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Interclub competition is the neglected child of Australian athletics. Occasionally we need a reminder of what an asset it is.

The quote came from an article in The Argus, the Melbourne daily which ceased publication in 1957. Fired up with pre-Melbourne 1956 Olympic fever, the paper had sent a columnist down to check out the opening round of the 1953-54 inter-club athletic season.

Describing the “weekly, non-stop athletic carnival,” the writer asked readers: 

“Imagine, if you can, trying to watch: 

“A gruelling finish to a mile race; A mad dash over a 120-yd flight of hurdles; Breathtaking pole-vaults; Heroic, well-timed pole-vaults; Prodigious flights by the long-jump men.

“It happens, right here in Melbourne,” our columnist assured us. “And at 1:30pm today, it will begin again.”

Acclaiming the “scope and organisation of the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association’s weekly interclub contests”, our scribe continued:

“No city, anywhere in the world, conducts such complex, regular meetings, with so many athletes in action at the same time.”

(You can access the whole article, complete with pictures, at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/23310897 .)

Apart from minor quibbles - the correspondent being so excited he mentioned pole vault twice – the picture is substantially the same today. Oh, and there’s women, too. Back then, women’s competitions, indeed women’s associations, were separate. If readers of The Argus wanted to see women back in 1953, they either sought out reports of the women’s competitions, or turned to other, more salacious sections of the newspaper.

There is one other substantive difference, too, and I didn’t have to go to the archives to bring that one to mind. The prompt came later the very same day when Tamsyn Manou (Lewis) happened to come into the same cafe at which a group of us were having lunch.

Three days of warm spring weather in Melbourne had been replaced by the sort of classical, grey day, accompanied by persistent drizzle, which gives our city a poor reputation climate-wise.

“Just in time for interclub tomorrow,” Tamsyn remarked, a reminder not just of Melbourne’s mercurial spring weather but also of the fact she is a regular competitor in club competition. It’s part of her training.

Back in 1953, any visitor to interclub would have seen some of the country’s best athletes. John Landy ran the mile on the day The Argus reporter attended. The Monday paper, two days later (no Sunday editions then) carried two back-page reports of the competition along with a picture of a competitor in the hop, step and jump (triple jump).

There was a further report of a national junior record in women’s high jump in Brisbane. That made three stories on athletics on the back page of a major metropolitan daily. Oh, happy day.

In fact, all the way through to the 1980s, regular club competition was part of the diet of all Australia’s international stars. Landy, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Matthews, Herb Elliott, Pam Kilborn, Graham Crouch, Raelene Boyle – you’d be likely to see all of them out in their club colours. As for Ron Clarke, his racing program for Glenhuntly was similar to his international program – prodigious.

Nor was it just club competition. There were interstate matches – Victoria v New South Wales, Victoria v South Australia – as well as a surprising number of invitational meetings. The sponsored international meeting is not a recent phenomenon.

Athletes did not ignore their training. The training bloc is likewise not a recent invention, not even the high altitude training bloc. A report of a half-mile race won by Ralph Doubell mentions that he had just returned from four weeks’ training at Falls Creek.

No, the model up until fairly recently was simply that athletes competed more often. Now, the model seems to be one in which competition is something that gets in the way of training.

It’s a mistake to over-simplify comparisons. There’s also a danger that, in looking back, we tend to examine what champions did and try to apply it across the board.

Arguably, though, our very best performed athletes still do compete often. Cathy Freeman certainly did; Sally Pearson had a full domestic season this year, as did Mitch Watt.

It didn’t do any of them any harm. Maybe there’s a lot to be said for competing more often. Melbourne’s (and Sydney’s, and Brisbane’s) weekly, non-stop athletic carnival is still running.

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Australian Heidi had a phenomenal start to running as a junior, but a number of stress fractures took their toll. After almost giving up running competitively for good, Heidi was contacted by Iona assistant coach Gavin Kennedy and she made her way to New York to restart her running career. We caught up with Heidi to get a little insight into the college scene, how she is traveling, and her plans looking forward.

RT: Heidi, thanks for your time. What’s the latest from Iona?

HG: I’m actually sitting in the airport in Indianapolis right now, on my way home from Pre-Nats. I finished in 34th today, and our girl’s team came in 8th. Overall I feel O.K. about it, especially because it is my first race of the season. Still got a lot of work to do though.

RT: For those who have not kept up with your results, give us a run-down of 2011 so far?

HG: The track season for 2011 was a little rough for me. In 2010 I was back running 4.19s and 2.07s off little training, so after eight months of hard work I was expecting a big breakthrough. I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself, which I feel played a part in the disappointing season. I also found out I had an iron deficiency issue, so I have been working on fixing that over the last few months. 

RT: Were you hoping to run a bit faster over 1500?

