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At the 2011 Melbourne Track Classic, Ben St Lawrence gave two- time world champion Bernard Lagat a shock, drawing level with 80m to go in the 5000m. Lagat won by only four strides in the end but St Lawrence clocking a personal best of 13:10.08 to beat several sub-13min men including Americans Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegencamp and Craig Mottram. A few months later, St Lawrence continued his good form by smashing the 10,000m national record at the Stanford Payton Jordan invitational meet. St Lawrence slashed almost five seconds from the previous mark, clocking 27min 24.95sec. The rate of improvement from this Sydney base runner has been phenomenal.

Since the qualifying period opened, St. Lawrence already holds a B Olympic qualifier over the 5000m and an A Olympic qualifier for the 10,000m.

Looking ahead towards London, Collis Birmingham is another contender that has chosen to focus on the 5000m rather than the 10,000m or the marathon. Birmingham says, "This year I'm focused on just getting fit because next year will be the biggest year you'll get in athletics." Looking to put his interrupted 2011 season behind him due to injury, Birmingham managed to finish off his 2011 season being the best placed Australian over the 5000m at the Daegu World championships. Birmingham already has one A Olympic qualifier under his belt having posted a 13.15.70. Hopefully we can see this 2008 Olympian continue again with his climb of improvements heading towards London.

Other athletes you need to keep your eyes open for over the 5000m and 10,000m this coming season is David McNeill and New Zealanders 2008 Olympic representative over the 5000m Adrian Blincoe and 2011 World championship finalist in the 5000m, Jake Robertson.

WOMEN

Two time 10,000m national title holder Eloise Welling’s sets her sights on making the London Olympics after her disappointing season ending in Daegu, which saw her withdraw from the women’s 10,000m due to injury. Welling’s, who has already run 31.41.31, achieving the Olympic A standard by 4 seconds. 

Other contenders looking to lower their personal bests to get closer to the Olympic 5000m (15:15.00) or 10,000m (31:45.00) A standard this season will be 2008 Zaptopek winner Lara Tamsett, 2011 open national cross country champion Emily Brichacek, Commonwealth games representative in the 5000m (2002) and 10,000m (2006) Anna Thompson, City to surf winners (2009) Melinda Vernon and Jess Trengrove (2011). 

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.

The 100 metres is simple. Bang! Get to the other end as quick as you can. There are minor tactical considerations in jumps and throws – deciding which heights to attempt in the vertical jumps, for example – but it’s still basically jump as high, or far, as you can; throw as far as you can.

Not so the distance events which, by their nature, take time to unfold. Even on those rare occasions when some brave soul opts to run as fast as they can, as long as they can, there is still the question of whether he or she can go the distance.

As with the race, so with the 2011 season. Change is in the air as hitherto seemingly invincible practitioners appear suddenly vulnerable. Can they hold off those banging at the gates for one more year, or will new champions emerge. How will it all unfold.

In both Beijing 2008 and Berlin 2009, Kenenisa Bekele ruthlessly dispatched all challengers to his domination of the men’s track distances. He won the 5000/10,000 metres double on both occasions – the longer distance with relative ease, the shorter with tactically complete performances.

Tirunesh Dibaba was not as dominant on the women’s side – she did not run in Berlin at all – but has been the pre-eminent performer in women’s distance events, winning the 5/10 double at the Beijing Olympic Games and Helsinki 2005 world championships, and one gold medal at every championships (except the 2004 Olympics) since Paris 2003.

With six weeks until the world championships open (with the two 10,000s on the first two days), neither is an assured participant in Daegu, though Bekele at least has assured entry as a dual defending champion. The fortunes of Bekele and Dibaba will be another element of the unfolding drama over the next few weeks.

The apparent decline of the ruling generation goes beyond these two. Many of the strongest challengers are also likely to be absent or are in questionable form.

Meseret Defar, Dibaba’s Ethiopian arch-rival, has had a patchy time of it though she, at least, looks to be building into some form, with a sub-14:30 5000 at the Paris DL followed by a 31:05 10,000 in Sicily.

Like Dibaba, though, Defar does not look the irresistible force she has been.

Elvan Abeylegesse, the former Ethiopian now running for Turkey, is another who is sidelined. She is expecting a child. Abeylegesse’s aggression in her ultimately unsuccessful attempt to thwart Dibaba in the Olympic 10,000 produced one of the most unforgettable contests of the Beijing Olympics.

Vivian Cheruiyot (5000) and Linet Masai (10,000) are the reigning world champions and the Kenyan pair are both likely to be formidable in Daegu. Cheruiyot is saying she would like to attempt the double.

On the men’s side, Sileshi Sihine, number two to Bekele in so many races, is not at his top. Two others to have challenged Bekele – Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro – are sidetracked. Kipsiro has suffered from malaria and typhoid, though he still plans to compete in Daegu. Tadese seems to be torn between the track and the roads. All three of these athletes have solid current track times, but don’t seem to be the forces they were.

