SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE: Aussies Claim 2006 Has Been Their Greatest Year Ever :eek: So What’s Going On In The Rest Of The World?
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:rolleyes:
Is this the best international season we have ever had?
21 September 2006 | 12.53pm
With twenty-eight Australians currently ranked in the top twenty - ten who have reached the top ten, thirteen personal bests produced over the European season and three Australian records broken, a World Cup win to Craig Mottram and a World Athletics Final victory to Paul Burgess the question beckons – is this the best European season by Australian athletes ever?
Of course the question is open to debate, with John Landy and Ron Clarke dominating the fledgling Euro circuit in the 50’s and 60’s and the likes of Darren Clark and Cathy Freeman regular winners more recently.
However what is not the subject of any debate is the increasing depth and level of performance of Australian athletes in 2006.
According to international athletics expert Maurie Plant, who has been to virtually every major European competition over the past two decade this season marks a significant step forward.
“I was in Europe travelling to meets for five years before we had an Australian winner.
We’ve had the Freemans and Clarks who won in Europe consistently. And the likes of Jana Pittman and Simon Doyle - but for consistency of depth – this has to be the best we have seen.”
“The PB’s and continued performances at a high level have been impressive. It’s the first step to proving you’re a championship athlete – consistent high level performance - so the group in Europe this year have passed the first test.”
The manner and decisive nature of the Mottram win at the World Cup will remain in the memories of athletics fans for years to come. He created history by becoming the first Oceania athlete to defend a World Cup title, and in doing so produced the best 3000m run of his career to dethrone one of the best distance runners of all time – Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele. After breaking the 3000m Australian record in July at the Leige meet, ‘Buster’ repeated that form with a stand out performance and new Australian Record of 7:32.19.
That wasn’t the only record Mottram had broken this season, setting a personal best time of 3.33.97 in Zurich for the 1500m in July. However, after a flat spot in August, Mottram began to feel the effects of a long campaign and longed for a break from the sport. With a Commonwealth Games hangover and lack of motivation and drive, the win in Athens was that much more special. With renewed energy and focus, Mottram concluded the season with two Australian records and three personal best times.
Arch-rivalry, podium finishes, number one rankings, substantial prize money, missing poles and misleading heights summed up the seasons for pole vault champions Steve Hooker and Paul Burgess. The training partners from Western Australia cemented their reputations as two of the world’s best with a stellar season in Europe.
After a win in Helsinki, Hooker produced a magnificent victory and personal best in the pole vault at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Berlin. His first time clearance at 5.96m not only set a new personal best, but in bizarre circumstances, Hooker, who used new poles that he had waited all season to arrive, actually thought he had cleared the magical six metre barrier. Hooker hit a speed bump at the World Athletics Final with a disappointing fifth place, however spurred on by Mottram’s win and ‘Land down under’ playing in the background, Hooker responded with a 5.80m to triumph at the World Cup.
Burgess, an existing member of the six metre club, had a setback when his poles went missing after competing in Zurich in July. With wins in Osaka and Rome earlier in the season, ‘Budgie’ finished second in Berlin with 5.91m against a high quality field, and bounced back to take out the World Athletics Final, with a 5.82m leap.
After his win in Athens on the weekend, Hooker has vaulted back into the top spot on the IAAF world rankings, ahead of Burgess who held the top spot for a week. It is the first time in 38 years that two Australians have been ranked one and two in the same event. Hurdlers Maureen Caird and Pam Ryan held the top two spots in the world after claming the gold and silver medals in the 80m hurdles at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
After finishing second at the Commonwealth Games, Sarah Jamieson has produced a sensational season, twice beating her personal best, setting a new Australian record and consistently reaching the podium in the major European meets this summer.
Facing strong opposition all season, the 31-year-old proved she could mix it with the world’s best, launching her international campaign in May with a win in Osaka. In sweltering conditions, Jamieson broke Margaret Crowley’s decade old Australian 1500m record in Stockholm, finishing third behind Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal, clocking 4.00.93 to shave 0.41 seconds off the previous mark. Jamieson finished 4th in the World Athletics final and 3rd at the World Cup to round out her best season ever.
At the World Athletics Final, Commonwealth Games champion Bronwyn Thompson pulled out an impressive 6.77 metres in the long jump to beat all but the redoubtable Russian circuit meet specialist, Tatiana Lebedeva who won with 6.92m. The 28-year-old Queenslander had a successful European campaign resulting in numerous podium finishes, and even with upper leg pain still managed a fourth place at the World Cup.
Eloise Wellings who fought her way back to personal best form over the last two years after a series of injuries threatened to prematurely end her promising junior career, has completed a sensational European season. The Sydneysider who is renowned for racing in a headband, was forced to take the role of pacemaker for many of her races yet still managed to break her personal best time on four occasions. After finishing third in Huelva, Spain in June, claiming her first personal best time of the season of 8.46.37 for the 3000m, the 23-year-old then went on to break her 5000m personal best in 14:54.11 in Zurich. Not satisfied with those achievements, Wellings then went onto break her 3000m best yet again producing 8:46.17 at the World Athletics Final and 8:41.78 at the World Cup.