HG: My coaches and I felt my training reflected about 4.14 shape, so when I kept running around 4.20 it was very frustrating. For my senior year I want to make sure I’m healthy and relaxed so that my races will start matching up to what I know I’m capable of. I’m always a better athlete when I’m enjoying myself.

RT: When do you finish up at college?

HG: I’m graduating in May 2012. I have an extra season of eligibility for X-Country the following semester, but I’ve made the decision to move on after track is over.

RT: Are you planning to move straight back to Sydney after your college days are over?

HG: The plan for me at the moment is to hang around in the U.S. for another year after I graduate. The main reason for this decision is that my boyfriend lives in the States. Since he is a runner as well and is based here with training, it makes more sense at this stage for me to stay. 

RT: You had some major injury problems as a junior, stemming from a fractured femur you experienced during a trip to the snow.  Is this same problem still affecting you at all?

HG: The femur itself has never given me any troubles, but all my injuries are on the left side because of it. At the moment I am running through a minor tendon injury in my foot. I had six weeks off between July and August, but it’s still hanging around. MRI scans have not shown any bone damage, so right now the plan is to keep it monitored and continue with the season.

RT: How have you enjoyed the collegiate system?

HG: The collegiate system has only given me good things. Being a part of this team brought back my love for running I felt I had lost over the years that I struggled with injury.  My coaches have always been very supportive and I have met some amazing people that mean a lot to me.

RT: What is New York City like?

HG: New York is an incredible city. Iona is just a short train trip form Grand Central so I always make sure to go in as much as I can. I love the culture and one of my favourite places is central park during the summer.

RT: Are you speaking with an accent yet?

HG: Americans still think I’m aussie as ever, but when I come home on break my friends think I have a American twang. I notice that I say “I mean” a lot before everything I say, which I think makes me sound very irritating. 

RT: Do you recommend the college system to Aussie friends? Have your recruited any?

HG: Going to the U.S. was great for me, but I think it is a very personal thing. I think if someone is seriously considering the idea and wanting a new experience than they should go for it, but you have to be prepared to give up a lot of things. I’ve always been able have a lot of say in my training and races, but I know that there are other schools that do not cater to athletes in that way.  

RT: What’s the plan post college? Is the goal to come home and compete the Aussie circuit?

HG: I definitely want to continue running after college, but I know I have to run a good bit faster to be able to compete at the level that I’m striving for. For the next couple of years I’ll be in the U.S. but my plan is to eventually come home and compete.

RT: Any idea on what coach or group you will join if you do come home to train?

HG: It’s hard for me to make long term plans at this stage so I haven’t really given much thought to running specifics back home in Australia. Maybe Grant Cremer should get back into coaching a bit more! 

RT: Coolest thing about college?

HG: Being a part of something bigger than just myself and my own goals. 

RT: Crappiest thing about college?

HG: A bunk bed in a room with four girls during my freshman year. It was rough.

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As many an opponent found, Cathy Freeman was a very hard person to catch.

In a sense, it was a belated recognition of a status long since awarded by most Australians. From her laps of honour with the national and aboriginal flags in Victoria, Canada, after winning the 200 and 400 metres at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, through her epic losing battle with Marie-Jose Perec in the Atlanta Olympic 400 metres final and her two world championships gold medals, to the final climactic moment in Sydney – they had long since associated her with heroic deeds.

Fans sometimes accord legend’s status too freely – how often is the match-winning goal or game-saving mark or tackle hailed with the words: “(insert player name here), you legend!”

Similarly, those who exhibit sporadic brilliance, or endearing characteristics seen as embodying the spirit of their sport or team, can be too readily elevated to legend standing.

But rarely are fans wrong in recognising and acclaiming ‘legends’ those they have given more considered reflection. Never under-estimate the collective wisdom of those with an emotional connection to a sport.

Bodies such as the Sport Australia Hall of Fame must follow a more rigorous and more consistent process before, usually, arriving at the same outcome.

So it was with Freeman, who was elevated as the 2011 legend when most of the audience had had her there since 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999 or, if none of those, since 2000. As Bruce McAvaney (who else?) took Freeman through her career it was amazing how the goose bumps still came watching her wins in Victoria, Athens, Seville and, especially, Sydney 2000.

It was also a moment to reflect on the power of television. How fortunate we are to have available the brilliant footage of the past 20-30 years. How great would it be to see the feats of Jackson, Strickland, Landy and Elliott in such vivid detail.

Freeman becomes the seventh track and field athlete to be accorded legend status. For a sport which, justifiably in this writer’s view, sometimes sees itself as under-rated, it is an impressive number, almost double any other sport.

Tennis is next with four, each of swimming and AFL has three.

Athletics’ ‘magnificent seven’ are Freeman, Edwin Flack, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, Shirley (Strickland) De La Hunty, John Landy, Betty Cuthbert and Herb Elliott. Tennis has Margaret Court, Evonne (Goolagong) Cawley, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. Swimming’s legends are Dawn Fraser, Murray Rose and Shane Gould.