The other intriguing possibility opened up by the current situation is that a non-African runner could step up. Mo Farah – Somali born but raised in Britain – Galen Rupp and Matt Tegenkamp are all among the possible men’s 10,000 medallists. Shalane Flanagan is a threat in the women’s 10,000.

Flanagan (Beijing 2008) and Kara Goucher (Osaka 2007) have already been bronze medallists at 10,000, but neither was a factor in deciding the race. The exciting thing about 2011 is that, for the first time since Craig Mottram in the Helsinki 2005 5000 or Paula Radcliffe in women’s 10,000 before that, we are looking at a non-African runner being right in the winning mix.

 Farah has undoubtedly stepped up a level since moving to the US to train with Rupp, and others, under Alberto Salazar. His closing speed in running the fastest 10,000 of the year (at the Pre Classic) and winning the 5000 at the Birmingham DL was most impressive.

Rupp is yet to impose himself on an international race in similar fashion but, three years younger than Farah, gives every impression that he soon will.

For a different reason – injury, in his case – Mottram may still be a year away from 2005 form, but he, too, is showing every sign of getting back into contention for Daegu and London.

Flanagan showed her class in taking a bronze medal behind Cheruiyot and Masai at the world cross-country in Punta Umbria earlier this year. She also showed her development, as the previous year she had not been able to put herself right in the race.

At the US championships, Flanagan ran from the front in finishing comfortably ahead of Goucher. It seems she is a good chance to take a medal again in Daegu.

Whatever happens, there is a lot more drama to unfold in the track distance races yet.

Zane Robertson, who recently ran 3:41 over 1500m finished 8th today over 5000m in Bilbao, Spain. Holding on with the leaders early on, Zane reached 3000m in 8:03 but was unable to hold that pace in the windy conditions.

Look out for big things to come this season from Zane as he chases qualification for the World Champ's in Daegu.


1 229 Abraham Kasongwor Akopesha KENIA 13,29,19

2 228 ROBER SIGEI 1982 KENIA 13,37,43

3 233 MILIYON YEHWALAESHET 1989 ETIOPIA 13,41,24

4 266 MOHAMED MARHUM M 227 1991 A.D.Marathon 13,46,70

5 247 ANTONIO ABADIA BECI AR14 1990 SIMPLY SCORPIO 13,52,17

6 239 TESFAGABER AYAHUNEY 1994 ERITREA 14,00,71

7 272 Roberto Alaiz Villacorta L-4123 1990 Universidad Oviedo 14,01,70

9 242 ANOUAR DABAB m450 c.c.menorca 14,04,77

10 230 FCO. JAVIER ALVES BAS EX 3789 1980 A.Extremadura 14,06,04

11 240 IVAN GALAN BARDERA TOB 3322 1989 CA BIKILA 14,06,47

12 234 Firkre WORKNUEH (ERI) 1988 14,12,21

13 268 Fco. Javier Abad Sebastia BU-1707 1981 Castellón 14,17,04

The trouble with anticipation is that it is as often dashed as fulfilled.

That caveat in mind, however, I have to admit to a growing sense of anticipation at the 5000 metres at next month’s Melbourne Track Classic.

“I’m really excited to be coming down to Melbourne to run the 5000 on 3 March,” Bernard Lagat said this week when it was announced the 2007 world 1500 and 5000 metres champion would be competing in the race.

Lagat’s participation followed the announcement a few days earlier that Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp would be running and confirming the race would feature a clash between Craig Mottram and Collis Birmingham.

And, of course, there’s Ben St Lawrence, who just happened to defeat Birmingham – among others – in winning both the 2010 national title and the Zatopek ‘10’, and a fourth American, Tim Nelson, a mere 13:20 performer.

Less than a year ago, the prospect of a Mottram-Birmingham meeting alone was enough to headline a media release promoting the 2010 nationals. Now, it is just one more ingredient in a mouth-watering dish.

The Melbourne 5000 is also the national title race. It’s a good fit with the history of Olympic Park, which closes down as a track venue after this year’s national championships on 15-17 April.

Olympic Park has been the venue for outstanding performances across the entire range of events, track and field, but Melbourne’s strongest passions have always been stirred by middle and long-distance running. The 3 March race fits like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

Take Lagat: it is a given that he is one of the world’s best middle-distance performers. Olympic bronze medallist (for Kenya) at 1500 in 2000; silver medallist at 1500 behind Hicham El Guerrouj after an epic battle in Athens in 2004; world champion at 1500 and 5000 in Osaka in 2007.

Lagat’s only previous visit to Olympic Park was for a memorable race. He finished second to El Guerrouj in the 1500 at the 2001 IAAF Grand Prix final, El Guerrouj running an Australian all-comers’ record of 3:31.25.

Mottram is fit and healthy after two years battling injury. Hopefully he is on course back to the form which made him a world championships bronze medallist and a sub-13 minute runner. Solinsky and Tegenkamp have reached that level of performance in the past two years.

