01.05.2009

Lewis leaps onto world stage

Tamsyn Lewis will this weekend continue her ascent in the 400m hurdles when she lines up at Shizuoka, Japan, en route to her world championships debut in the event in Berlin in August.

The 30-year-old Victorian stunned the athletics community in March when she took out the national 400m hurdles title in one of her first real attempts at the event.
 
Her rapid rise to the top of the one-lap run has take Australian athletics by storm but not until Sunday afternoon will she test her mettle on the international stage.

Lewis, a long-time 800m runner and nine-time national champion in the two-lap event, announced her switch to the hurdles earlier this year and was quick to assert her intent, edging out Lauren Boden in the national final to claim her 15th senior Australian championship.

The track stalwart followed up the win with selection to the 400m hurdles at this year's IAAF world championships, named alongside reigning world champion Jana Rawlinson in the event.

But despite her remarkable record on Australian soil, it is international success that remains the motivating force for Lewis almost two decades into her athletics career.

While her defection from the 800m to the one-lap hurdles event seems to many an overnight success story, team Lewis has been planning the switch since the 400m hurdles final at last year’s Beijing Olympics where brother and coach Justin Lewis noted a lack of depth in the field on a worldwide scale. 

With the desire to achieve her long-held dream of racing a major international final still burning strong, Lewis has turned her attention to an all-new event and will for the first time this weekend be put to the test against an international field.

While there is no pressure from within the Lewis camp to set the Shizuoka track on fire this weekend, the run will provide valuable experience for the 30-year old as she adjusts to life as a competitive hurdler.

For Lewis, who had her first hit-out over the 400m hurdles only in mid-January this year, every lap of the track is a learning curve en route to the final destination.

In these early days of the international athletics season, the Japanese series is a golden opportunity for Lewis to hone her technique ahead of the major athletics meets to follow.

She will be joined at the Shizuoka event by fellow Australian Brendan Cole, also set to line up in the 400m hurdles before a larger Australian contingent heads to the Land of the Rising Sun ahead of the Osaka leg of the Japanese circuit.

Lewis, scheduled to race the 400m in Osaka on May 9, will be joined by Cole, Melissa Breen (100m), Sally McLellan (100m), Kaila McKnight (1500m), Lauren Boden (400m hurdles), Kim Mickle (javelin throw), Sean Wroe (400m), Jeff Riseley (800m), Ryan Gregson (800m) and members of the men’s and women’s sprint relay teams at the event.

In other athletics action this weekend, Australian runners will contest the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University, California, in this week’s edition of the college track and field circuit.

Lining up at the event are Zoe Buckman (800m), Craig Huffer (800m), Shawn Forrest (10,000m) and Ben Ashkettle (10,000m), with Michael Shelley rated an outside chance to contest the 10,000m following his hit-out in the same event last weekend.

And on European shores, Round 4 of the IAAF Race Walking Challenge heads to Sesto San Giovanni, Italy, where the world’s best walkers will do battle as the countdown to Berlin gains momentum. Read the full preview of the event here.

Stay tuned to www.athletics.com.au for up-to-the-minute news and results right across the weekend.