Cathy Freeman is these days Catherine Murch. She, and husband James, have just become the proud parents of baby daughter Ruby Anne Susie. Her passion is now channelled into the Catherine Freeman Foundation which works on closing the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians through education. The focus so far has been on Queensland’s Palm Island, the fourth-most disadvantaged community in Australia (according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures), where Freeman’s mother and grand-parents lived.

Sport Australia is an umbrella organisation for all Australian sports. Its 33 legends reflect this, representing 15 sports in all. Looking at the list, and the nominees and award winners on the night, it must be said that SA does an excellent job of acknowledging excellence and achievement across the board.

The main annual award is ‘The Don Award’ named after the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, Sir Donald Bradman. ‘The Don’ honours the current athlete who, by their achievements and example over the previous 12 months, has done most to inspire the nation.

Sally Pearson, the 100 metres hurdles world champion, US women’s open tennis champion Sam Stosur, and swimming’s sprint world champion James Magnussen would all have been worthy winners, but it was a bad year to be anyone other than Cadel Evans. The man who was responsible for more sleep deprivation than anyone else in Australian history was a runaway winner with his historic Tour de France victory.

Evans’ performance and Freeman’s in Sydney 2000 were also enshrined in the Hall of Fame as great sporting moments.

The seven inductees into the Hall of Fame included former Sun News Pictorial (and then Herald Sun) journalist Judy Joy Davies (the others were cricketers Glenn McGrath and Belinda Clark, triathlete Greg Welch, basketball player, coach and administrator Lorraine Landon, boxer Kosta Tszyu and surfer Layne Beachley).

A former Olympic and Empire Games swimmer, Judy Joy (as she was pretty well universally known) covered athletics, swimming and other ‘minor’ sports for 34 years.

I’m not aware - and I’m not going to risk spoiling things by asking – of Judy Joy ever covering Australian Rules football. In a lifetime reporting sport in football-mad Melbourne, that would be some kind of record.

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Moses Mosop of Kenya cruised to victory in the 34th Chicago Marathon on Sunday, surging away from an elite field with seven miles to go and setting a course record of two hours five minutes and 37 seconds.

Liliya Shobukhova of Russia won the women's competition for the third straight year in two hours eighteen minutes and 20 seconds, beating the second place women's finisher by nearly four minutes. Both winners' times were unofficial.

Mosop, who had the second fastest marathon time on record in losing the Boston Marathon by 4 seconds earlier this year, quickly countered a breakaway by countryman Wesley Korir after the 19 mile mark and never looked back in breaking the course record set two years ago.

Korir finished 38 seconds behind Mosop in second place. Bernard Kipyego of Kenya was third.

In a post-race interview, Mosop said he had been prepared to challenge for a course record, but not the world record because a leg injury had limited his training.

"I'm very happy about my job today," Mosop said in the interview on NBC television, which carried the race.

The Chicago marathon course is considered ideal for record-setting performances when conditions are right. The route cuts through two dozen ethnic neighborhoods between its start and finish in Grant Park adjacent to downtown.

Mosop had the second fastest marathon in history in Boston at 2:03:06, just behind Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya who set the marathon record at 2:03:02.

Partly because Boston is a point-to-point course and there was a strong tailwind, those times were not recognized as world records.

The current world record in the marathon is 2:03:38, set September 25 in Berlin by Kenya's Patrick Makau.

Shobukhova had the second fastest time ever for a woman in the Chicago Marathon behind Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain who set a then-world record of 2:17:18 in 2002.

Ethiopian track star Ejegayehu Dibaba, who was making her marathon debut, ran alongside Shobukhova until about the 15 mile mark before slipping off the pace. Dibaba finished second in 2:22:09. Kayoko Fukishi of Japan was third.

Leading up to this year's race, organizers warned the majority of the participants not to push themselves too hard with temperatures forecast to rise to near 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 C) by afternoon.

Temperatures on the Chicago lakefront were in the mid-60s for the first two hours of the race but were expected to rise at least 10 degrees over the next two hours as the bulk of the runners work their way through the city's neighborhoods.

Some 45,000 runners were registered for the race with more than 100 countries represented. Race organizers expected some 1.7 million spectators to watch along the route.

In 2007, temperatures during the marathon climbed to 90 degrees F (32 C) with high humidity. One runner collapsed and died, some 300 were taken to hospital suffering from heat-related illness and the race was halted early.

Some runners said before the race they would wear black arm bands to protest job cuts at Bank of America, the sponsor of the marathon which received billions of dollars in government bailout money during the financial crisis.

 
Re-produced with permission, Reuters.

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Kenyans Moses Mosop and Geoffrey Mutai enter as the favorites to win the men's division of the Chicago Marathon, which is expected to attract a field of about 37,000 runners on Sunday.

