Pittman-Rawlinson triumphs at Tour Final

posted by rtsam on April 1, 2011, 6:15pm

Jana Pittman-Rawlinson has made a triumphant return to the track in Perth

tonight, with the dual world champion clocking 55.75 to win the women’s 400m hurdles at the Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final in Perth.

Edging out national champion Lauren Boden, who ends her Australian Athletics Tour with 20 points for 5^th in the sprints/hurdles division, Pittman-Rawlinson’s run tonight is her first domestically since 2006 and the start of a 2011 IAAF world championships and 2012 London Olympics build-up.

“It’s great to back doing what I love and I can’t wait to compete for Australia again, next year is so important and I know that,” Pittman-Rawlinson said.

“The conditions here were good and thanks so much to Lauren (Boden) for a great race, it was really what I was hoping for.

“I’m back with (coach) Phil King and I am getting stronger, it’s just good to get this first race behind me and begin a build into Nationals.”

Pittman-Rawlinson will now shift her attention to the 89^th Australian Athletics Championships & Selection Trials in two weeks time and with her first run under her belt can head in confident of further success on Australian soil.

The sprints/hurdles winner’s cheque heads home with Sally Pearson, however, with the Queenslander winning the women’s 200m in a time of 23.22 (w: -0.5) to finish with 25 points overall, whilst national champion Brendan Cole clocked a season best 49.94 in the men’s 400m hurdles to soar to second overall with 22 points.

The distance crown was won by Tamsyn Lewis after the 15-time national champion clocked 2:01.44 to win the women’s 800m and take her point score total to 22.

tamsyn lewis Edging out West Australian Holly Noack (second, 2:02.84) and NSWIS scholarship holder Sianne Toemoe (third, 2:02.88) on the track tonight, Lewis was joined on the distance division podium byKaila McKnight (second, 20 points) and Jeff Riseley (third, 20 points) and couldn’t be happier with her building form.

“I am exhausted, we headed through 400m so quickly and I think tonight shows that I am really close to a great run,” Lewis said.

“I have always been a big fan of Australia’s domestic season, especially when we come to a great track like this in Perth, and the points concept is something I like.

“I wasn’t thinking about the $10,000 when I started tonight but to have it is a bonus – to be honest though I am so excited to head to Nationals running well.”

In other track highlights:

- Local favourite Ben Offereins (45.85) clocked his first sub-46 400m of the year to win ahead of Sean Wroe (second, 46.26) and Kevin Moore (third, 46.76).

- Clocking 10.38 (w: -0.3), national champion Aaron Rouge-Serret won the men’s 100m ahead ofLiam Gander (second, 10.63) and Flame athlete Matt Davies (third, 10.64).

Meanwhile on the runway, Mitchell Watt soared 8.21m (w: -1.1), yet another world championships qualifier, to win the men’s long jump and claim the 2011 Australian Athletics Tour jumps crown with 31 points.

Building towards a defence of his world championships bronze medal in August this year, Watt’s performance is another step forward for the 23-year-old as he returns from a serious adductor injury.

“We actually had a bit of a head wind tonight so I am pretty happy with that jump, it’s my third qualifier and perhaps the start of some consistency,” Watt said.

ben offereins Set to duel with Commonwealth champion Fabrice Lapierre at the start of competition, the jump-off did not eventuate with Lapierre placing 4^th (7.48m, w: -0.2) overall with only one legal jump.

“Tonight was Fabrice’s first competition and I know how tough it is to get your rhythm back,” Watt said.

“Be assured that after a few more jumps he’ll be right back up there and I’m hoping that might come at Nationals in a couple of weeks.”

Joining Watt in the jumps division top three were Charmaine Lucock (second, 20 points), who won the women’s pole vault with a 4.15m clearance tonight, and Henry Frayne (third, 20 points).

Rounding out the Australian Athletics Tour division champions is Kim Mickle, with the Commonwealth Games silver medallist taking home the throws crown after impressing in front of her home crowd with a 59.46m throw to win the women’s javelin throw.

“I was feeling amazing coming into tonight and although the big throws didn’t come I felt awesome and think big things will follow at Nationals in Melbourne,” Mickle said.

“I’m not in it for the money but the $10,000 tonight is a real bonus, it gives me a chance to build as well as I can in a world champs year and fingers crossed some big results will follow.”

Boasting a final point score of 25, Mickle’s performances were enough for the West Australian to defeat world discus champion Dani Samuels (second, 23 points) and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dale Stevenson (third, 22 points) for the title.

In other field highlights:

- Stevenson won the men’s shot put with a best mark of 19.26m ahead of Swedish athlete Robert Melin (second, 16.21m) and Matthew Cowie (third, 15.14m)

- Soaring 6.14m (w: 0.0), world junior championships representative Brooke Stratton won the women’s long jump, with Larissa Perry (5.98m, w: 0.0) second and Jessica Penney (5.98m, w: 0.0) third.

