30.12.2009

Pittman-Rawlinson 'an athlete again' in Devonport

Dual world 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman-Rawlinson has declared herself an athlete again following the second day of competition at Tasmania's Devonport Athletics Carnival, where the 27-year-old Gold Coast-based athlete has launched her long-awaited return to the track.

With just three races to her name in over two years, Pittman-Rawlinson has turned on a solid two-day hit-out at the Devonport grass track, today adding two 200m runs and an 800m outing to the 400m and three 70m events she contested on day one of competition.

Running off eight metres in the 200m handicap event, Pittman-Rawlinson stopped the clock at 24.76 in her heat before backing up with a consistent 24.70 in the semi-final, qualifying third fastest for the deciding round but opting to sit the race out.

Following the withdrawal of Beijing Olympian Lisa Corrigan from the 800m, Pittman-Rawlinson took on the backmarker's role with a 30m handicap over the two-lap distance, the hurdles specialist starting 20m behind her nearest rival but eventually pegging back the field to cross the line in third place in 2:09.54.

After pulling up well from her second successive day of action in Devonport, Pittman-Rawlinson tonight declared she was on track in the lead-up to the 2010 Australian Athletics Tour and April's 88th Australian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials.

“Please tell the people at Athletics Australia to put me back on the mailing list, I am an athlete again and I'll need to know what competitions are coming up,” she joked.

With just the second 800m race of her career tonight under her belt, Pittman-Rawlinson said she would now look to include more two-lap events on her race calendar.

“I love the 800m, I have to get a bit serious about it though because I plan to run quite a few of them now,” she said.

The Devonport meet marks Pittman-Rawlinson's first competitive appearance since reuniting with coach and husband Chris Rawlinson last month and first hit-out on the track since injury forced her withdrawal from the Berlin world championships in August, a hamstring problem caused by a bulging disc in her back railroading her world title defence.

Also in action in Devonport tonight was Australian Flame athlete and world championships 4x400m relay bronze medallist Tristan Thomas, who as the backmarker (nine metres) in the final of the 200m handicap dead-heated for fifth place in 21.20.

The athletics community will now turn its attention to the world cross country selection trials in Melbourne on Sunday, January 17, and the first leg of the all-new Australian Athletics Tour in Canberra on Saturday, January 30, where state pride is on the line at the annual Australia Cup.

With The Examiner, Launceston