The athletics world casts its eyes Down Under

One of the consequences of excellence is that the bar is set very high in terms of personal improvement.

Last year at the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic, David Rudisha ran his first 800m of what turned out to be an outstanding year, with hopes for a similar start to 2011 at the same meet this Thursday, March 3.

Clocking 1:43.15, Rudisha's run was not only the fastest ever run in Australia but the prelude for a season which saw him win the African championship and the Continental Cup and twice break the world record. The year ended with the 21-year-old acclaimed IAAF Male Athlete of the Year.

Rudisha hopes this year ends with acclaim of a slightly different sort - that which goes with winning a major title at the IAAF world championships in Daegu (KOR) this August.

"Having the world record and not a major title, it doesn't sound good," Rudisha stated at last Friday's John Landy Lunch.

Opposing Rudisha will be two sub 1:44 men in American Nick Symmonds (1:43.76) and Abraham Chepkirwok (1:43.72) of Uganda. Symmonds was sixth at the Berlin world championships in 2009, Chepkirwok fourth at the 2007 world championships and a semi-finalist at the Beijing Olympics.

Hoping to gatecrash this sort of company will be Lachlan Renshaw. The national champion, Renshaw will be looking to start 2011 strongly after being forced to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games final as a result of a hamstring injury.

Headed by the 2007 world champion, American Bernard Lagat, and a world championships medallist, Craig Mottram who won bronze in 2005, the 5000m contains a further three sub-13 minute men in Isaac Songok, Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky, as well as our own national champion in Ben St Lawrence, second-fastest ever in Collis Birmingham and Commonwealth Games representative David McNeill.

After two years battling with achilles tendon problems, Mottram on the track will be enough for most of Melbourne's passionate distance fans. If he is in there at the finish, the back-straight stand may well erupt.

Rounding out the excellent middle distance line up at this year's IAAF Melbourne Track Classic, an IAAF World Challenge Meet, is the men's 1500 metres, with the start list losing little to the 800m or 5000m in star quality.

Led by the Olympic gold and silver medallists Asbel Kiprop and Nick Willis, the field also contains last year's winner Jeff Riseley and American mile record holder Alan Webb. Kiprop will be eager to atone for last year's race when he tripped and fell after only 100 metres and, although quickly regaining his feet, could do no better than fourth place.

At the same time in the field, three world champions will take to the throwers circle.

Flame Dani Samuels in the discus, is one, while in the women's shot put Valerie Adams is Olympic champion to boot. Adams is in grand form, having thrown a New Zealand all-comers record 20.33m on the weekend in Auckland.

There is also one lurking in the men's shot put - if, at 133kg, Reese Hoffa could ever be described as lurking. The 2007 Osaka world champion is up against Dale Stevenson, who cracked the 20-metre mark in Hobart and is confident of achieving the 20.50m world championships qualifying standard.

Having headlined the first two meetings on the Australian Athletics Tour, Sally Pearson will no doubt be happy to have 'star' company in Melbourne, but she will also be just as determined to produce star performances in the women's 100m and 200m. The presence of American sprinter Mikele 'Miki' Barber, a member of the 2007 world championships gold medal 4x100m relay, could be the stimulus Pearson needs to push below 23 seconds in the 200m and closer to Melinda Gainsford-Taylor's national record of 11.12 in the 100m.

Mitchell Watt carries the rare distinction of bringing home a medal from every major competition he has entered, bronze at both the 2009 world championships and 2010 world indoor championships, but injury kept him out of the Commonwealth Games. He returned to the long jump with 8.13m in Brisbane last week and, given good conditions, could be up for something even better Thursday night.

Tamsyn Lewis may only be doing a two-lap event, but her endurance is not to be questioned. The 2008 world indoor champion at 800m is fronting up for her 14th consecutive IAAF Melbourne Track Classic. She will come up against Jamaican Kenia Sinclair, fifth in the Beijing Olympic final and second in last year's Continental Cup.

With Kelly Hetherington, who pushed Lewis in Hobart in Round 2 of the Australian Athletics Tour, national champion Katherine Katsanevakis and Erica Fountain also in the mix, something close to two minutes could be needed to win.

Finally, the men's 400m sees the return of John Steffensen, going up against Delhi silver medallist Sean Wroe, national champion Ben Offereins and Delhi relay gold medallist Kevin Moore. With all four men on the hunt for the 45.25 world championships qualifying standard this event looks set to be one hot lap.

A five-stop national tour, the 2011 Australian Athletics Tour boasts four divisions (sprints/hurdles, distance, throws, jumps) with male and female athletes in different events pitted against each other in the race for the largest prize purse in Australian athletics history.

The only IAAF World Challenge meet held in Australia, the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic doubles as Round 3 of the Australian Athletics Tour with many events providing an opportunity to score points in the race for their division title.

To view and download current start lists and the meet timetable for the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic, please click here<http://www.athletics.com.au/competition/events/australian_athletics_tour_-_me>

To view and download current leader boards of the Australian Athletics Tour, please click here<http://www.athletics.com.au/competition/events/201011_season_dates/aat_points>

With thanks to Len Johnson