Pearson ensured her spot in the final with a comfortable win of 7.93 in the first semi-final, while Alina Talay (BLR) was the only other athlete to break the eight-second barrier when she ran 7.99 in the second semi.

Then in the final Pearson came out all guns blazing and clocked a joint fourth fastest time on record of 7.73, which is also the world lead in 2012. Tiffany Ofili-Porter (GBR), who finished fourth to the Australian in Daegu, came second in 7.94 while Talaytook bronze.

Pearson said: “I’m so excited, I was so nervous for that race. I was nervous but then I was trying to stay calm so that I wouldn’t jump the start. Then I wanted to get a fantastic start because my semi final was yuck, I hated it. It’s such a relief that it’s done and with that time. I’m glad that I won with a good time.

“It’s only my fourth hurdles race indoors, so I think that I did pretty well. Considering my first one was three years ago.

“The girls out there are just incredible so you don’t know what they are going to do and so you just have to make sure that you are right on your game. I have to be at my best to be that far ahead of them.”

Little did she know it but Pearson’s final and lap of honour went on to inspire Frayne to silver in the long jump.

Frayne had a solid start on his major championship final debut in the event, when he leapt to 8.17m, which is the same distance Fabrice Lapierre (NSW) won the title in two years ago.

Aleksandr Menkov (RUS) took the lead in the second round with 8.22m, which put Frayne into silver position. The 21-year-old maintain that spot for the next two rounds, of which he fouled, before Mauro Vinicius Da Silva (BRA) lept to 8.23m at his fifth attempt.

It was a distance the Brazilian repeated in the last round, which is when Frayne, with the penultimate jump of the competition, also hit 8.23m. Da Silva tookgold on countback, with Frayne ensuring the silver and Menkov in bronze.

Frayne said: “That was overwhelming. I didn’t know if it was going to come, I was feeling a bit flat after three fouls and then a 7.89. I was starting to think I’d spent all my big hits in that first round with 8.17 and then the second foul.

“But then I saw Sally run, and she ran past me. She timed it well, she finished the race, and I got pumped about two people before I had to jump. Then she did a run-by just as I was about to go and then I had the crowd all to myself so it was just the perfect combination to pull a decent jump from a tired body.”

The action continues tomorrow with AlanaBoyd (WA) in the pole vault and Craig Mottram (Vic) in the 3000m.

World champion and IAAF Female Athlete of the Year Sally Pearson has this morning undergone a scan in Melbourne following a race at the Gippsland Gift in Victoria on the weekend. 

The scan revealed that Pearson has a minor quadricep strain, with no visible tears.

Pearson had always planned a slower training week across the New Year period and as such this has been brought forward to see her return to training in approximately two weeks time.

The late Senator Pat Kennelly was a long-time numbers man and fixer for the Australian Labor Party. Once, on being told his opponents had the numbers in an imminent vote, he replied in his halting stammer: “I d-don’t care who’s got the n-n-numbers, brother, as long as I get to c-c-count the v-v-votes.”

I can identify with Kennelly on several points. First, I had a childhood stammer; second, the ALP Victoria senator was for a long-time chairman of the Albert Park Committee of Management, in which Athletics Victoria’s new home is situated; and, third, I’ve been focused on the numbers myself lately.

It began with Sally Pearson being acclaimed the international female athlete of the year award by the council members of the International Athletics Foundation. Sally was voted number one, in effect.

And, of course, the political year in Australia ended with the minority Labor government effectively picking up an extra ‘number’ through the appointment of an opposition member as parliamentary speaker. That changed the numbers in the national parliament in a significant way (Pat Kennelly would have loved that).

The numbers that had me thinking most, though, were those around the Victorian championships 5000 metres. There were some good numbers, and some bad ones.

Definitely good was the number of competitors. Seventy-six men (out of 86 entries) ran the race – held over four divisions; 18 ran the women’s championship. This compares favourably with the ‘good old days’: the first year I ran there were over 100 entries for a championship run as five heats and a final.

(This matched the experience in the recent New South Wales 3000 metres championships in which 126 men ran in seven grades of the men’s title, and 43 women in three grades.)

Not so good, was the standard at the sharp end of the pyramid. Craig Mottram won the men’s title easily in 13:46.60, comfortably doing what he wanted to do, which was run the sort of pace expected in the Zatopek:10 on 10 December.  Sarah Klein took out the women’s title in 17:02.71.

