Jana aims to catch Ana
By Mike Hurst
06jun03
JANA PITTMAN may be just a month away from proving she is a phenomenon in world athletics when she races in Europe, possibly against the seemingly unbeatable Mexican Ana Guevara.
Pittman, 20, flies on June 16 to her new training base in Zug, Switzerland, to prepare for the six Golden League meets in which she will contest the 400m hurdles.
She will race only the hurdles and the 4x400m relay at the ninth IAAF World Championships in Paris from August 23 to 31.
But by the time the world titles start, the former Sydney Hills district resident hopes to have pulled one back for Australia against Guevara.
The “Aztec Queen” trounced Cathy Freeman over 300m in Mexico City and 400m in Eugene, Oregon, but based on her most recent training Pittman looks capable of avenging Freeman and becoming only the second Aussie to run 49sec for the flat 400m.
“I’m hoping to race Ana in Lausanne [at the Athletissima Super Grand Prix on July 1].”
“It’s the only opportunity I’ve got to race her this year.”
Before Pittman crushed Freeman in the Telstra Sydney meet in March running 50.43sec (to Freeman’s 51.81sec) she ran a training test set of two 200m sprints with two minutes rest in between in 24sec-middle, backing up with 24sec-high.
“I’ve improved by a second since then,” Pittman revealed yesterday. “Now I’m doing 22 seconds-high and backing up with 23 seconds-high.”
The implication for competition is that she is fit enough to run 49.5sec which may be good enough on the day to catch Guevara, the strongest of favourites to win at the world championships.
But even if she becomes the first person in almost two years to beat Guevara, Pittman said she would stay with the 400m hurdles for her own campaign in Paris.
On July 4 in the Paris Golden League meet, she should also be on target to challenge Debbie Flintoff-King’s national 400m hurdles record of 53.17sec.
“I think the world title will have to be won in a time faster than Debbie ran,” Pittman said.
:sing::shoot::o