Sprinter Patrick Johnson managed to shave .14 from his lifetime best in the 200m at the MAI-Galan meeting in Malmo, Sweden. The World Championship 200m finalist produced a slick 20.35 seconds (+1.0mps) and moved from 14th to sixth on the Australian all-time list and is still in pursuit of Peter Norman’s 37-year-old Australian record of 20.06 set at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968.
For Commonwealth discus champion Scott Martin, the World Athletics Final shot put competition was very much new territory. The lowest ranked of the eight finalists by some 50 centimetres and the least experienced at this level, Martin produced a personal best of 20.38 metres first up, blowing away the more experienced Manuel Martinez (Spain), Tomasz Majewski (Poland) and Ralf Bartels (Germany). It was a great result for the 23-year-old who ended up finishing fifth after sneaking into the Final. Representing Oceania, the Wodonga ‘ballet dancer’ capped off a great European season with a fourth place result in the shot put (20.25m) and 60.93m to finish fifth in the discus event at the World Cup.
After smashing her 3000m steeple personal best by nearly 10 seconds at the Commonwealth Game running 9:34.24, Victoria Mitchell claimed her first European victory in the 3000m steeplechase at the Josef Odlozil Memorial meeting in Prague. The 24-year–old, who sports a bright red hairstyle when she competes, displayed outstanding form throughout the season which saw her ranked seventh in the world and also claimed a fourth place at the World Cup.
Tatiana Grigorieva, 30, proved that she’s still got what it takes to compete on the international stage, equalling her five year old personal best of 4.56 at the IAAF Golden League meet in Brussels. This European season has proved to be one of revitalisation for Grigorieva. She has cast aside the technical hitches, which saw her miss critical first and second attempts during 2005, to find a consistency which has delivered first class results in 2006.
Fellow pole vaulter Kym Howe has been troubled by illness and injury in Europe and has struggled to find the scintillating form she displayed on the MCG in March when she set a personal best and new Commonwealth record of 4.62m. However she did reach respectable heights when she produced 4.51m to win the IAAF Grand Prix meet in Madrid and 4.50m at the World Athletics Final.
In a World Cup highlight, Sally McLellan, who commenced her European campaign late in the season, managed to pull out a personal best of 12.95 seconds in the 100m hurdles, Facing a slight headwind in Athens, the Queenslander eclipsed the magic 13 second barrier for the first time and just missed out on a place on the podium. She moved passed Jane Flemming to number two on the Australian all-time list and it seems only a matter of time before she claims the Australian record of 12.93 seconds set by Pam Ryan in 1972.
Following on from the Commonwealth Games in which Australia captured 16 gold 12 silver and 13 bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games, Australia claimed its first ever-team bronze medal at the 34th IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan in April.
The six-woman short course team who took the honour for Australia were Benita Johnson who won the women’s long course individual event two years ago, Melissa Rollison, Anna Thompson, Donna MacFarlane, Victoria Mitchell and Eloise Wellings. It was an impressive result for the Australian women who provided a rare non-African appearance on the victory dais over the two-day championships - of the 36 medals awarded, only three were not won by African athletes.
In individual results highlights – Benita Johnson finished 4th in both the short course and long course events and Craig Mottram finished 11th in a tough men’s short course race.
Australia’s race walkers also produced outstanding results on the world stage. At the 22nd IAAF World Race Walking Cup held in La Coruna Spain in May, the Australian 20km men’s team claimed a historic silver, defeating a host of race walking powerhouses including Russia, China, Italy and Mexico.
The team, including Jared Tallent, Luke Adams, Adam Rutter and Duane Cousins was led by a brilliant performance from Nathan Deakes, who placed 5th in a time of 1:19.37. Deakes went on to break the 30km Australian record at the Telstra Australian titles in Hobart in August.
In her 21st outing for Australia, Jane Saville was also in fine form, placing 7th in a magnificent time of 1:29.05 – her third fastest ever. She led home a tremendous team result of sixth.
Finally, in August, the next generation of Australian stars shone at the World Junior Championships in Beijing – collecting two golds, a bronze and 14 personal bests.
Sydney teenager Dani Samuels produced set a new personal best and beat a 16-year-old Australian junior record in clinching the world junior championships discus title. The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and world youth champion produced the longest throw by any Australian women for three years, 60.63, to surpass the 16-year-old record.
Samuels joined long jumper Robbie Crowther as world junior champion. The Craig Hilliard trained jumper leapt a personal best and new Australian junior record of 8.00m to claim the gold medal. It was the first time Australia had ever collected two golds to two different individual athletes at the world juniors.
Along with a bronze medal to Vicky Parnov in the women’s pole vault, Australia finished 8th out of 179 countries on the medal tally, behind Kenya, China, Russia, Estonia (who were the surprise packets of the championships), USA, Jamaica and Ethiopia.
It has been an eventful year-to-date and as we head towards the and 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan, and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing the future of athletics in Australia looks very bright.
Athletics fans have plenty to look forward to as we head into the upcoming Australian season.
