s men’s distance medley relay team has placed fifth at the Penn Relays event in the USA as fellow Australian Matthew Gibney was named College Athlete of the Meet.

Australia crossed the line in 9:36:64 as Craig Huffer (1200m), John Steffensen (400m), Nick Bromley (800m) and Ryan Gregson (1600m) took it right up to the world at the annual Championship of America event.

Huffer led the team out in 2:58.39 before handing the baton to Steffensen (45:20), Bromley (1:49.12) and Gregson (4:03.93), the team running home in fifth place behind Kenya in a winning time of 9:22.04.

Gibney, of Villanova University in Pennsylvania, took out Athlete of the Meet honours following his inspired come-from-behind victory in the college distance medley relay, clocking 3:58.40 over 1600m.

The young Aussie stormed home in the final leg to take Villanova to victory, their first win since 2001.

Gibney said the win was a great result for the university.

“I know how much this means to Villanova, especially (teammates) Sean (Tully) and Elvis (Lewis) who are seniors and have been fairly close before,” he said.

“I really just wanted to earn it for everyone else because everybody at ‘Nova cares about it so much.”

Participating in the first race of his career at the carnival in front of an energised crowd of almost 40,000, Gibney was quick to gain a sense of the prestige of the Penn Relays event.

“Before I started talking to Villanova I’d never heard of the Penn Relays before,” he said.

“When I was being recruited and talking to the guys here, it came up again and again and (over) the last couple of months I’ve got a sense of how important it is.

“The first time I ever spoke to (coach) Marcus (O’Sullivan) it was the beginning of the season and he said, ‘If you run a good mile at Penn Relays and do nothing else all season, I’ll be happy,’ so that was a heads-up as to when to be ready to go.”

Following Gibney’s run O’Sullivan took back that comment, saying he expected continued success from the Australian runner.

“I’m pretty impressed by what he’s done although I take back that comment about if that’s the only thing (he does) all year,” O’Sullivan said.

Gibney backed up his effort in the distance medley event with a run of 4:05.50 in the mile relay on Saturday.

Full results from the Penn Relays are at www.pennrelaysonline.com