If you want another interesting number, it was Mottram’s first Victorian title at 5000 metres, though he has a world championships’ bronze medal and six national titles to his name.

Yet another interesting number is the one that was not in evidence – the multiple runners breaking 14 minutes in the only 5000 metres race before the Zatopek.

I remember pre-Zatopek 5000s being stacked with good runners. Traditionally, during the period in which he won four Zatopeks on the trot, Steve Moneghetti would run a ‘bad’ 5000 off his full training load.

‘Bad’ would be anywhere between 13:45 and 13:55, and ‘Mona’ would be fourth or fifth with two or three more runners breaking 14 behind him. Just as traditionally, Moneghetti would go through half-way in the Zatopek a couple of weeks later at the same pace, or faster.

Even as late as 2005, admittedly at the start of a domestic season culminating in a home Commonwealth Games, Louis Rowan ran 13:44.20 and led six others under 13:50. Two years earlier, Mark Tucker ran 13:33.03 in a pre-Zatopek 5000.

A quick check at the ranking lists in pre-2000 years showed that I wasn’t viewing the past through rose-coloured glasses. Anything up to 10 runners would be under 14 minutes in the main pre-Zatopek 5000.

The other notable difference then was club competition that provided two or more opportunities to race 5000 in the lead-up to the Zatopek. Now, we don’t have the races and athletes and coaches seem to prefer to train though most of the pre-Christmas period. Few athletes can come out and run a fast 10,000 without at least one lead-up track race, but plenty seem intent on trying.

The other worrying numbers published recently are the qualifying standards for the national championships. I’ve already written of my bewilderment at Athletics Australia’s decision to separate the Olympic selection trials from the 2012 national championships, the former to be held around the Melbourne World Athletics Challenge meeting, the latter in April.

The numbers are clearly set to restrict field sizes – only seven men have bettered the 1:47.75 required for automatic entry in the men’s 800 in 2011, for example, and three the 21.00 for the 200.

Presumably fields will be filled up to some pre-determined level. Presumably again, AA will follow down the rankings in doing this, but will all athletes who don’t have the automatic qualifying standards know they should enter anyway because they may get in as additional competitors. Any additionals must be those next in line, not those ‘in the know’.

Finally, will all those who run the trials also turn out for the nationals. You’d think those who succeed will be satisfied at having achieved Olympic selection, while those who do not might be tempted to push their claims overseas rather than at a diminished national championships.

I hope enough athletes decide a national title is worth winning in any circumstances. Otherwise we may be looking at numbers even Pat Kennelly would not be bothered counting.

Sally Pearson’s brilliant 2011 was recognised when she was acclaimed the IAAF’s female athlete of the year in Monaco last weekend.

Indeed, the only previous one I can find is Ron Clarke, who is, by glorious coincidence, Sally’s lord mayor up on the Gold Coast. What are the odds of that, do you reckon.

Clarke was named male athlete of the year by Track & Field News magazine in 1965, the first of his great international years. Since then, there has been nothing.

Track &Field News started nominating a men’s athlete of the year in 1959 and a women’s AOY in 1974. The US magazine pretty much had the athlete of the year thing to itself until the IAAF set up its own awards in 1988.

The careers of great Australian female athletes Marjorie Jackson, Shirley Strickland and Betty Cuthbert fell outside the scope of either award. The best Catherine Freeman did was second in 2000. Sally Pearson is therefore in rare, and exalted, company.

The award recognises an outstanding year. Pearson was metres ahead of her rivals at the world championships in Daegu, when it mattered most. She was undefeated in the hurdles but for a fall in the Diamond League meeting in Brussels – so no hurdles rival beat Pearson in a race she finished.

Quality of performance? Pearson’s technical mastery of her event in Daegu was breathtaking. Her winning time of 12.28 was fastest for almost 20 years and made her the fourth-fastest performer of all-time. She approached a once-unapproachable world record (12.21).

Yet some have questioned Pearson’s award, which she won from Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot and New Zealand’s Valerie Adams. There have also been mumblings about the men’s award, which went to Usain Bolt ahead of Yohan Blake and last year’s winner David Rudisha.

Cheruiyot had an outstanding year. She won the distance double in Daegu and the world cross-country title. She was undefeated on the track, and her 14:20.87 for 5000 metres in Stockholm made her the third-fastest ever behind Ethiopian duo Tirunesh Dibaba (14:11.15) and Meseret Defar (14:12.88).

Adams went undefeated in 2011 and her gold medal winning throw in Daegu was the longest in the world in 11 years.