Mutai captured this year's Boston Marathon in a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds, barely ahead of Mosop (2:03:06).

There hasn't been an American champion in a major marathon race since Meb Keflezeghi captured the 2009 New York City Marathon. The last American to win the Chicago Marathon was Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Since then, the men's division has been won by a Kenyan every year.

Samuel Wanjiru won the title the previous two years, but he died after falling off a balcony at his home on May 15 this year. He set the Chicago Marathon record in 2009 with a time of 2:05:41.

The top American male contender this year is Ryan Hall, who will turn 29 on October 14. Hall won the marathon at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and came in 10th in the Olympic marathon in Beijing. He was fourth in this year's Boston Marathon (2:04:58).

Some of the other top contenders in the field are 21-year-old Ethiopian Bazu Worku, 2008 winner Evans Cheruiyot, Bernard Kipyego of Kenya, and Marlson Gomes dos Santos, who won the New York City Marathon twice (2006, 2008). Ethiopia's Bekana Daba and Kenya's Wesley Korir are also to be watched.

On the women's side, Russian Liliya Shobukhova aims to win the race for a third straight year. She finished in a time of 2:25:56 in 2010, bettering her 2009 result by 4 1/2 minutes.

The last American woman to capture this race was Deena Kastor in 2005. There really isn't much of a chance for an U.S. woman to win this year. Jeannette Faber and Leah Thorvilson, two of the best Americans, have a personal best time of 2:39:41 and 2:37:55, respectively.

Challenging Shobukhova will be Ethiopian Askale Tafa, Russians Inga Abitova and Maria Konovalova, and France's Christelle Daunay.

There should be no problem weather-wise, as temperatures for the 8:30 a.m. (et) start are expected to be around 15 degrees celcius with clear conditions. The course is fast and flat and home to four world records. The only slight incline is in the last mile on Roosevelt Road.

The winner of the men's and women's divisions will pocket $100,000.

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Coach: Ken Hall

Favourite distance: 5000m

Career highlight to date: Winning the 2011 City2Surf

Favourite TV series: I don’t really have a favourite TV series at the moment, but I religiously watch EPL & AFL on a weekly basis.

RT: Liam, thanks for your time. You have had a great 2011 so far, culminating with victory at the Sydney City to Surf. How special was that win?

LA: Yes it was quite special for me. It’s a prestigious event, rich in history and is held in such high regard by distance runners & pretty much the general public too. It’s just amazing how largely recognised this race is to people who don’t even follow the sport! Having a look over the City2Surf Honour Roll, there have been quite a few big name winners which kind of makes me feel a bit out of place. It definitely has to go down as my biggest win to date!

RT: Prior to the race did you think you could beat Michael Shelley? He is a pretty daunting person to have to attempt to beat over a hilly 14km course.

LA:  It is quite daunting coming up against a gutsy runner with such a large range. I would have to say his inspirational run at Delhi is a pretty good example of that & the type of runner he is. My winter season had been the best I’ve ever had, so I knew I was in pretty good shape for the race but I didn’t really know or think it was good enough to match it with Shelley. Michael was the firm favourite and after his narrow loss to Benny Saint the previous year, he was definitely hungry for the win and going to be hard to beat!

RT: This year you have upped your game. What do you put it down to?

LA: I personally think I upped my game last year in terms of training but it just didn’t show in my results. Although there were a couple of results that I was quite pleased with such as my silver at world uni cross, my 38^th at the world cross, and my win at the Burnie 10! So far this year the training and results have all been quite pleasing, so hopefully I can continue this form into the track season.

RT: Has anything changed with your training?

LA: The training is actually quite similar to last year. The only real difference is that I’ve probably been a bit more consistent with stringing weeks of high mileage together and that I’ve been able to train just that bit harder during those weeks. This winter has gone quite well & surprising I’ve somehow been able to match (off basically no track work), some of my better quality summer track session from last year.

RT: Can you provide an example of a typical weeks training during winter?

LA:

Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
AM: 10km   PM 15km	AM: 10km   Session: Monafartlek (distance varies between 6-6.7km)	20km	AM: 10km   Session: Windsprints (8 laps of 100m on/100m off)	Am: 10km   Pm: 15km	Session: 9.8km Threshold run. Pace average between 3.10-3min	2 hour run (Roughly 26-27km)
25km	26km	20km	23km	25km	19km	26km	164 km

*Warm-ups & cool-downs are roughly 5km each. This is roughly my typical winter week but Tuesday & Thursday sessions vary weekly.

RT: What are the goals for this coming Aussie summer?

LA: I really want to annihilate my 5000m and 10000m PB’s this year. I said the same last year but didn’t really have the best preparation for the Zatopek and unfortunately contracted a severe chest infection when it came toward the big 5km races at the end of the season. Last years track season analysis discussion with the coach was quite productive and I believe this year’s preparation will be much better. I’m not going to throw out times that I think I will do, but I truly believe I will do personal bests in all track distances that I compete in this season.

