Lauren, 15, top Oz sprinter

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Teen sprint queen smashes 200m record
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comment Alex Murdoch
December 10, 2007 11:00pm

TEEN sprint queen Lauren O’Sullivan is a hair’s-breadth off becoming Australia’s fastest 200m runner.

The Brisbane schoolgirl, 15, – who shocked the athletics world in October when she declared she would not even consider an Olympic spot because of her age – smashed a 23-year-old national under-16 200m record in Sydney at the weekend.

Her time of 23.54sec in the heats of the Australian All Schools and Youth Athletics Championships was a whopping 0.49sec faster than the record set by Sue Broderick in 1982, and just 0.01sec slower than the nation’s fastest ranked 200m runner of the year Crystal Attenborough.

O’Sullivan, who went on to win both the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay events at the Sydney meet, said stars Jana Rawlinson (Pittman) and Sally McLellan had urged her to rethink her Olympic stance.

“I’ve spoken to both Sally McLellan and Jana Pittman and they both said they went to the Olympics when they were 16 – and I’ll be 16 next year,” she said.

“I still find it a bit young, but if they’ve gone through it and they’re still there and they’re still going strong I guess it’s not too bad.”

O’Sullivan said she now had her sights firmly set on snagging a spot in the Beijing relay team.

“I’d like to start off with the 4x100m relay to get used to the whole atmosphere,” she said.

Although O’Sullivan’s weekend 100m times were off her normal pace – a storm had left the track waterlogged and slow – her Queensland under-16 record of 11.67 also placed the sprinter in Beijing contention.

The humble teen was about 10m ahead of her nearest competitor in her record-breaking 200m run and said it was the fear of someone sneaking up behind her that kept her powering ahead.

“Other than that I just focus on my own race, focus on what I’m doing and make sure my running style’s right.”

Athletics Australia high-performance manager Max Binnington admitted the sprinter’s time put her in contention for the Australian team but said any talk of an Olympic spot would put unfair pressure on the teen.

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From our SS Camps at the weekend.

Athletics: Junior sprinter breaks senior record
12:05PM Monday December 10, 2007

[b]Westlake Boys’ High’s junior sprinter Frazer Wickes has run faster than the seniors at the national schools athletics championships.

Wickes, 15, set a junior boys 400m record in Wanganui at the weekend, in a time quicker than the senior boys’ record.

He clocked 47.79sec, slicing off 1.21sec from Richard Goldstone’s 1974 record.
The time was faster than Sam Higgie’s 1999 senior record, 47.86sec.[/b] :eek:

Matthew Robinson, of Southland Boys’ High, won the senior boys’ 400m in a record 48.74sec at the weekend.

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Sounds like this kid has the makings of the first 44-sec Kiwi.

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if we don’t mind questionable birth dates how about:

14 46.96 Kirani James GRN 1 Sep 92 Ostrava 13 Jul 07

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Geez, questionable birth dates indeed. That’s flying. And impossible. Probably 27yo or something.

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lol, 1st 44 sec runner, try 1st 45 sec runner. The NZ record is 46.09. Looking at past results, NZ seems to have had some seriously fast (200m or 400m) 15-18yo’s but they always disappear into thin air :confused:

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Sounds like this kid has the makings of the first 44-sec Kiwi.

Is he a Kiwi or is he a Caucasian?

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Don’t know much at all about him sorry but know he ran smart races,

Preliminaries 5th 54.30
Semi Finals 4th 53.95
Finals 1st 47.79

Talking to people there they said it was awesome to watch and he won by approx 30m :eek:

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i mean the old record was 47.mid by the legendary obea moore who ran 45.1 at 16, so breaking 47 isn’t impossible.

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Perhaps not impossible, but tell me, can you imagine another kid being more of a legend then Obea Moore? He was the ultimate young age-group athlete of perhaps forever. Didn’t he run a 9.xx 3k as well? Whilst running a 10.50 100? I think that was when he was 15/16.

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And America’s Steve Lewis went 43 to win the Seoul Olympic gold medal when still a junior. So it’s the old saying, when you’re ready, you’re ready. This kid probably already is showing signs of the body of an adult. Darren Clark of Australia ran 45.05 as a 17-year-old to win the British championship at Crystal Palace in 1983. You do get these physical freaks and hopefully New Zealand will nurture theirs.

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If he is a Kiwi - an early development is expected. This is the case with many “islanders”. Also, in Australia kids from NSW and QLD generally perform better when they are around 12-18 y.o. (more exposure to the Sun, warmer climate, more physical activities, etc.) VIC or SA kids tend to catch up around the age of 18.

I have seen his results when he was younger (10yo). Nothing too impressive but 47sec. is extraordinary. I guess, we should give him 2-3 more years before we judge his ability or talent. As I said, some kids tend to develop early and whatever they achieve at young age rarely gets improved later when they are fully grown up. Particularly many young girls.

Check out the records book and a boy by name Fred Martin. I have heard he was “a freak”. His times were extraordinary. Also, I have heard he had a problem with his hearing and still managed to run extraordinary times. BUT, like many others he has not made it to OG or WC.

I say, well done, keep it going. Good luck!

