04.02.2009

Big names set for Stromlo showdown

Entries have now closed and fields are confirmed for what is set to be one of the highest quality National Cross Country Selection Trials ever held in Australia.

This Sunday 92 of the best junior and senior distance runners from around the nation will converge once again on the world-class course at Stromlo Forest Park, Canberra, to vie for a berth on the team to contest the 37th World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan at the end of March.

While the forecast for the day is hot, the temperature is set to soar even further when the quality field takes on the Stromlo course.

Leading the charge in the senior men’s race will be Victorian Olympians Collis Birmingham, who last week clocked a World Championship B qualifier in the 5000m at the Briggs Classic in Tasmania, world half-marathon representative Lee Troop, Queenslander Michael Shelley, who clocked a World Championship B qualifier in the 10000m at the Zaptopek meet in December last year, and ACT fun run king and current Australian cross country champion Martin Dent.

Other names to watch throughout the six-lap circuit will include Liam Adams, Clint Perrett and Ben St Lawrence. A total of 29 athletes have entered the senior men’s 12km event.
 
The junior girl’s 6km race comprises multiple Australian representatives with Australian Ekiden Relay reserve Tamara Carvolth (QLD) up against ACT junior Emily Brichacek and NSW World Junior representative Chloe Tighe. Both Carvolth and Brichacek travelled to Scotland last year for the World Junior Cross Country Championships.

Hot on their heels will be NSW runner Hollie Emery and World Junior Mountain representatives Veronica Wallington and Lauren McKillop. The Victorian girls will also be up there with Grace Thek, Linden Hall, Samantha Carberry and Melissa Duncan all set to take the start line.
 
The 8km junior boys start list has intensified with new Australian Under 20 3000m record holder Richard Everest (SA) set to take on former Under 20 3000m record holder and 2008 World Junior representative Ryan Gregson. Everest enters the race in good form following his fourth place in the Briggs Classic 5000m event last week, going under 14 minutes for the first time.

But the record holder won't have it all his own way, with NSW athlete James Nipperess also set to line up at Stromlo Forest fresh from his win over Everest at the Zatopek Under 20 3000m last December and victory at the NSW 5000m Championships last month.

Seventeen-year-old Cameron Page, who clocked a quick 3000m time last November, will also be a threat. Other top contenders will include Harry Summers, who clocked a fast 5000m at the Briggs Classic last week, Brett Robinson, who finished third in the Zatopek Under 20 3000m just behind Nipperess and Everest, and 16-year-old Joshua Johnson, who has run both 1500m and 3000m world youth qualifying times.

The final race of the day, the senior women’s event, will be a battle of experience and youth for the 25 athletes entered in the 8km race.

Outstanding Victorian Olympian Lisa Weightman will be up against 20-year-old Australian 10000m champion Lara Tamsett (NSW), with Victorian Olympic triathlete Erin Densham also set to compete and hoping to improve on her eighth place in last year’s trials.

2008 World Cross Country and World University Cross Country representative Melinda Vernon is keen to again earn selection and NSW cross country champion Marnie Ponton will be returning to her home town to do battle over the four-lap course.
 
The selection trials will be started by four of Australia’s highest profile former athletes: Robert de Castella, Stromlo course designer, Australia’s fastest ever marathoner and arguably the country's best ever distance athlete; Shaun Creighton, multiple Olympian and World Cross Country representative and still the fastest Australian in the 3000m steeplechase and 10000m; Jackie Fairweather, former world triathlon champion and 2002 Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist and; Susan Hobson, one of Australia’s best female distance runners in the 1990s with multiple representations at both the Olympics and World Cross Country Championships.
 
Full entry lists for the Trials are available here.