- Paralympic long jumper Carlee Beattie leapt 5.79m (w: 0.0) to narrowly miss her 5.84m world record set at the Sydney Track Classic two weeks ago.

The Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final was the final stop of the five-leg Australian Athletics Tour.

With events hosted in Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney before these past two days in Perth, the 2011 Tour boasted a $430,000 prize pool, the largest in Australian athletics history, and has provided a fantastic prelude to the 89^th Australian Athletics Championships in two weeks time.

The selection trial for the IAAF world championships in athletics later this year, the 89^th Australian Athletics Championships will be held in Melbourne for the first time since 2001 and for the last time at a closing Melbourne Olympic Park.

To view and download full results from the Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final, please click here.

89^th Australian Athletics Championships & Selection Trials
Friday, April 15 – Sunday, April 17 2011
Melbourne Olympic Park

ENDS

Tags: Athletics tour final, perth, jana rawlinson
Read more | Comments (0) | Updated on April 1, 2011, 6:25pm

Ranking: A Column By Len Johnson

posted by rtross on January 15, 2010, 8:43pm

So many honours have been heaped upon Steve Hooker for his exploits in 2009 that a significant one almost slipped by unnoticed.

Track & Field News ranked the Olympic and world champion pole vaulter fifth male athlete of the year, the first Australian to gain such a ranking since Jana Rawlinson was ranked tenth in 2003, the year she won her first world championships gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles, and the first male Australian since Robert de Castella was ranked sixth in his world championships marathon year of 1983.

Usain Bolt was voted 2009 male Athlete of the Year, followed by Kenenisa Bekele, Tyson Gay, LaShawn Merritt and then Hooker.

Each year, in addition to its event rankings, the American magazine assembles a panel of international experts to vote on the male and female athletes of the year across all events. The panellists vote on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis and the athlete of the year is decided on the aggregate.

Not surprisingly, a top-10 AOY finish is an honour that has eluded all but a handful of Australians. As a small nation, Australia doesn’t provide a huge number of Olympic and world champions which, three years out of four, is pretty much a minimum requirement for AOY candidates.

Nor does the lifespan of the award help. The men’s Athlete of the Year was inaugurated in 1959, the women’s in 1977, so the stars of Australia’s golden years in the 1950s and 1960s _ Marjorie Jackson, John Landy, Shirley Strickland, Betty Cuthbert, Herb Elliott _ never had the chance to win it.

Ironically, the only Australian to have been voted Athlete of the Year failed to win an Olympic gold medal. That would be Ron Clarke, whose amazing record-breaking year of 1965 saw him acclaimed male athete of the year. Clarke pretty well lived in the top 10 throughout his international career _ he was fifth in both 1966 and 1967, and equal ninth in 1968.

The only other Australian male top-10, Kerry O’Brien, also failed to win an Olympic gold medal. Like Clarke, however, that failure (in 1968, at least) was attributed largely to the high altitude of Mexico City. O’Brien was ranked third in the AOY poll in 1970, the year in which he set a world record in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Berlin; he was ranked number one in the steeple and sixth in the 5000 metres.

Deek’s appearance in the overall top 10 came the year he won the world championships marathon. He also won that year’s Rotterdam marathon, defeating Carlos Lopes in a head-to-head duel over the last five kilometres, and pushing Alberto Salazar back to fifth. You also have to wonder whether de Castella may have ranked in the top 10 in 1981 had he got the immediate credit for breaking Derek Clayton’s world marathon record in Fukuoka. Instead, Salazar “beat” him to the mark on a New York course which turned out to be just under 150 metres short.

In the shorter history of the women’s AOY only three Australians have made top 10. First, and most prolific, is Cathy Freeman, who was voted fourth overall in 1997, the year of her first world championship gold medal in the 400, seventh in 1999 (when she retained the title), and third in 2000, when she won at the Sydney Olympic Games and made the final in the 200.

More surprisingly, Emma George was ranked 10^th overall in 1997. The pioneer star of the women’s pole vault, George set two world records that year. Not that they counted in 1997 considerations, but George set plenty either side of that

year too.

Finally, Jana Rawlinson (then Jana Pittman), earned a top 10 ranking in 2003, the year she became the youngest woman to win a 400 metres hurdles world title, defeating world record holder Yuliya Pechonkina in Paris. Rawlinson also ranked in the 400 that year, via a personal when she handed Freeman her first defeat in over 40 races. (Note: Rawlinson was originally voted number 11, but has subsequently been elevated by the BALCO-related disqualification of American sprinter Kelli White.)

Clarke, O’Brien, de Castella, Freeman, George and Pittman _ Steve Hooker is joining an illustrious band. Of course, with Freeman, he belongs to an even more exclusive club: Australians to have won both an Olympic and world championships gold medal.

Tags: Len Johnson, Herb Elliot, Ron Clarke, Steve Hooker, Jana Rawlinson, Cathy Freeman, De Castella
Read more | Comments (0) | Updated on January 15, 2010, 9:23pm

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Pittman-Rawlinson triumphs at Tour Final

Ranking: A Column By Len Johnson