RT: If you had to choose one session that you believe really works for you and gets you fit what would it be?

LA: That’s a actually a tough one, there are quite a few session that you could choose from that are quite dependent on the period of the season or the phase that you’re in for building up to whatever race it is. If I was to choose one it would probably be 3x4km around the tan with 3 minutes recovery. I usually run between 11.30-11min for the tan splits and the 4km times are usually between 11.30-12min.

RT: Hardest run ever completed?

LA: The hardest run would have to be my first world cross-country championship at Mombasa Kenya. The conditions were extreme- roughly around 35 degrees 85% humidity and pretty much unbearable for running! The weather got to me early and I started to hurt probably about 1 or 2km’s into the race. It felt like the longest most painful race I had ever done! The time I did was so slow that in fact I was able to beat the time in a threshold run that I did the following week.

RT: Going back to Falls Creek this summer?

LA: Most definitely, I’m quite a big fan of altitude training. I always seem to run well off altitude so I’m hoping to do at least a couple of stints up at falls this summer season.

 

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Few of us, I’d imagine, have run Mt Kilimanjaro, been a guest and training partner of the world’s greatest marathon runner, or worked and run our way around the world in a two-year odyssey.

Geoff Watt did all those things, and more - not bad for a self-professed “ordinary mediocre runner . . . who (is) flat out running a mile in four minutes 40 seconds.

“The AAU will never give you a guernsey,” Watt wrote of Australia’s national governing body, the forerunner to Athletics Australia, “and yet it is possible to know the thrill of international competition and the fellowship of the runners of many nations.”

Watt began his trip early in 1959. He returned to Australia in 1961, taking up his professional life as an optometrist. He married and had four children, one of whom became an Olympic champion.

He also went for a run on Mt Erica, in Victoria’s Gippsland region, one early spring night in 1969 without telling anyone. He died from exposure near the summit.

“I just don’t understand it,” one searcher said. “Why did he go up there at that time of night without telling anyone and without any warm clothing.”

Probably because – as far as you can tell from this distance - that was the sort of thing Geoff Watt had done all his life. He had suffered snow-blindness during his descent from the peak of Kilimanjaro, “and spent two dreadful days stumbling down the slopes to safety.”

Far from being salutary, the experience, Watt wrote, “had a profound affect on me and for a while I was quite fearless.”

I never knew Geoff Watt, but I knew his story. He was well-known on the Melbourne running scene. The night he disappeared, one of Melbourne’s harrier clubs was having an end-of-winter-season party. When word came through that Watt was missing many of those present jumped into their cars and headed off to join the search.

I was reminded about Watt when I met his daughter, Kathy Watt, at this year’s Melbourne Track Classic. She asked me if I could help publicise a memorial run in her father’s name, which I was more than happy to do. It’s on in Warragul this year on 16 October.

Kathy Watt was an accredited photographer at the meeting and also at the world championships in Daegu. She is better-known, however, as the Barcelona 1992 Olympic cycling road race champion. It was a shock gold medal at the time, won in a style of which her father would have heartily approved.

Kathy Watt went off the front of the bunch with a lap to go. The peloton, including the prohibitive favourite, Jeannie Longo of France, judged that the Australian had gone too early, was riding solo, and would soon come back.

Longo wrong-o: Watt kept right on going to win by 20 seconds.

Like her father, Kathy Watt was a runner. A good one, too, but injuries eventually convinced her that she would be better off in an event in which her feet where not hitting the ground. She turned to cycling. Where once she had run everywhere, now Watt rode everywhere. The sight of Kathy Watt pedalling furiously around the streets of inner Melbourne at that time was a familiar one.

As, indeed, would have been the sight of Geoff Watt pretty well anywhere around the world from 1959 to 1961.

You can read a full account of Geoff Watt’s journey by clicking on the ‘Geoff Watt’ tag at www.geoffwattrun.com , including his memorable injunction to a friend indentified merely as ‘Bluey:

“To Bluey – along the way I found two things of importance – To eat well and to sleep dry – All else is profit!”

The way took Geoff Watt initially to the 1959 Boston marathon, where he finished tenth in 2:34:37. Watt sported a beard at that stage and his arrival in Boston – by steamer to Panama, plane to Miami and on a car delivery job to Boston – was a sure-fire attention-grabber. A Boston Globe columnist profiled Watt under the heading: “The Bearded Galloper from Down Under.”

From Boston, Watt toured the rest of North America and Canada. He then hopped across the Pacific to Asia, running marathons in Korea and at Fukuoka in Japan. From there it was through the Middle East to Europe, Britain, the 1960 Rome Olympics and the Kosice marathon. While in England, Watt finished fourth in the London-Brighton ultra of around 54 miles.

