An upset, a near-upset and a masterclass: By Len Johnson

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An upset, a near-upset and a masterclass: that’s what the three big races at the Melbourne Track Classic provided.

Given that the upset – Jeff Riseley defeating Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop in the 1500 metres, and near-upset – Ben St Lawrence threatening to do the same to Bernard Lagat off the final bend of the 5000, both involved Australians, the two most competitive races of the night fulfilled the expectations loaded onto them in the build-up to the meeting.

Since the masterclass was given by 2010 male athlete of the year in the 800 metres, there weren’t too many complaints about that either. David Rudisha set up a mighty impressive season off his 1:43.15 in Melbourne last year, he’ll be hoping his 1:43.88 on Thursday night is a prelude to another one.

Predictably, given Melbourne’s history as the self-proclaimed ‘Oslo of the south’, middle and long-distance featured heavily on the schedule for the final international meeting at Olympic Park.

This, after all, is the track where John Landy set off in lonely pursuit of the first sub-four minute mile; where Herb Elliott first broke four minutes; where Ron Clarke set the first of almost 20 world records; where Charlene Rendina – a teammate of Greg and Carolyn Lewis back in the 1970s, set a national record for 800 metres which defies all comers, but chiefly their daughter, Tamsyn, to this day; and, where Craig Mottram emerged as a top-class 5000 runner with a 13:12.04 against Stephen Cherono in 2002.

Jeff Riseley evoked all that spirit, and more, when he sprinted past Kiprop up the final straight of the 1500. Sure enough it was a first-up race for the Olympic gold medallist, but it was just Riseley’s second outing since returning from the foot injury which put him out of the Commonwealth Games and here he was surging home ahead of Kiprop, Alan Webb and Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis – not a bad collection of scalps.

It was a race lost as well as won. Kiprop sat behind the erratic pacemaking of compatriot Gilbert Kipchoge who ran 53, 1:53, the old too fast then too slow trick. Riseley followed that, too, but critically got the sit on his rival.

The other thing it showed was just how difficult it is to run the world championships A-standard of 3:35.00 other than in the orchestrated races of the Diamond League. With the pace on from the start, Riseley still ran ‘only’ 3:36.71. He will surely get the time, but the result emphasised how difficult qualifying will be for so many athletes.

Ben St Lawrence raised hopes of a second upset when he loomed at Lagat’s shoulder on the final bend of the 5000. Already, he was travelling at a pace which would lead to a 15-second ‘pb’, and now it looked as if ‘Benny Saint’ might defeat Lagat, the 2007 world champion, 2009 silver medallist and second only to Kenenisa Bekele among 5k runners in recent history.

“S**t, I’m going to pass him,” St Lawrence thought. And so thought all of us, too, but it didn’t quite happen, Lagat sprinting decisively clear to win 13:08.43 to 13:10.08.

St Lawrence is now second on the Australian all-time list behind Craig Mottram, while Lagat has his first win in three starts over 11 years in this country. His first was in finishing third behind Noah Ngeny and Hicham El Geurrouj in the Sydney Olympic 1500, his second in finishing behind El Guerrouj in the 2001 IAAF grand prix final at Olympic Park the following year. Now, Lagat has closed Olympic Park with the fastest 5000 ever run at the track.

And what about Mottram? He finished sixth in 13:25.15 behind the first two, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and the surprising Andrew Bumbalough. It was an encouraging step back along the road after the latest of a long series of achilles tendon problems.

 Unlike Kiprop and Lagat, there were no rude shocks for David Rudisha in the 800. His 1:43.88 saw him home an unchallenged 10 metres ahead of Nick Symmonds.

It was another business-as-usual run for the world record holder, his preferred pacemaker taking him out in a tick over 50 seconds, his rivals racing for second from then on. Rudisha’s test will come at the world championships, when he attempts to add a major title to his world record performances.

Lachlan Renshaw continued to show that his move to the OTC Elite has been a good one, running a ‘pb’ 1:45.66 in third place and there was a huge run, too, from 18-year-old Alex Rowe whose 1:46.28 was within 0.37 of 1994 world junior champion Paul Byrne’s national U20 record.

All up, three great races with more than enough local content to keep the most demanding fan happy.

There was much else besides, including a sub-2 minutes 800 from Jamaica’s Kenia Sinclair ahead of Tamsyn Lewis and a stirring battle between Jemma Simpson and Kaila McKnight in the women’s 1500, won by Simpson, 4:08.49 to 4:08.94.

Note: both the IAAF (www.iaaf.org) and Athletics Australia (www.athletics.com.au) websites have full summary and results of the meeting.