Each of the contenders would have been a break-through winner. Australia has never provided a female AOY before, nor has Kenya, nor has New Zealand.

You can argue these things up hill and down dale (and no doubt the judges did). Cheruiyot beat Defar in the Daegu 5000 and again in Brussels. She beat defending champion Linet Masai to win the world 10,000.

On the other hand, it’s hardly the fault of Pearson or Adams that they do not have like events in which they can double.

In reality, there was an argument for each of the three female finalists as number one. What’s less clear, however, is the manner in which the IAAF makes its choice, so, let’s explain.

First, a panel of eight experts selects 10 finalists. Then, an e-mail vote is conducted to select three finalists. Those eligible to vote are IAAF and IAF (International Athletics Foundation) Council Members; IAAF member federations; IAAF committee & commission members; IAAF meeting directors; IAAF ambassadors; athletes’ representatives (i.e. agents); top athletes; members of the international press; IAAF staff members.

It is a pretty diverse group, with a high degree of subjectivity, you would think. In recent years, too, the IAAF has allowed a public vote on the three finalists.

Finally, the IAAF Council selects the winner.

Track & Field News takes a more rigorous approach, compiling the votes of 30 experts on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. 

Interestingly, though, results for the two polls show a surprising degree of correlation agreeing on 17 out of 20 winners from 2001 to 2010 (T&FN is yet to announce its 2011 AOYs). Only in 2003, when the IAAF went for Hicham El Guerrouj and Hestrie Cloete and the magazine for Felix Sanchez and Maria Mutola, and in 2008, when the IAAF had Yelena Isinbayeva as top woman and T&FN went for Tirunesh Dibaba, has there been disagreement.

The men’s situation this year was even less clear than the women’s. The IAAF opted for Bolt who perhaps could have been marked down more harshly for his false start loss in the Daegu final. But he came back to win the 200 and set the fastest time in the world for the 100 before season’s end.

Blake was great in Daegu, but he lost at the Jamaican champs to Asafa Powell and did not beat Bolt when he ran the world’s second-fastest 200 in Brussels.

Rudisha lost only his final race of the season, won his first world championships, and had the year’s fastest time in the 800. He had the strongest case for AOY in my view, but it was not overwhelming.

As ever, lists promote argument and discussion, which can only be good for the sport. Let’s see what the T&FN ranking bring.

In the meantime, congratulations to Sally Pearson – a rare and worthy winner indeed.

MONACO — Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt and Australia's Sally Pearson, the world 100m hurdles champion, were named athletes of the year by athletics' governing body the IAAF here Saturday.

Bolt, the Olympic 100 metres champion, wins the award for the third time after being honoured in 2008 and 2009.

This year the 25-year-old notably retained his 200m crown at the world championships in Daegu where he also helped Jamaica defend the 4x100m relay in a new world record time of 37.04sec.

In South Korea Bolt, however, squandered his chance to defend his world 100m crown when he was disqualified from the final for a false start, allowing compatriot Yohan Blake to succeed him.

It was in Daegu that Pearson, 25, produced the fourth fastest time in history, and the fastest in 19 years, for the women's hurdles event which she dominated in a time of 12.21sec.

She becomes the first athlete from Oceania to be honoured as such by the IAAF since the awards were introduced in 1988.

Olympic silver medallist and the fastest 100m hurdler in the world this year, Sally Pearson, says she is happy to be favourite heading into the 

world championships.

Pearson has gone undefeated for 2011, a run which includes four consecutive victories in the Samsung Diamond League. Those wins have all come at the expense of American rivalsDanielle Carruthers and Kellie Wells, who are both in Daegu.

With such an impressive run of form, and a new Australian record of 12.48 (+0.7), which Pearson set in Birmingham, the Australian has consequently been labeled favourite to take gold in Daegu, which would add to the same colour medal she took at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last year.

She said: “My whole plan after Commonwealth Games was to get solid training and not miss a session, look after my body when it’s needed and really listen to my body and what I need as an athlete.

“So far everything is going really well, touchwood, all my training sessions have been amazing.  As you have seen the results have been really good and consistent. Coming into the world championships as a favourite has been quite exciting and I’m up to the challenge, and let’s see what happens.

“I’m happy to be the favourite, I guess these girls haven’t been able to beat me yet so more pressure’s on them to get things right on the day and try and beat me. I’m one step ahead of them I think going into the championships.