It was in Kosice, one of the original and great marathons on the old international circuit, that Watt met Abebe Bikila. On the African leg of the trip, Watt trained with the 1960 and 1964 Olympic marathon champion at Bikila’s base outside Addis Ababa.

Africa, the final continent of Watt’s journey, also brought the ascent of Kilimanjaro and a tenth place finish in the Comrade’s Marathon. From Durban, Watt finally made his way home to Australia.

Which brings me back to the Geoff Watt Memorial Fun Run. It’s on in Warragul on 16 October and, if the prospect of a half-marathon through Gippsland’s rolling hills is too daunting, there is a 10k, a 5k, or 2.5k.

It’s the 41^st running of the event, revived after a hiatus in 2010.

The marathon distance is 42.195km, so the revival is entirely appropriate. From what I’ve learned of him, Geoff Watt was not the sort of bloke to stop at the 40km mark in a marathon, so it is entirely fitting that his memorial race should go the distance, too.

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RT: Jeff, thanks for your time.  First of all congratulations on your 1:44.64 800m in Rieti on September 10.  You have had an up and down European season. How are you feeling about it all?

JR: I’ve finished the year with season bests of 1.44, 2.16, 3.33 and 3.52. So I guess if you looked at the numbers alone you would say it’s been a pretty solid season. But in reality I choked in Daegu and failed to be competitive in many of the big races. So as I sit in New York airport getting ready to head home I’m still not sure what to make of the season. I definitely had bigger expectations. Maybe that was the problem, I just need to relax and enjoy it a bit more. There’s a lot I need to work on for next year that’s for sure.

RT: The Daegu world champs were obviously a bit of a disappointment for you. What do you take away from it?

JR: You can’t show any signs of weakness or you’ll get exposed badly. Daegu is still something I’ve got to sit down and discuss with my people and see where we went wrong. I’m still struggling to explain it; I’d hadn’t missed any training and was in good shape. I had no excuses. Might have been all mental. Maybe I was lacking confidence and when the pressure was on in the last 100m I tightened up badly. One thing I did learn was from watching Matt Centrowitz. He just seemed to have this confidence that no matter what the race threw at him he would know where to position himself and always stayed calm. I think the college system is incredibly beneficial for teaching people how to race in many different ways. All I learned this year was to get in line, go through 800m in 1.52 and try and hold on. So really, basically nothing!

RT: Your 800m times have been amazing; especially you’re run of 1:44.64 in Rieti. Tell us about that race and what it was like to be in a race that was won in 1:41.33?

JR: All I can remember from the race was seeing 48.2 as I went past 400m and 1.14.3 at 600m. The rest was a blur, I was just following Lewondowski and thinking just hang in there, keep his back. Two days earlier I ran 3.39 in Zurich and I was flat out, off the back from the start and giving everything. Not exactly a great confidence booster going into Rieti. But I got a couple of text messages from Sonia O’Sullivan and she basically said magical things happen in Rieti and she had been in bad shape there before and run very well. That really helped me, I knew I was in good shape and it was just that the travel from Daegu was very tough so I just had to get in there and be tough. Thankfully things turned out well otherwise mentally it would have been a huge blow. I wasn’t in the greatest of places after Daegu and then followed that up with another poor performance in Zurich. Had I not run well in Rieti there would have been a lot of doubts heading into next year and a lot of things to fix and sort out. I guess it reaffirmed in my mind that I can still do it, however again I finished 7^th and lost by over 3secs.

RT: Have you and Nic Bideau sat down and discussed whether or not you will switch your focus towards the 800m for the London Olympics?

JR: Since Daegu I’ve been in Europe while Nic has been back in Australia so we haven’t had a chance to sit down and discuss the season. I only really ran three 800m races this year and I ran 1.45.02, 1.44.64 and 1.45.57. It has definitely crossed my mind because I have really failed to nail a 1500m this year. For some reason I haven’t been able to run on really strong in the last 200m of my 1500’s this year and that’s something we have to address. I’ve been given some great opportunities and I’ve put myself in good positions but not able to nail it. Oslo is one that comes to mind, I was right there behind the leader with 300m to go and just couldn’t go with them the last 120m and they put 2 seconds into me. I still think I have good potential over the 1500m and I want to keep working on it. Both the events compliment each other though.

RT: The Olympic year is traditionally not a good year for athletes to break records, as the focus is obviously more on the Olympics and not chasing fast times. However, we all obviously want to see Ralph Doubell’s Australian record of 1:44.40 fall. Do you think 2012 can be the year?

