News
World Athletics Tour - Melbourne highlights this Sunday on Network Ten
Re-live the highlights from the 2009 World Athletics Tour - Melbourne on Network Ten this Sunday (March 15) from 4pm.
Six reigning Olympic champions were in action at Olympic Park, where a stellar cast of local and international stars assembled for the 22nd edition of the renowned Melbourne meet.
A wicked headwind may have thwarted Asafa Powell’s attempt at his first sub-10 second run on Australian soil, however it didn’t stop pole vaulter Steve Hooker who collected his seventh consecutive win of 2009.
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.
Battling a strong headwind, Powell, the former world record holder and second fastest man of all time, held off fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter to win the blue riband 100m event in a time of 10.23 (-1.4).
Reigning Olympic champion Steve Hooker recorded his seventh consecutive victory 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.
Sally McLellan continued her impressive season, taking out the women’s 100m and 100m hurdles double. The Beijing silver medallist defeated Commonwealth Games champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton (JAM) in the hurdles in 13.07 (-2.0) before holding off young gun Melissa Breen to win the sprint in 11.57 (-1.5).
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.
2009 World Athletics Tour – Melbourne review and results
2009 World Athletics Tour – Melbourne - 60 minute highlights package
Network Ten
Sunday, 15 March 2009
4 - 5pm
Please check your local guides
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletters to keep up to date with Athletics in Australia.
More Headlines
_stack_WEB_4e0d093feac62.jpg)
