Australian Distance Running

By Len Johnson

We’re glass half-full people here. I reckon Australian distance running had a good year in 2009, with signs that 2010 through to London 2012 will be even better. And that was without any significant input from Craig Mottram and Benita Willis, who have carried our reputation for the past few years.

Mottram was out with achilles problems, which he is slowly, frustratingly slowly, getting on top of. Virtually his sole performance of note was a 13 minute 23 second opening 5k leg in the Chiba International Ekiden Relay late in November.

Willis has battled poor form and personal problems for the past couple of years. She, too, did not race for much of 2009 before a mixed bag of good and bad runs in the latter half of the year. Nothing yet, though, has been of her previous high standard.

Sport, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Fortunately, the space at the top of the Australian distance-running tree was admirably filled by Collis Birmingham and Lisa Weightman. Birmingham, with his versatility from 1500 metres to 10,000 on the track, and Weightman with her performances at world cross-country and marathon, ensured Australia still had a presence towards the top end of a disciplines still dominated by the east African powerhouses of Kenya and Ethiopia.

Birmingham set personal bests at 1500 _ 3:35.76, mile _ 3:54.30, slipping past none other than Herb Elliott on the Australian all-time list, 5000 metres _ 13:14.53 to sit second all-time to Mottram’s Australian record, and 10,000 metres _ a national record 27:29.73. He was a finalist in the 5000 metres at the world championships in Berlin, finished second in the Great Australian Run over 15km road, and wound up his year with his second Zatopek 10,000 victory.

About the one thing Birmingham lacked (if you want to quibble) was a genuine ‘look at me’ performance of the nature of Mottram’s close second to Haile Gebrselassie when he set the national 5000 record in London in 2004. But his consistency across the range of events suggests such a stand-out performance is not far away.

Lisa Weightman’s two outstanding runs both came in world championships. In the world cross-country, over a rugged course in Amman, she finished 17^th. In the world championships marathon, she not only finished 18^th but ran a personal best 2:30:42, one of only two women in the top 20 to record a ‘pb’. To close the year, Weightman was a close second in the Zatopek 10,000 to Eloise Wellings, again running a personal best.

The other encouraging signs from 2009 were the performances of a couple of outstanding youngsters in Ryan Gregson and Lara Tamsett and the depth of performance behind our top two.

Gregson broke Mike Hillardt’s Australian junior record for 1500 when he finished third to eventual world champion Yusuf Saad Kamel and Birmingham in Sydney. He was a late addition to the world championships team (Gregson was run out in the heats but the experience may prove invaluable), ran a personal best 1:47.38 for 800, and then closed the year with a win ahead of James Nipperess in the de Castella 3000 metres at the Zatopek.

Tamsett’s best performance of the year was her 26^th place at the world cross-country, but despite not reaching the selection standard, she continued to improve at the 10,000 metres, ending the year with a personal best in third place in the Zatopek.

The depth in middle-distance and distance was likewise pleasing. Jeff Riseley stood out at 1500, running a personal best 3:32.93, within a second of Simon Doyle’s long-standing national record, and was also our fastest at 800 at 1:45.48. Lachlan Renshaw had a so-so season, but he did run a personal best 1:45.77 in Europe. Jeremy Roff was rewarded for several seasons of aggressive running by being selected for the world championships, then ran a personal best 3:34.39 in Europe.

In the longer events, Ben St Lawrence ran personal bests for 5000 in both Australia and the USA, and wound up the year with second place in the Zatopek 10,000, less than a second behind Birmingham, while Shawn Forrest and Michael Shelley both broke 28 minutes for the first time at 10,000. Dave McNeill was second to Galen Rupp in the NCAA 5000, and Forrest second to the US star in the 10,000.

Finally, there were pleasing signs of improvement in the women’s 10,000, with the first eight finishers in the Zatopek recording personal bests _ Wellings, Weightman, Tamsett, Rebecca Lowe, Nikki Chapple, Cassie Fien, Melissa Vernon and Jessica Trengove; and in middle distances with Madeleine Pape winning the World University Games 800 and Kaila McKnight taking the silver medal in the 1500. Bridey Delaney heads a group of promising younger middle-distance runners.

Add the likes of Youcef Abdi and Sarah Jamieson, both of whom had quiet years, back into the mix and things are looking good indeed. Progression in athletics is never guaranteed, but the gathering numbers in 2009 are a good indication of better times coming.