“Every year the winner [of the world championships] has never run a personal best. I think when it comes to the championships it’s just a matter of who’s the best on the day. The times, if you look over the years, haven’t been amazingly fast times to win the race so I think it’s just whoever’s the strongest physically and mentally on the day to win it.”

Pearson’s rise to the top of the hurdles rankings has been a steady one and one reflected by her ever-expanding trophy cabinet. In 2008 she stormed to silver at the Beijing Olympics, but in 2009 injury hampered her performance in Berlin, where she finished fifth.

Jamaica’s Brigitte Ann Foster-Hylton took the world title then, with Americans Virginia Crawford and Dawn Harper finishing below Pearson. However, while Foster-Hylton will again line up at these world championships, Pearson’s main threat comes in the form of American pair Wells and Carruthers.

“I can’t really say what they’re thinking but it’s nice to think you have something over them, whether it’s physically or mentally it’s nice to know coming into these championships they haven’t beaten me and will probably be more scary for them than it is for me.

“I went to the Olympics in 2008 and I was nowhere near favourite to get a medal but I came out and got silver so you always have to watch out for those people who are just a little bit below you, they can always come out and run an amazing race, the race of their life and come over the top of you.

“So I guess in the hurdles anyone can win but at this stage the immediate threat is from the Americans. They’ve had a long season with their American trials and then still continued on with the European season so hopefully I’m a little bit fresher than them.”

For more information on the 2011 IAAF world championships including Australian Flame team information, athlete profiles, news and results, please visit athletics.com.au.

IAAF world championships
Daegu (KOR)
August 27 – September 4, 2011

The 2011 IAAF World Championships are LIVE on SBS TWO with daily highlights from 27 August – 5 September.

ENDS

The Samsung IAAF Diamond League rolls on tomorrow, with Australians casting their eyes towardsSally Pearson as she makes her 2011 European debut in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Bursting out of the blocks only days after a 0.14 second improvement to her 60m personal best and just two weeks after clocking the fastest 100m hurdles time (12.74, w: +1.1) by an Australian on home soil, Pearson’s assault on the international scene marks the beginning of her IAAF world championships build-up.

Meanwhile at a junior level, 11 athletes including Australian Flame Liz Parnov will compete at the Bauhaus Junioren Gala as guests of the German Athletics Federation this weekend, while a 29-strong squad will don the green and gold at the 2011 IAAF world youth championships from Wednesday, July 6.

For more information on the 2011 IAAF world youth championships, please click here.

Commonwealth champion Benn Harradine and current long jump world leader Mitchell Watt will compete in Paris on July 8 as the IAAF Diamond League descends on the French capital, before five Australians include 17-time national champion Tamsyn Lewis take to the track in Birmingham (GBR) two days later.

*Italics denotes athletes already selected to compete at the 2011 IAAF world championships

June 30: IAAF Diamond League – Lausanne (SUI)

100m hurdles: Sally Pearson (24, Qld)

July 2-3: Bauhaus Junioren Gala – Mannheim (GER)

400m: Alexander Beck (19, Qld)

800m: Eliza Curnow (19, Vic), Kuey Diew (18, Qld)

1500m: Jordan Williamsz (18, Vic)

High jump: Brandon Starc (17, NSW)

Long jump: Brooke Stratton (17, Vic), Tim McGuire (19, SA)

Pole vault: Liz Parnov (17, WA)

Shot put: Damien Birkinhead (18, Vic), Liam Speers (19, NSW)

Discus throw: Taryn Gollshewsky (18, Qld), Liam Speers (19, NSW)

July 2: Meeting International – Sotteville les Rouen (FRA)

400m: Ben Offereins (25, WA)

1500m: Jeremy Roff (27, NSW)

Long jump: Robbie Crowther (23, ACT)

Triple jump: Henry Frayne (21, Qld)

July 2: 60^th Cork City Sports – Cork (IRL)

1500m: Zoe Buckman (22, ACT), James Kaan (20, NSW), Brett Robinson (20, ACT)

3000m: David McNeill (24, Vic)

July 2: Bad Langensalza Long Jump Meet – Bad Langensalza (GER)

Long jump: Mitchell Watt (23, Qld)

July 2: Mondon Keien Meeting – Uden (NED)

1500m: Mark Fountain (29, Vic), Craig Mottram (31, Vic)

July 3: Down Under Champs – Gold Coast (QLD)

100m: Laura Whaler (23, NSW), Charlotte Van Veenendaal (22, Qld)

July 3: Gold Coast Marathon – Gold Coast (QLD)

Half marathon: Lara Tamsett (22, NSW), Nikki Chapple (30, Vic), Jeff Hunt (28, NSW)

July 6-10: IAAF world youth championships – Lille (FRA)

An Australian team of 29 will compete at the 2011 IAAF world youth championships.