JR: I think given the right race I am more then capable of it. I think there were probably a few stages this year that I had the ability to do it. After Ostrava I was in very good shape and then obviously in Rieti. Had the World Champs not been in Asia then Rieti may have been a different story as the travel after a major champs is deceptively hard. I had a lot of fun running a few 800’s after Daegu. The 800m is an event I have no real expectations for because I concentrate on the 1500m, so I probably don’t analyse it as much and just get in and race. If I want to be successful in London 2012 in either event then I’m going to have to run faster than Doubell’s record.

RT: What is it like to train with fellow Aussie Ryan Gregson. You are both once in a generation athletes and Australia is extremely fortunate to have you both competing in the same era. Does Ryan’s achievements and talent motivate you that little bit extra?

JR: It’s good because I get to train with one of the best young milers in the world. However Ryan and I are very different athletes. He’s got a much bigger aerobic capacity, where as I have a lot more raw speed. So while we train together quite often, I can’t do threshold or longer 1k or mile reps with him because he kills me. On the other hand when we are on the track doing lactic gut busting sessions I’m the one pushing the pace. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to be in good shape at the same time. 2010 Ryan had a great year while I sat on the side lines and this year I had a good year and he had his injury problems.

Hopefully we can both get it together for next year. We are good for each other because we both can never afford to slack off because you know the other is working hard. But I think we both realise that there are ten other guys in the World that we also have to beat.

RT: In the week prior to the 800m race in Rieti can you provide us with what you did for training during the 7 days leading into the race?

JR:

Sat: 5x800m (1min rec) 2.18, 2.15, 2.17, 2.13, 2.17 & 3x400m (4min rec) 53.2, 51.6, 50.8
Sun: 60min
Mon: Travel to London
Tues: 40min
Wed: 30min
Thurs: Zurich 1500m 3.39
Fri: AM: 30min      PM: Travel to Rieti
Sat: Rieti 1.44.64 PB

RT: Lessons learnt during your latest European tour?

JR: Just when you think your starting to get on top of things and figure this game out you fail at a major champs and then have some blow out results afterwards. Your always learning, I guess that’s the hardest part. You’ve just got to keep persisting because eventually you’ll get there. I guess if it was that easy everyone would be winning, but there can only be one winner.

I hope this is not a depressing read, I guess it is just the end of the season and a lot of analysing is being done.

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Brussels’ Van Damme Memorial 2011 was an alliterative delight - Bekele, Blake, Bolt, and bugger!

The last, of course, sums up Aussie reaction to the fall which cost Sally Pearson US$40,000 and an undefeated season.

There were highlights aplenty around the letter ‘B’ without having to worry about the other 25 letters of the alphabet.

The main questions were: Bekele – back or B-A-C-K; Blake – wow! Did he really run that; and Bolt – can he beat Blake at London 2012 once his younger colleague has another year’s development.

Like everybody else, I was initially flummoxed as to how Kenenisa Bekele could run a world-lead 26:43.16 in Brussels just 19 days after stepping off the track 15 laps into the world championships 10,000 metres in Daegu.

It didn’t seem possible, even for one professing the ‘winning is everything’ ethos of Bekele. Indeed, so strongly does the Ethiopian superstar hold to that belief that he re-defined his ‘loss’ in Daegu.

“I don't count it a as a defeat because I didn't finish the race; I still feel I have a 100% record at 10,000m,” Bekele said at a pre-Brussels press conference. “I know that I went there (Daegu) without a lot of good training behind me but I went because sometimes surprises can happen.”

Given that he said much the same thing when Zersenay Tadese snapped his string of consecutive world cross-country titles in Mombasa in 2007 (Bekele also failed to finish there), we can only conclude that ‘King Kenny’ processes both oxygen and thought in a profoundly different way to the rest of us.

(Declaration of interest here: I’ve got to go with the (majority) view that a ‘dnf’ counts as a loss. One of my few claims to fame is undefeated records over both Waldemar Cierpinski (2-0) at marathon and Miruts Yifter (1-0) at half-marathon.

Looking for a possible answer, I went back to my race notes from the Daegu 10,000. The pace for the first 5000 metres was 13:52.51 – with pretty well no variation other than a 61.56 fourth lap from Tadese when he first took the lead and a sub-65 twelfth lap after the pace had dropped to 67s again.

Even that second surge had an impact on Bekele who was running in the pack, but a little further back than you would expect. He eventually covered it, but only after allowing a little gap to develop which he then had to work hard to close. The very next surge – a 63.73 fifteenth lap led by who else but Tadese – prompted his early exit.

Now, I didn’t see the Brussels race live, but I suspect it was even-paced. For a start, Tadese wasn’t in it; for another thing, it was paced, and rabbits don’t get their carrots if the pace is all over the place.

The splits – 13:26.63/13:16.53 - reflect this. Taking out the last lap – around 57 seconds – it was basically 24 laps at 64.5, followed by a sprint home.