Solinsky ran sub-13 three times in 2010, as well as becoming the first non-African born runner to break 27 minutes for 10,000. He has generated the same sort of excitement as mottram did in his break-through years.

So it all shapes up to a great race in Melbourne. Let’s hope it produces something commensurate with the level of anticipation.

Of course, Melbourne has seen some great line-ups for middle and long-distance races over the years. Lasse Viren, Eamonn Coghlan, Steve Ovett, John Walker, Dick Quax, Rod Dixon, Dave Moorcroft, Henry Rono, Noah Ngeny, El Guerrouj, Grete Waitz, Sonia O’Sullivan are just a few of the great internationals to have graced Olympic Park.

One of the best races, and it was at 5000, came at the Melbourne Games of 1977. It was a warm, humid night in early February, so the all-comers record remained unchallenged. But seven runners were in contention as the field came up to the bell and the first six finished within four seconds.

Chris Wardlaw – coincidentally now Mottram’s coach – set the crowd alight when he took up the running coming up to the bell, but Germany’s Olympic bronze medallist Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand took control down the back-straight.

Hildenbrand won in 13:31.4, four tenths of a second clear of 1976 Olympic steeple silver medallist Bronislaw Malinowski of Poland. It was some run from Malinowski – he had already run, and won, the steeple in 8:24.6.

Karl Fleschen of Germany was third in 13:32.0 with the late Dave Fitzsimons getting past fellow Olympic 10,000 finalist Wardlaw to be first Australian home (13:33.2 to 13:34.2). Gerard Barrett was next in 13:35.4 with a third German, Detlef Uhlemann, seventh in 13:38.8.

Uhlemann backed that form up with a third in the world cross-country championships a month later. Who said track and cross-country were incompatible over such a short time?

Actually, the times weren’t that slow. Back then, the 5000 world record was Emile Puttemans’ 13:13.0. Now, it is Kenenisa Bekele’s 12:37.35.

We’ll be very happy indeed, I’d suggest, if the winner on 3 March has to go 12:55 or better.   

Normally I prefer to have had some solid months of training under my belt before trying to race longer distances but time was of the essence.   It all seemed to have come around so quickly following Commonwealth Games but in reality October was very late for a major championship thus it was more the start of the season for me rather than the end.

Once the decision was made I was 100% committed.  Perhaps it may have been wiser to trial the distance in the New Year after a hard training block but I had committed to running the VIC 5000m championships a few weeks earlier.   

Luckily the NSW 3000m Championships were held about ten days prior to my 5000m debut which allowed me to get in a solid hit out against my training partner James Nipperess who is in good shape at the moment.  He proved that when he left me for dead in the last 600m.  However Ken suggested I would be better for it ten days later of which I agreed.

The day I dreaded had finally arrived along with typical Melbourne weather.  Overcast skies combined with wind and rain did not do much for my motivation.  I spent the morning on the train out to Mt Waverley for treatment from Darren Fulton (Miritis Massage).  Once back in the city I headed out into the rain for a light run around the streets of Melbourne with Chinny (Russel Dessaix-Chin).

The rest of the afternoon was easy going as I took a nap before catching a kebab (cab) out to Olympic Park in peak hour traffic.  I probably would have been better to walk as we crawled along at a snail’s pace.  As the evening unfolded the wind began to drop which made for still conditions though the track was still wet.  This did not deter me at all as I focused on warming up and getting ready to race.

It did not dawn on me until I lined up on the start line that I was actually going to be running more than just a 3000m.  I tried to block the negative thoughts out of my mind as well as the old lap counter at the finish which read 12 laps to go.  Thankfully I had help from Ed Gunby, Chinny and Jason Woolhouse along the way.  Although the split at 3k (8.26) was a bit off what I had wanted I was happy to still be feeling comfortable.  At this point it was Jason and I taking lap for lap.  It was by no means planned but unfolded nicely as we shared the workload.  I felt I needed to pick up the tempo rather than leave it for a last lap all out assault.  With 800m to go I gradually increased the pace and managed to pull away for a win which is very rare for me but I hope to one day change the tag of being a bridesmaid.  It was a good tussle between Jason and I which I really enjoyed and I wish him well for Zatopek 10k.  I don’t envy anyone racing 10k on the track; it would be a tough gig, no doubt.

On reflection of the race I had hoped for a faster time than 13.56.77 but did not play out the way I had expected.  Nonetheless it was sub 14mins which now gives me something to build on as I look to get in some solid training over the next few months.  This will include a stint at the infamous Falls Creek from Christmas into the New Year.  I am really looking forward to this trip as I do every year, especially with so many people from the athletics community getting together to do the one thing we all love….Running!

Many thanks go out to Athletics Victoria for helping the trip to Melbourne go so smoothly and I look forward to running on Melbourne Olympic Park for the last time in April at Nationals.