To download and view the team media guide, please click here.

July 8: IAAF Diamond League – Paris (FRA)

Long jump: Mitchell Watt (23, Qld)

Discus throw: Benn Harradine (28, Vic)

July 9: Flanders Cup Meeting – Kortrijk (BEL)

100m: Aaron Rouge-Serret (23, Vic)

400m: Ben Offereins (25, WA)

400m hurdles: Brendan Cole (30, ACT)

1500m: Mark Fountain (29, Vic)

Long jump: Robbie Crowther (23, ACT)

Triple jump: Henry Frayne (21, Qld)

July 10: IAAF Diamond League – Birmingham (GBR)

800m: Tamsyn Lewis (32, Vic)

5000m: Collis Birmingham (25, Vic), Ben St Lawrence (29, NSW)

100m hurdles: Sally Pearson (24, Qld)

Discus throw: Dani Samuels (23, NSW)

ENDS

Australian long jump champion Mitchell Watt will join a green and gold brigade of more than 20 athletes at the Golden Grand Prix in Kawasaki (JAP) this Sunday, May 8.

Taking to the runway in career best form after soaring 8.44m (w: +1.5), a new personal best and the current world leading mark, to win the national crown only three weeks ago, the world and world indoor championships bronze medallist Watt will be joined in the men’s long jump by Robbie Crowther and Henry Frayne.

Crowther also heads to Japan with a new personal best (8.05m, w: +2.4), whilst Frayne, who burst into the Australian All-Time List for triple jump at the Briggs Athletics Classic late February, is set to return from a heel injury that forced his withdrawal from the Australian Athletics Championships.

A trio of Australians also feature on the women’s long jump start list, with Kerrie Perkins, Linda Allen and Jessica Penney all set to soar.

On track, triple 2011 national champion Sally Pearson and national 100m and 200m champion Aaron Rouge-Serret will lead the women’s and men’s 4x100m relay teams respectively.

Clocking 44.05 and 44.02 in Sydney during March, the women’s team is edging unbelievably close to the IAAF world championships qualifier of 44 seconds, with Pearson to start alongside three of Laura Whaler, Crystal Attenborough, Charlotte Van Veenendaal and Melissa Breen.

Already qualified for the IAAF world championships, the men’s team in Kawasaki also includes Daegu-bound athletes Matt Davies, Isaac Ntiamoah and Anthony Alozie. Liam Gander rounds out the travelling squad of five.

In the individual events, national champions Lauren Boden and Brendan Cole will burst out of the blocks in the 400m hurdles, Sean Wroe and Kevin Moore will join Davies in the men’s 200m whilst James Gurr and national 800m champion James Kaan battle it out across two-laps.

Doubling as Round 3 of the IAAF World Challenge, the Golden Grand Prix will also feature Stawell Gift starter Kim Collins (100m), dual world indoor champion Lolo Jones (100m hurdles) and local hero Koji Murofoshi, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist, in the men’s hammer throw.

Golden Grand Prix

Kawasaki (JAP)

Sunday, May 8

2:25pm (3:25pm AEST)

W long jump: Jessica Penney, Linda Allen, Kerrie Perkins

M javelin throw: Hamish Peacock

2:35pm (3:35pm AEST)

W 400m hurdles: Lauren Boden

3:05pm (4:05pm AEST)

W 4x100m relay: Sally Pearson, Laura Whaler, Charlotte Van Veenendaal, Melissa Breen, Crystal Attenborough (final team to be decided)

3:15pm (4:15pm AEST)

M 4x100m relay: Aaron Rouge-Serret, Matt Davies, Isaac Ntiamoah, Liam Gander, Anthony Alozie (final team to be decided)

3:30pm (4:30pm AEST)

M 400m hurdles: Brendan Cole

3:45pm (4:45pm AEST)

M 800m: James Kaan, James Gurr

M long jump: Mitchell Watt, Robbie Crowther, Henry Frayne

4:25pm (5:25pm AEST)

M 200m: Matt Davies, Sean Wroe, Kevin Moore

4:35pm (5:35pm AEST)

M 100m: Aaron Rouge-Serret

4:45pm (5:45pm AEST)

W 100m: Melissa Breen