The WUG’s Athletic program runs from the 16th-21st of August in Shenzhen, China, and I arrived on the 12^th after spending 2 months competing in competitions around Europe. I will be competing in the 1500m on the 16^th in the semi-final and hopefully in the final on the 18^th. 

I was selected to represent Australia at WUG after a solid domestic season over summer in which I met the qualifying time on a number of occasions and placed third in the men’s 1500m at the Australian Championships. At the time of notification from Athletics Australia I was back home on the farm working hard and having a short break after competing at the Stawell Gift in the Herb Hedemann Mile.

I had also been thinking about competing for Austria for some time, as I have dual citizenship (my grandparents emigrated from Austria in the 50’s). I had to make a decision as there was a short turn around to confirm for the Australian WUG Team. Having never competed for Australia before, meant that if I was to compete for Australia this August it would potentially mean that I would not be able to compete for Austria at best for at least one year, but most likely two years. I chose to withdraw from the Australian team and continue contact with the Austrian Athletics Association. Whether this is the right decision or not, time will tell; but I hope I can look back and say that it was the right decision for me in the future.

I arrived in Europe mid-June and was keen to get some good training in on the track before competing in some meets planned in July. After an easy week off the place I was keen to get some good training in, but unfortunately I got a chest infection, which cleared up after another easy week of training and a seven day course of antibiotics. By then I was just keen to string some weeks of training together, and had planned to race some races over to the west in the Netherlands, Germany and also Switzerland.

I continued with this plan and thought it would at least be good training. My first race was a 1500m in Uden (NED), 3:43, followed by a 1500m in Eindhoven (NED) and then a 1500m in Bottrop (GER), in 3:42. The plan was to then travel to Luzern in Switzerland for a good 3km, but again managed to catch a cold and whilst I considered racing, didn’t feel up to it on the day. Returning to my Vienna base and getting back into a decent training regime and completing some good track sessions gave me confidence ahead of the Austrian National Championships in Innsbruck, which I placed second in both the 1500m and the 800m.

I am now enjoying the Chinese hospitality and trying to avoid the hot and humid conditions, however I am sure that once I return to South Eastern Australia in late August I will be missing the hot conditions.

Brenton

I thought it would be an appropriate time to put up a blog, corresponding with my first serious race of the Domestic season, being the Hunter Track Classic. After stringing together some good training over the last few months, I was looking forward to having a crack at a fast 3k, after bypassing the NSW 3000m Championships, due to a niggle. I was happy with my result last weekend, 4^th in a pb time by nearly 5 seconds in a quality domestic field. My main aim is to continue this pb form over the coming months and to improve on last years performances at the Athletics Australia Tour meets. The focus will be the same as last season, the 1500m, with the odd 800m race to supplement this distance.

I have approached this season slightly different to the last one, in that I decided against going away on a training camp and instead stayed in familiar surroundings in Geelong (last season I went up to Charlotte Pass (NSW) for two three week stints). Based on my training form and the 3km race, I think this has worked so far. This has also allowed me to stay around friends and family and a familiar environment with all the facilities and services that I require in my approach to training. It has also given me the opportunity to spend some time at my parent’s farm, which I always enjoy getting back to the country - because Geelong’s such a big city! It’s about 200 km west of Geelong in South West Victoria. Although going home is no holiday, it involves a bit of farm work which is varied and can be physically tiring at times; but I find it a great place to train with endless dirt roads and with my girlfriend on the bike, someone to keep up with me in training (most of the time).  

Enjoy the summer of racing,

Brenton

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Brenton's RT Journals Page

By Brenton Rowe : It's a good feeling to be well into spring, knowing that the cooler months are behind us now and that the warmer months lie ahead..............

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Thursday October 15, 2009 

It's a good feeling to be well into spring, knowing that the cooler months are behind us now and that the warmer months lie ahead. As for the training it will be refreshing entering this transition period from 'general preparation' to 'specific preparation'. The past six months has been very productive in terms of getting a decent 'winter base' under my belt. My training has been the best it has ever been for this time of the year and I'm looking forward to building upon this over the next few months with more specific training in preparation for the main 'competition phase'.