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That’s the great thing. He was very smart and patient in the rounds, he didn’t even win his semi I think. He just cruised, and for someone at that age in front of a large crowd, that’s impressive resolve.

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This kid probably already is showing signs of the body of an adult.

That is the key. Agreed.

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that story is from when he was 17ish, he ran a sub 4:20 mile(around 4:00’s for a 1500) and a 10 minute 2 mile (3220m)… in practice on the same day. Obea ran a 1:50 800 at 15. also the old record was 47.1, so it’s not like this guy took a huge swath off it.

Obea when healthy, was pretty much a machine, but he never quite had the flat 200 speed(20.7 or so) and hurt his hamstring in prusuit of a bunch of relay records in '95 and wasn’t really the same.

However, obea ran a TON of races, too many for a true peak and to be in his best shape, even though he showed up and ran PR’s at nationals/ junior worlds, he wasn’t running as fast as he could have if he wern’t used as a relay horse.

So, if this guy had a bit more flat speed than Obea, and was focused on a single peak (world youths), then i don’t see why he couldn’t take down a mark of the demi god. it’s not like he came in ran under 46 as the equivilent of a young high school freshmen or anything and then proceded to back that up with a 10.3 and a 20.7. (fyi US freshmen record is 46.5…)

FWIW: this guy(kirani james) ran 3 sub 47.5’s on successive days, make of it what you will.

edit: some fact gathering, he has a 200 pr of 21.1H which provides plenty of heat to run 46.9 and Grenada has produced one international level 400 runner, so another on the way isn’t impossible.

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The other up and coming star in Aus I ahve heard of is Ryan Gregson

The Gregson show continues
The superb form of World Youth Championships representative Ryan Gregson has continued with the young gun smashing yet another national record.

This time it was the under-18 1500m mark that tumbled at a club championships meet in Homebush this afternoon, as the 17 year-old produced a stunning 3:43.84 effort - well inside the previous record of 3:46.34 set by Andrew O’Neill in Melbourne in 2000.
Importantly, the result was a World Junior Championships qualifier, with 3:47.50 the required standard for consideration to compete in Bydgoszcz, Poland in August next year.

[b]However, Gregson’s latest record is emphasised by those that have preceded it in recent weeks.

Last weekend he captured the under-18 5000m record, slicing nearly five-and-a-half seconds off that mark, :eek: while earlier in the month Craig Mottram’s under-20 3000m record was bettered by a second-and-a-half. [/b]

Naturally, given Gregson’s age, the latter was also an under-18 record.

Gregson’s coach Ian Hatfield was very pleased with his young charge’s latest achievement.

“He is in outstanding form at the moment,” he said. “It was sort of our plan to have a crack because at the end of this year he’s in the under-20s so we wanted to get the under-18 3k, the 5k and now the 1500.

“He’s in really good shape with his track work and for his national all schools next week, so it’s very pleasing at this stage.”

The Kembla Joggers athlete, who finished fifth over 1500m in Ostrava, Czech Republic in July, had a personal best of 3:47.10 set before his World Youth Championships experience.

In beating it, he also took the race honours over senior athletes including Russell Dessaix-Chin, James Matthews and Jeff Farrelly, setting himself up beautifully for a berth in the open 1500m event at the Zatopek Classic in Melbourne on December 13.

But before then it’s a return to the All Schools and Youth Athletics Championships, which commence in Sydney on Thursday. Meet records are sure to be threatened.

“He is entered and I think going to get a start in the open 1500 for Zatopek which will be on the following Thursday,” Hatfield confirmed. “He’ll perform at the All Schools next week. He’ll do the 3000 and the 1500 and then go down to Melbourne on the Thursday for the 1500 for Zatopek and that will be all before Christmas and most of January.

“We’re keen to go down to Falls Creek with the junior distance camp with Athletics Australia and then stay on another week and do some good solid training at altitude. We’ll come back for the national cross country trials in March and the under-20 competition. Hopefully, he might get a start in a couple of the grand prix meets in Canberra and Sydney.”

For the modest Hatfield, who had shared aims for Gregson to set his three records before the turn of the year, some hard work has paid dividends.

“It is very satisfying,” he said. “If I can help in some way, I’ve got a great bunch of athletes and I think they’re all champions.

“It is satisfying that I can impart some knowledge and confidence building for them to achieve their goals, whatever they are.”

will be interested to see how he goes tonight at Zatopek.

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From last nights news…hopefully works ok

http://www.tv3.co.nz/VideoBrowseAll/SportsVideo/tabid/317/articleID/41613/cat/70/Default.aspx#video?articleID=41613

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from IAAF’s Zatopek race meeting report overnight

Jeremy Roff (NSW) attempted bravely to steal the men’s 1500m, opening a 30 metres lead on the pack at one stage, but at the bell the chase was on and Nick Bromley (NSW), better performed over 800m, ran down the leader in the home straight to win in 3:42.18. Roff was second in 3:42.80 and the ACT’s Corey Tucker was third in 3:43.67. Exciting NSW schoolboy Ryan Gregson gave it a shot at the bell but ended up fifth in 3:44.26.