05.03.2009

Powell runs hot in cold Melbourne

Jamaican sprint sensation Asafa Powell has tonight taken out the men’s 100m at the World Athletics Tour event in Melbourne but his efforts to crack the coveted 10-second mark were thwarted by tough conditions at Olympic Park. 

Whilst the conditions didn’t suit the Jamaican speedster, they didn’t hold back Olympic champion Steve Hooker, who sailed over 5.80m to collect his seventh consecutive win in 2009.

Battling a strong headwind Powell, the former world record holder and second fastest man of all time, held off countryman Nesta Carter to win the blue riband event in a time of 10.23 (-1.4).

“It was a bit cold, the wind was, you know, heavy, but I am still satisfied to run 10.23,” Powell said.

“The wind makes a lot of difference, I’m not feeling bad about that race because the wind was tough and the conditions were cold.

“I didn’t get out as well because I didn’t push too hard. I had to really push to get away from the guys so I did that really smoothly, I’m still the same person as last year.”

Three world championship A-qualifying standards were set in an action-packed night of athletics, with Dani Samuels (discus), Fabrice Lapierre (long jump) and Collis Birmingham (5000m) all defying the conditions to record the coveted Berlin qualifying mark.

Reigning Olympic champion Steve Hooker continued his winning spree in the men’s pole vault, his leap of 5.80m enough to hold off a quality field of local and international challengers including Olympic silver medallist, Russian Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, whose 5.60m leap fell well short of Hooker’s standard.

With victory in the bag Hooker raised the bar to the coveted six-metre mark but had no luck in his three attempts at the height.

“The tailwind helped me move through the poles in my set and the last pole I attempted was the biggest pole I’ve attempted all season,” Hooker said.

“I felt it was there, but the fact that the wind was a little blustery just made it a little difficult to predict where to put the stands.

“We probably had the best conditions of all the events, we generally had a tailwind all night.  It was a little bit blustery and a bit cold, but the rain stayed away and it was about as good as we could have hoped for I think.”

Sally McLellan continued her impressive run, taking out the double in the women’s 100m and 100m hurdles.

The Beijing silver medallist beat home Commonwealth Games champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton (JAM) in the hurdles in a wind-affected time of 13.07 (-2.0) before holding off young gun Melissa Breen to win the sprint in 11.57 (-1.5), well outside Melinda Gainsford-Taylor’s national record of 11.12 set in 1994.

McLellan said national pride was on the line tonight in her pet event.

“I wasn’t going to let (Foster-Hylton) beat me in my home country,” the 22-year-old said.

“Obviously there was a pretty strong headwind so just coming over the hurdles was a feat.”

But the night belonged to distance runner Collis Birmingham, who smashed his personal best time by almost five seconds to post a world championships A-qualifier in the men’s 5000m and claim his first national title.

Birmingham stormed home to win the race in a time of 13:16:27 and move past running great Ron Clarke to become the third-fastest Australian of all time over 5000m.

“I’m very pleased, it’s always good to run a PB and to do it by that much is even better,” Birmingham said.

Tonight’s result all but guarantees the 24-year-old’s ticket to the Berlin world championships in August.

“(Tonight) is the Australian Championships as well (for the 5000m) so I think I’ve done some of the selection already, there isn’t much more I’ve got to do except keep running well.”

Building on her victory over reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday night, Dani Samuels posted her second A-qualifier for the week in the women’s discus event with a throw of 62.69m.

Brown-Trafton finished sixth in the field with a throw of 56.37m.
   
To round out the A-qualifying efforts New South Welshman Fabrice Lapierre sailed to a massive 8.18m (+2.0) through the air to take out the men’s long jump ahead of Mitchell Watt. The leap was a new personal best for Watt, moving him to 9th on the Australian all-time list, and for Lapierre, the effort was just one centimetre shy of his lifetime best.

In other highlights:

•    Beijing Olympics bronze medallist David Oliver stormed home in the men’s 110m hurdles to win in 13.60 (-2.2) ahead of countryman Joel Brown (13.91) and Justin Merlino (14.25)

•    Tamsyn Lewis continued her domination of the women’s 400m, holding off a late challenge from Olympic 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker (JAM) to win the event for the second time in under a week following her win at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday night. Lewis won in a time of 51.86.

•    Lachlan Renshaw blitzed the field in the men’s 800m to finish ahead of Nick Bromley in 1:47:18. “I was really happy with how it went, I’ve been in base training so it was just good to come out and have a solid run,” he said.

•    Sarah Jamieson was pushed all the way by Kaila McKnight in the women’s 1500m but managed to edge out a win in a time of 4:11:62.

•    National 400m champion Sean Wroe claimed the highly-anticipated one-lap event in a time of 45.70 ahead of John Steffensen (46.65) and Joel Milburn (46.84).

•    In-form athlete of the season Tristan Thomas took out a 400m hurdles event that turned to carnage in the back straight. Thomas raced home in 50.67 in a race that claimed Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Bershawn Jackson to a hamstring injury and Felipe de Castro Cruz before the halfway mark. Speaking of the carnage Thomas said: “I wanted to stop and pick (Jackson) up because he is such a good bloke.”

The national series now moves to Brisbane for the 87th Australian Athletics Championships and Selection Trials, to be held from March 19-21 at Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre.

For full results from the World Athletics Tour Melbourne, click here.