05.09.2010

All-star cast headlines day one action in Split

Fourteen Australians bound for next month’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, have featured in the overnight action at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split, Croatia, as the countdown to the Commonwealth titles enters its final stages.

Headlining the action for Australia on day one of the two-day meet, which sees teams from Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe go head-to-head, were world discus champion Dani Samuels (fourth) and world indoor long jump champion Fabrice Lapierre (seventh), the two world title-holders leading a star cast of Australians into battle on the world stage.

Flying the flag for team Asia-Pacific in the discus circle was 22-year-old Dani Samuels, who threw 61.34m to finish in fourth place behind surprise winner and fellow Asia-Pacific representative Yanfeng Li (CHN), whose throw of 63.79m was the best recorded on the day.

On the long jump runway Fabrice Lapierre leapt 7.70m (w:-0.4) to place seventh in the much-anticipated men’s long jump event, which saw newly-crowned IAAF Diamond Race winner Dwight Phillips (USA) take victory with a jump of 8.34m (w:0.6).

National 10,000m record-holder Collis Birmingham took out sixth place in the men’s 5000m, the same event in which the 25-year-old Victorian clocked a new career-best time of 13:10.97 on the Eugene (USA) leg of the Diamond League series in July.

Overnight Birmingham crossed the line in 14:00.60 to take out sixth place, just two seconds off the pace set by American Bernard Lagat, who took victory in a time of 13:58.23.

Showing she will enter next month’s Commonwealth Games in top form, national 400m hurdles champion Lauren Boden clocked the second fastest time over the one-lap hurdles of her career to place fifth in 55.30.

Boden’s time sits just .05 outside the personal best mark of 55.25 she recorded at the Osaka Grand Prix meet (JPN) in May.

Also finding form in the all-important lead-up to New Delhi, throws specialist Scott Martin recorded a season’s best heave of 20.10m to place fourth in the men’s shot put behind US world champion Christian Cantwell (21.87m) and Kimberley Mickle turned on her best performance of 2010 to place third in the women’s javelin throw with a distance of 61.36m, the Western Australian adding 70cm to her previous best mark of the year.

Rounding out the action on the track overnight, Aaron Rouge-Serret (10.45, w:0.7) and Melissa Breen (11.58, w:1.4) placed seventh and eighth respectively in the men’s and women’s 100m sprint events, Ben Offereins (45.94) and Jody Henry (52.52) finished sixth and seventh in the men’s and women’s one-lap races, Mitchell Kealey crossed the line 10th in the men’s 1500m in 3:41.51 and Brendan Cole (50.37) placed seventh in the men’s 400m hurdles.

In the field, Western Australian-based athlete Alana Boyd finished sixth in the women’s pole vault with a leap of 4.35m.

At the end of day one of the IAAF Continental Cup, team Asia-Pacific sits in fourth place on the overall tally with 134 points, the opening day’s results dominated by the Americas with 219 points.

Tomorrow’s second and final day of action will be headlined by world, Olympic, world indoor and Commonwealth Games champion Steve Hooker (pole vault) and Olympic silver medallist Sally Pearson (100m hurdles).