The winter has been fairly quiet on the competition front, with a few cross country races and relays for the Geelong Region Cross Country Team in the AV series. The main focus over the winter period has been to complete some decent training and compete in a handful of cross country/road races whilst remaining injury free. I believe staying injury free has been as a result of introducing some simple techniques which have become habit. These include icing, stretching and regular massage, the basics really, as well as getting on to any niggles as they arise. The consistency in undertaking these activities has been the difference between this year and past years.

In terms of the next few months, training will become more race specific, i.e. 1500m orientated, and once university is finished at the end of this month, it will allow for more emphasis and professionalism in my approach to athletics. As part of this I plan to undertake a three week training altitude camp during the January/February period with my coach, and hope that this will prepare me well for the remainder of the track season.

 

'I believe staying injury free has been as a result of introducing some simple techniques which have become habit.'
Brenton Rowe

Ariane Friedrich took the spotlight for the Berlin 2009 world championships with impeccable timing.

No better than seventh in last year's Olympics, Friedrich chose Berlin's Golden League meeting in June this year not only to defeat the woman who has largely dominated world high jumping for the past three years _ Blanka Vlasic of Croatia _ but also to clear 2.06 metres and take three credible attempts at a world record 2.10.

Instantly, the 12th world championships had a face. Germany had plenty of medal prospects, mostly in the unglamorous throwing events. Suddenly, along comes a blonde, charismatic, compelling personality in a popular event who not only possesses star quality, but has gold medal credentials as well.

In the Olympiastadion on Thursday night _ yet another Usain Bolt night for world athletes as it turned out _ Freidrich went up against Vlasic for the gold medal. Two days earlier, she had qualified for the final with typical panache, waiting out the qualifying competition until the bar was raised to 1.96 and then sailing clear with her one and only jump. As she got up off the landing bags, Friedrich pumped both fists and then gestured, palms upwards, that she was ready for greater heights.

She did not quite scale those heights in the final, but Ariane Friedrich won plenty of new admirers without alienating any old ones. She bowed out with an oh-so-close attempt at 2.06, which would have given her the lead and almost certainly the win, and then helped gee the crowd up as Vlasic went for 2.10. Classy stuff indeed.

When she gets home, Friedrich will possibly reflect that she had a chance to ride the Bolt wave _ she jumped at 2.04 in the high-octane aftermath of Bolt's latest world record _ but could not catch it. Against that, she lost to a woman who has been dominant for most of the past three years, and she had a jump to beat her.

Anna Chicherova of Russia had a chance to upstage the two-woman battle when she took the lead with a first-time clearance at 2.02. Vlasic got it second try while Friedrich needed all three attempts before clearing.

Chicherova bowed out at 2.04, which Vlasic got at the second attempt. Friedrich's two efforts here were good, but not all that close. Now, she had no choice but to take her third attempt at 2.06. With death or glory the only options, she produced her best jump of the competition, but just flicked the crossbar off with her calves. That left Vlasic the winner at 2.04, and Chicherova the silver medallist by dint of her first-time clearance at 2.02 against Freidrich's third.

Any other night, the high jump would have been the absolute highlight. Had Friedrich won, it still might have been.

But these are not normal times, this is the age of Usain Bolt. Just when we thought he had nothing left to give after three consecutive championship gold medals _ Olympic 100 and 200, world 100 _ in world record times, up he comes with another world record in the 200.

Bolt's unbelievable 19.19 put him over six metres clear of Panama's young Alonso Edward and Wallace Spearmon of the USA.

Bolt truly is in a world of his own at the moment. The rest of us are privileged to be able to see it from the world we live in. Unfortunately, 'the rest of us' includes everyone from the silver medallist down.

It's enough to discourage even the most ambitious of rivals, but Spearmon shrugged off such suggestions with a joke.

"You can look at any sport, and just because you get beat doesn't mean you stop trying. I've got to go home, work twice as hard, three times as hard, and put a picture of Bolt above my bed."

At least the picture won't be running 19.19 for 200 metres!




 

Len Johnson was The Melbourne Age athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is the author of The Landy Era, From Nowhere to the Top of the World, and a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) who trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.