Thank-you Anneliese for taking this opportunity to speak with RunnersTribe.

Firstly, you have just been selected to represent Australia in both the 400m and 4x400m at the World Junior Championships in Canada in July. The amazing aspect of this is the fact that you were struggling to break 57 seconds over the one lap event only 12 months ago. Take us through the past 12 months that has now seen you run a personal best of 53.88sec and easily win the Australian Junior Championships in Sydney?

Thanks for chatting with me! A lot has changed in 12 months. The last year for me, has been all about training. I wasn’t focusing too much on competing in 09, I really just wanted to knuckle down and start enjoying the training again. I’d been knocked down a few times in the 07 and 08 season and so my coach and I re-assessed my goals and where I wanted to take my running in the future. I was really just putting in during 2009 what I wanted to get out of 2010. That’s the best feeling; when you know you’ve worked hard, and feel like everything just aligns perfectly on the day, and that’s how I felt at the Junior Champs.

You’ve been quoted as saying that “I can't wait to compete for Australia. It's been a dream of mine for ages and to have it come true, it's still sinking in. I know I've got a lot of work to do over the next few months but I'm ready for it, and I know I've got a good shot over in Canada of getting in the finals and possibly even winning a medal”. What’s changed over the past 12 months for you to have the confidence to go over to Canada and talk about breaking 52 seconds for the 400m and possibly winning a medal?

Anneliese
 
The biggest change has been the way I’ve been training. I hadn’t really ever had a complete winter training block, so I started doing some really tough sessions in a group with athletes like Lachlan Renshaw and Sianne Tomoe. I think I can really attribute a lot of my results this year to that. Surrounding myself with people of that calibre, and seeing how focused and mature their approach to training was, really changed my attitude to training. I started doing strength and upper body work at Galileo Personal Training, and I found it fairly easy to improve on my core strength because there wasn’t much there to begin with... That’s definitely translated straight into power for the last 100m of my 4’s.

Knowing that I’ve trained differently and are capable of those times, definitely gives me the confidence to line up in the 400m at Canada with a real shot. It really comes down to a matter of actually running the races smarter. All the hard work’s been done in the preparation; I just need to believe in myself, stay relaxed, and hopefully it’ll all be enough to break 53 seconds.

Going back to 2005 you first came to prominence with a win in the U/14 Australian All-Schools (winning the 400m in 57.80sec). A year later you backed it up with a win at the U/15 Australian All-Schools (this time running 56.11sec). At this stage you were riding a wave of success, but three years later you still had a PB of 56.11sec. Along the way you were actually defeated at the 2008 NSW All-School Championships (running a modest 58.55sec). At this stage in your career were you still enjoying athletics? Were you continuously getting injured over this period?

Anneliese

When I won 05 and 06 All Schools I was doing a lot of dance as well as running, which my coach swears is the reason for my running style and balance. I stopped dance in 2007 to concentrate more on the HSC and running, but ironically it backfired and I ended up losing my core strength and flexibility. After this, I wasn’t enjoying myself as much at training, I preferred going out on the weekends instead of competing, and found myself getting sick on and off. I injured my left quad twice during 2008 as well which put me out of training for a few months at a time. It felt like more things were going wrong than right. The 2008 All Schools was really not a good competition for me; I put way too much pressure on myself and ended up being more nervous to compete than I was excited. That’s always a bad sign for me, when I start to dread a race…that’s when I know I need to take a step back and take all the pressure off. I needed that race though, because it was the point that I decided instead of doing the same things and expecting different results, I wanted to do different things, work harder and I wanted better results.

Entering the 2010 season not many people would have picked you breaking 54 seconds in the 400m. What was the biggest single change leading into the 2010 season? Did you always believe that a World Junior qualifying time of 54.80sec was within your grasp entering the season?

Anneliese

I would never have thought 6 months ago I’d be running these times either! I’m so grateful that my coach did though; I probably wouldn’t have a ticket to Canada otherwise! I can’t really pinpoint one single change this year…but it was definitely a culmination of finishing school, the last 11 months or so of training, and my mind set. After HSC I had a week off at schoolies and just relaxed, which I think was such a good decision. It cleared my head so when I got back to the track my whole focus was on training for the Australian Junior Champs, and qualifying for World Juniors. At this point I thought I’d get close to 54.80, but wasn’t sure just how close, and whether I’d get it in time for Nationals.

Looking through your results in 2010 the first time I really thought that you were right in the mix for a spot on the Australian team for Canada was after your 4^th placing at the Hunter Track Classic in early February (when you ran 55.21sec behind Tamsyn Lewis). Was this a big race for you in terms of making you believe that you had what it took to mix it with the best in Australia?

Anneliese

This was such a good experience! I don’t think I ran the best 400m there…but it was humbling to even be put in the same race as Tamsyn, and to come 4^th felt pretty good. It also gave me a good idea of the pace I’d need to be running if I wanted to go to Canada. The biggest race for me though was in January. It was my first serious 400m since 08 Nationals, it was at a Permit meet in Blacktown, and was the race I finally broke my 56.11 PB. I ran a (hand-timed) 55.0. That was huge for me, breaking my PB after so long. That race is really where all my confidence came from and was a perfect start to a good season…I don’t think I slept very well that night I was that excited.

By the end of February you had lowered your PB down to 54.15sec, and in the process upset a quality 400m athlete in Renee Robson in Sydney. Take us through that particular race, because it was a big breakthrough for you. Did you ever expect to run such a quick time on that particular day?

Anneliese

It’s funny because the previous weekend I was meant to run in the NSW Junior Champs...instead I learnt all about the new “one false start and you’re out” rule. But I remember driving out to the track that day, I had my pre-race playlist plugged in and felt so pumped, and even though this was one of the last chances I had to qualify for WJ I didn’t feel that much pressure. Lachy Renshaw had run an awesome 600m before me and broke the Australian record so I really wanted to pull out a good race too. I think that was one of the best 400ms I’ve ever run. My goal was to run a 54.6…I was in lane 4, and Robson was lane 3. I went through the 200m in 26.0 (which was a bit slow) but I held her off until 150m to go. Then I felt her coming up on the inside, usually at this stage I’d give up mentally and let them pass but instead I kicked and stayed with her right until 50m to go and just powered past. I’d never felt so strong finishing a 400m!

Leading into the Australian Junior Championships you were all of a sudden a firm favourite for the title. How did you handle the increased expectations to perform at the levels that you had already shown leading into the Championships? You ended up running a PB in the heats of the 400m (53.90sec) and then backed it with a 53.88sec in the final. How were you feeling after backing up in the final with such a quality time?

 

Anneliese

This was a strange feeling leading up to the race. I knew I could win and, weather permitting, I knew I could run a PB, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself…because at the end of the day, anything can happen. I didn’t really feel the pressure of any expectations, because I tried to think of it as an opportunity to show everybody just how fast I could run. I had two choices, go out in the heat aiming for a PB and back up again in the final or, cruise through the heats saving myself and give it everything in the final. I had a full recovery day in between the heat and final so thought I’d give it a go, and turns out it worked pretty well! After running a PB in the heat I didn’t really care what time I did in the final as long as I won, so it was a bonus to cross the line and see I’d gone just that little bit quicker. 

 

  Thanks very much!!