19.06.2009

Breen keen on life in the fast lane

Ask any athlete where they find the motivation to push their bodies to the limit day after gruelling day and the answers are as varied as the day is long.

For rising sprint star Melissa Breen, it’s redemption. 

On the verge of the World University Games and her senior world championships debut, Breen is hard at work on the training track to bury the disappointment of narrowly missing out on the final of the 100m at the world junior championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2008.

Finishing third in her semi-final and forced to watch the major race from the stands, Breen is out to make amends in Belgrade next month ahead of her first world championships campaign in Berlin this August.

“Watching that final is why I got to the world championships because it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, to watch those girls run and know I’d done the work to be out there,” Breen said.

“That’s what gets me through my training sessions, because I know I’ve got to do all that hard work to get to the finals and it might not happen this year at world champs, we have to be a little bit realistic about things, but definitely for World Uni’s to make that final and just mix it up with the girls will be awesome.

“I was super nervous in Bydgoszcz because it was my first major international competition and I learned a lot from that, I learned a lot about myself and how I can control my emotions.

“Leading into the semi-finals I got too excited and I was really happy and I wasn’t as focused as I should be. I still had a job to do but I was just excited to run and I had to control my emotions and not get too hyped up because my job there was to run fast and my job wasn’t to make the semi’s, it was to make the final and I just missed out.”

But make no mistake, Breen is not one to dwell on her demons.

One of the rising stars of Australian athletics, Breen returned to the track fitter, faster and more fired up than ever before following the disappointment of the world junior championships.

Since returning from Bydgoszcz she has posted new personal best times over both the 100m (11.33, w:1.9) and 200m (23.51, w:0.6) ahead of the biggest few months of her burgeoning career.

On Sunday she will line up to contest her pet event at the Australian Institute of Sport before departing for Italy in the countdown to the World University Games. 

“It’s all going really well, I’ve been training awesomely, I’ve had no interruptions whatsoever so it’s just a matter of being confident and getting the right conditions and I know the fast times will come,” she said.

“It’s my last opportunity to run on my home track this weekend so I’ve got to make the most of it.

“The goal isn’t to run fast now because I want to do that at world champs but it would just be good to get out there, have a good run and to feel confident; you always love a PB but I want to run fast later in the year in August so it’s just a matter of keeping it going and just getting a bit faster every time I run.

“The finals are definitely my goal for both the 100m and 200m at the World Uni Games, I know I’m capable of that and then once you’re in the final anything is possible, you get a good start, you run hard and a medal could be up for grabs.”

And for the 18-year-old sprinter, the challenges just keep coming.

“It’s the scariest thing I ever will have done in my life so far to compete at the world championships level,” Breen said.

“My goal is to make it through the first round, to get to the quarter-finals would be awesome. Just to have two runs out there on that track, with that crowd, in that atmosphere would be awesome.

“Times are somewhat irrelevant I guess because you’re just going out there to race and you’ve just got to put it all on the line and conditions could be crappy, it could be rainy it could be windy, so I don’t really want to put a time on it, it’s just a matter of hopefully getting through the first round and just running hard and hopefully I could make the semi’s if I’m lucky.”

In other athletics action this weekend Australians Luke Adams, Tom Barnes, Chris Erickson, Jared Tallent and Claire Tallent will all line up to contest the 20km event at La Coruna, Spain, in the sixth round of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge.

Benita Johnson (5000m) and Collis Birmingham (1500m) will make a special appearance at the Scottish National Championships in Dunfermline.

On the Gold Coast Sally McLellan (100m hurdles, 100m, 200m), Alwyn Jones (triple jump), Tristan Thomas (400m), Madeleine Pape (800m), Justin Merlino (110m hurdles) and Ellen Pettitt (high jump) will be out in force and way out west Paul Burgess will return to the pole vault runway in Perth after recovering from a hand injury.

Berlin-bound Tamsyn Lewis will appear on Fox Sports News tonight (Fri 19 June) from 9pm. The world 800m indoor champion departs for Europe on Sunday.