02.10.2009

Fans get set for summer of stars

With the official start to summer now just two months away, the countdown is on to the 2009/10 Australian domestic season.

A massive summer of track and field action is in store for all fans, with Australia’s top athletics talents set to descend on meets across the country in the lead-up to the 88th Australian athletics championships and selection trials for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi, India.

The 2009/10 summer season will hot up in Hobart from December 4, when more than 1500 athletes and 270 officials are expected to take part in the largest event on the domestic calendar, the Australian All Schools and Youth Championships.

Inspired by the legend of Emil Zatopek, the annual Zatopek:10 will be held on December 10 with the feature 10,000m men’s and women’s races doubling as the national championship and Commonwealth Games selection trials for the event.

In a bumper evening of athletics, the Zatopek:10 will feature an action-packed program with some of Australia’s finest track and field talent on show. First run in 1962, the Zatopek:10 is one of  the strongest brands in Australian athletics and in 2009 the 47th edition of the race will again showcase the cream of Australian and international distance running at Melbourne's Olympic Park.

In January Melbourne will play host to the 2010 IAAF world cross country championships selection trials, where Australia’s top cross country runners will battle it out for a place on the team bound for Bydgoszcz, Poland on March 27.

Travelling north, Canberra locals will be out in force for the first meet of the 2010 national series with the annual Canberra Grand Prix to be held at the Australian Institute of Sport on Saturday, January 30.

State pride will be on the line at the AIS as athletes compete in conjunction with the Canberra meet for the coveted Australia Cup, which this year saw nine Beijing Olympians, including dual race walking medallist Jared Tallent, pole vaulter Alana Boyd, 400m runners Tamsyn Lewis, Sean Wroe and Joel Milburn, walkers Adam Rutter, Claire Tallent and Chris Erickson and Tasmanian Donna MacFarlane, don state colours.

From Canberra the circuit travels to Queensland for the Brisbane Grand Prix on Saturday, February 6 before venturing south for the Briggs Athletics Classic in Hobart on Friday, February 12.

This year the Briggs meet saw Tasmanian local Tristan Thomas run the then-fastest time of his career and post his second world championships B-qualifying standard in the 400m hurdles (49.61) and Victorian Collis Birmingham post a top-class 5000m effort to record his first world championships B-qualifier (13:27.25) and third successive meet title.

With all the big names including Berlin world championships representatives Sean Wroe, Josh Ross, Madeleine Pape, Alwyn Jones and Petrina Price on track for a return to the Hobart meet, the Briggs Athletics Classic is again set to be one of the highlights of the domestic calendar.

In February this year a near-sellout crowd turned out in force at Sydney Olympic Park to see Olympic champion Steve Hooker record his sixth straight win and seven world championships A-qualifying standards set.

In 2010 the stars of the sport will return to Sydney for a night of scintillating action before travelling south for the IAAF Melbourne Grand Prix on Thursday, March 4.

The next generation of track and field stars will hit centre stage from March 11-14, when the all-new national U14-20 championships get under way at Sydney Olympic Park.

In April the 2009/10 domestic season will culminate in the 88th Australian athletics championships, which in 2010 will double as selection trials for October’s Commonwealth Games.

With a large squad expected to gain selection to the Games, Australia’s finest athletes will be out in force at the newly-opened Western Australian Athletics Centre from April 16-18 to stake their claim for a berth on the Delhi-bound team.

A big summer of athletics is in store for all track and field fans. Download the 2009/10 calendar here and don’t miss your chance to see Hooker, hurdles star Sally McLellan, world championships golden girl Dani Samuels, long jump duo Mitchell Watt and Fabrice Lapierre, and all your favourite stars of the sport in action at a stadium near you this season. See you there!