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State pride on the line at the Australia Cup
Sixteen world championships representatives
will tomorrow night kick-start the 2010 Australian Athletics Tour
with the annual state-versus-state Australia Cup, where state pride
is on the line and bragging rights are up for grabs.
Headlining the action at the Australian Institute of Sport will be
world championships long jump bronze medallist Mitchell
Watt (Qld) and 4x400m relay bronze medallists Sean
Wroe (Best of the Rest, 100m), Joel
Milburn (NSW, 400m) and Ben Offereins
(WA, 400m).
With his sights firmly set on Jai Taurima’s
national record of 8.49m, Watt will be keen to get his 2010
campaign off to a flying start at the AIS track this weekend.
Leading the charge for the Best of the Rest team will be Victorian
Sean Wroe, the 400m specialist to show off his speed over 100m when
he comes up against Australian record-holder and Flame teammate
Patrick Johnson (Qld).
Returning to the event that brought them bronze medal glory in
Berlin, Joel Milburn and Ben Offereins will line up in the 400m as
they prepare to face visiting Olympic bronze medallist
David Neville of the USA at the Sydney Track
Classic on February 27 and the Melbourne Track Classic on March
4.
With Neville en route to Australia and world championships athletes
Wroe, John Steffensen and Tristan
Thomas set to enter the frame later this season, Milburn
and Offereins will be looking to get an early jump on the
competition with a strong hit-out this weekend.
The women’s one-lap event will see the world championships 4x400m
relay team reunite, Berlin representatives Tamsyn
Lewis (Vic), Jody Henry (WA),
Caitlin Pincott (Qld) and Pirrenee
Steinert (NSW) to go head-to-head over 400m as they look
to stake an early claim on Commonwealth Games selection. On the
start line they will face two of the rising stars of the national
track scene, 2008 world junior championships 4x400m relay bronze
medallists Angeline Blackburn (AIS) and
Olivia Tauro (Best of the Rest), setting up what
should be a fast and furious race to the finish line.
On a busy night at the AIS track Lewis will also line up in the
400m hurdles as she prepares to defend the national crown she won
ahead of Lauren Boden (ACT) at last year’s
national championships, Boden sure to be keen to go one-up on her
Victorian rival this weekend.
In other track action, an all-star cast is set for the men’s and
women’s 5000m walks, with Jared Tallent (AIS) and
Adam Rutter (AIS) set to take on a host of
emerging stars and a Mexican trio that includes Beijing Olympian
David Mejia and world championships 20km bronze
medallist and reigning IAAF Race Walking Challenge title-holder
Eder Sanchez, who enters Saturday night’s race on
the back of what he calls ‘the best year of my career’.
Tallent and Rutter will be out to assert their home ground
advantage at the AIS track as they gear up for Round 1 of the 2010
IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Hobart next month. Australian Flame
athletes Claire Tallent (AIS) and Cheryl
Webb (NSW) will front the women’s field.
Other names to keep an eye on this weekend will include Australian
Flame representatives Brendan Cole (ACT) in the
men’s 400m hurdles, Matt Davies (Qld) in the men’s
100m B race, Petrina Price (NSW) in the women’s
high jump and ACT young gun Melissa Breen, who
after rounding out 2008 as the fastest woman in the country was
unlucky to miss out on a berth in the world championships team
bound for Berlin in 2009.
Breen will no doubt be looking to re-assert her dominance of the
blue-riband sprint and will hope the home state advantage plays in
her favour as she takes on a host of emerging sprinters ready to
make their mark on the Australian athletics scene.
The Australia Cup is the first stopover on the 2010 Australian
Athletics Tour, which continues with the Brisbane Athletics Classic
(February 6), Briggs Athletics Classic (Hobart, February 12),
Sydney Track Classic (February 27) and Melbourne Track Classic
(March 4).
2010 Australia Cup
Saturday January 30, 2010
Action starts 3:00pm
AIS Athletics Track, Canberra
Tickets at the gate
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