http://www.theage.com.au/sport/watt-gets-the-jump-on-stawell-gift-field-20100324-qwpu.html
Watt gets the jump on Stawell Gift field
DAN SILKSTONE
The Age
March 25, 2010
POLE vaulter Steve Hooker is the star attraction at this year’s Stawell Gift but long jumper Mitchell Watt just might be the early fancy to win it after handicap marks were released yesterday.
The world championship bronze medallist is no certainty to take his place in the field for the Easter weekend footrace, his coach said yesterday. Still recovering from a groin injury that limited his performance at last month’s world indoor championships, Watt will be monitored but is keen to make the trip for the venerable handicap.
It is the start of a flirtation with sprinting that the man dubbed Australia’s fastest ever jumper hopes will lead him to a piece of history. Not since Hector Hogan in 1954 has any athlete won the 100-metre/long jump double at an Australian national championships but Queenslander Watt has set his sights on doing just that next month.
His reason for attempting it is simple. He wants to know how fast he can be.
These are tough times for Australian sprinting. Young hope Aaron Rouge-Serret appears to have taken an indefinite leave from the sport while reigning national champion Josh Ross has exiled himself into premature retirement. Emerging runner Matt Davies has shown ability but also indicated he will be more of a threat in the 200. That has left veteran Patrick Johnson - a man who until recently had looked past his best - as the nation’s top speedster.
Watt trains with both Davies and Johnson and, coach Gary Bourne said, fancies himself quicker than either. In his only 100 hitout last year, with little starting block experience, he logged an impressive 10.37 seconds.
Olympic long jump finalist David Culbert said he had no doubt Watt was Australia’s quickest ever jumper.
‘‘Jai Taurima was fast and Gary Honey was fast,’’ Culbert said. ‘‘But the first time I saw Mitchell on the runway at nationals last year, it was breathtaking speed.’’
Should he make the start at the gift, Watt will get a 2.5-metre start on Nigerian backmarker Bola Lawal, penalised after an eye-catching semi-final charge last year. ‘‘If he can run on grass then you’d be silly to back against him,’’ Culbert said.
Bourne said a decision on whether to contest the race would be made this weekend. Hooker was given a mark of 5.5 metres yesterday, short of the seven metres the Olympic and world champion pole vaulter had wanted.
Defending champion Aaron Stubbs was given a mark of four metres while punters were already finding value yesterday in Tom Gamble, named in the world junior championships team, who was awarded a generous 5.5.
The intriguing questions, though, surround Hooker and Watt. Culbert reckons that, with work on his starts, Watt could soon be running 10.10 - the sort of time that on the long jump runway could produce an Olympic gold medal. ‘‘Jumpers know they are fast, sprinters like to think they are faster,’’ Culbert said. ‘‘There’s nothing a jumper likes more than to race the sprinters and beat them.’’