This could explain Bekele’s seemingly inexplicable improvement from Daegu to Brussels. Our view of the world championships race was coloured by several factors and assumptions chiefly that Bekele wouldn’t be there if he were not capable of winning; that he came in with an undefeated record at the distance, including four world championships and two Olympic titles; and that he was the world record holder.

Stripped of those assumptions, did we really see anything in Daegu to suggest he could not have run 25 laps at 64-65 seconds per lap. Conversely, did we see anything in Brussels to suggest he is again capable of running the sort of race he could not 19 days earlier.

That is why it might be safe to say Kenenisa Bekele is back, if not yet B-A-C-K. Given the incentive of an unprecedented third Olympic gold medal at the distance, though, he may well be by July next year.

Yohan Blake’s triumph in the 100 metres in Daegu was inevitably diminished by the disqualification of Usain Bolt. Given Bolt had won the two previous global championships in world records, that is hardly surprising.

Blake’s 19.26 over 200 in Brussels, however, upstaged everything else including Bekele and Bolt’s world lead 9.76 in the 100.

A few points, however. First, Blake chose the favourable lane seven in light of his self-professed difficulty on the bend – “I’m not a good turner,” as he put it. He’ll either need to become a ‘good turner’ or get used to a tighter lane if he is to challenge Bolt in London. The only way he will get lane seven in a championship final is if he engineers his way into the slower four qualifiers.

Second, conditions may have been helpful. The tailwind was 0.7 metres per second, but that is in the straight. It may have been stronger on the bend (equally, it may not!).

Third, Walter Dix was second in both races. The American finished 0.30 behind Bolt at the world championships, but only 0.26 behind Blake. He ran 19.70 in Daegu, 19.53 in Brussels. Give Bolt the 0.30 margin over Dix in Brussels and he ‘runs’ 19.23. So, all things being equal, Bolt remains ahead of Blake – but only just.

The stage has been set for an exciting match-up between training partners Bolt and Blake in London – not to mention at the Jamaican championships some weeks before that. It is to be hoped Bolt v Blake v Powell v ‘the rest of Jamaica’ does not follow the same path as Bolt v Gay v Powell.

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Cameron Graves is one of New Zealand’s most exciting junior talents. He is currently training in Boulder, Colorado in preparation for an assault on the NZ Junior 3000m this season.

BOULDER DASH!

So here we are, finally pulled myself away from the many attractions that Boulder has to offer! Endless trails, fast tracks, Olympians, frat parties and a community of generally very active people. Did I mention the girls? Wow. Well, might as well get introductions out of the way, names Cameron Graves, born in 1992 in good old NZ. I’ve always been the sports fanatic, you know the kid that won’t sit still and has ants in their pants 24/7. Although my childhood dreams were to be the next David Beckham, running seemed to be where my heart was and always will be. I’ve run crossy at school since the beginning, and managed a 12th place at secondary school nationals off no training. Fortunately this was enough to attract the likes of Paul Hamblyn (4^th place Commonwealth Games 1500 from Melbourne 2006) - my coach, which must take all the credit for getting me to where I am today.

I have run a few commendable times but still waiting for a big break through! My PB’s are as follows!

1500m: 3:51

3000m: 8:12

5000m: 14:21

As much as I love studying at Auckland uni, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to skip a semester and head overseas for some solid training. I was fortunate enough to be invited to train with Nikki Hamblin as her training partner in Hong Kong to aid with her build up for Worlds in Deagu. Hong Kong was amazing and although the heat (32C 90% humidity) was a burden, training, sleeping, eating and hanging with both the worlds team and world uni’s team made for an awesome few weeks! After saying goodbye to Hong Kong and its concrete playground, I have headed to Boulder for 2 months of altitude training. I’ve been here for 3 weeks now and the place has had such an impression on me I think I would be more than happy to live here. Staying with Lorraine Moller - an Olympic medalist, has definitely made things easy, introducing me to Peter Snell, Rod Dixon and Jorge Torres (training partner).

Jorge has introduced me to the endless trails of Boulder that range from easy creek runs to savage 30 minute climbs up brutal paths that leave your quads kicking and screaming. Apart from having to look over your shoulder every km or so, for bears and mountain lions, Boulder is the perfect training pad for elite athletes who want to take their training to the next level. At around 5000ft elevation, the thin air makes any hill much more menacing and every work out that much harder. So all going well, returning to sea level will allow for some solid pb’s and national records. I’m planning on returning home for the Auckland half Marathon to compliment my 100mile week regime that I’ve been running here. Then the plan is to hit the track sessions big time for five weeks in preparation for the Zatopeck classic in Melbourne where I hope to break the junior 3000m national record of 8:01. Anyway I must go, Pearl St in downtown Boulder has a gnarly smoothie shop and I am craving a berry smoothie, catch you running fanatics later.

Peace,
Cam.

P.S. To all the Boulderites that keep asking me if I’m Australian, the answer is no, I’m from New Zealand. BIG difference.