KK is in a very fortunate situation that the athletes he works with are probably being funded by the state government through the NSWIS. A lot of athletes are not in such priveleged positions and forced to fund their own careers. Running on the pro-circuit, certainly the lucrative Tasmanian Christmas carnivals becomes a very important income stream for many athletes not afforded the luxury of being funded by the government or private sponsors. I agree that some tracks are not prepared as well as others but many are cared for with the same meticulous dedication of the best cricket pitches in the country. The Tassie tracks are not ‘cow paddocks’ and would rank with any decent grass track in the world. Burnie was fast and hard this year and bowling green smooth. There is absolutely no risk at all on these tracks.
Matt Beckenham’s squad dominated the Tassie carnivals winning 5 races including the prestigious Burnie Gift, worth $10,000, won by Australian 400m hurdles champion, Brendan Cole. Melissa Breen won a 70m race off scratch at Devonport and a fortnight later ran an impressive 11.44s for the 100m.
There’s money to be earned and won in these meets and certainly relieves the burden of funding the next airfare to an interstate AA track series meet.
Sally Pearson’s situation with Gippsland goes back 12 months when the Gippsland organisers had the smarts to lock her into a 3 year deal (pre World Champs). Sally had a contractual obligation to compete at the meet in December. It is difficult to determine what caused her injury - could well have been she wasn’t quite ready to run multiple times in the one day and have nothing to do with the track itself. It’s of little relevance now because Sally ran 11.25 in Brisbane, faster than she ran at the same meet last season.
It really is up to the individual, but as one contributor has said, many athletes have derived a great conditioning (& financial) benefit from the pro-circuit over the Christmas/New year period (including one Catherine Freeman who was a regular visitor to Tassie in the 1990’s) and set their season up. But it’s not for everyone and there’s more than one way to prepare for the second half of an Australian summer.
PS: Kids in Traralgon (180kms east of Melbourne) and those in other rural centres can derive a great inspiration from seeing champions like Sally Pearson competing in their (kid’s) home town and we can’t dismiss the fantastic marketing tool this represents for athletics in this country.
Nor did it hurt Mark Garner - more internationally successful (and drug-free) than any of the males you named. I’m not anti-pros or anti-grass. We do usually train three days out of five on grass. But not 100% velocity. As I said, I just think it’s not worth the risk taking it to top gear on a less than perfect surface. I ran a pro meet once and tore both hammies hitting a slight rise and fall on a grass track that was said to be “perfect”. I was way past it anyway, but it has cost me more in physio bills than I won for racing on grass.
As I said, others can do whatever they please. Not my problem. But I don’t like taking risks and the bigger the purse at the finishline the greater the risks some of these sprinters will take. I’m old enough by the way to remember when most races in Oz were held on grass or cinders tracks, but even those athletes of that era ran their best when they raced on rubberised tracks overseas (and eventually at home).
By the way, so far as I can recall I’ve never called Burnie, Bay Sheffield or Stawell “cow paddocks”. Don’t misquote me.
Kitkat: if your grass strip has slight rises and falls, could one get use to them? What types of problems could arise in the future long term, in terms of injury or niggling injuries?
Hunter Track Classic
Newcastle - Sat 21st Jan 2012
Men 400 metre Open
1 Lynch, Matt New South Wales 46.45 (PB)
2 Cummings, Paul New South Wales 47.61
3 Ralph, Joshua New South Wales 48.07
4 Grimm, James New South Wales 48.36
5 Smellie, Martin New South Wales 48.48
6 Thistleton, James Act 48.89
7 Kermond, James New South Wales 49.06
8 Connolly, Tommy Queensland 49.66
Well done to the 400m NSWIS Fast Track team - great breakthrough by Matt Lynch. Makes Lynch number 2 in 2012 behind Ben Offereins (46.20). Conditions weren’t great in Newcastle, and he really had no-on to push him to the line as he went hard from the gun and had a good lead by the 300m which makes the run all the better. The women’s 400m was won by Tamsyn Manou in a slowish 53.14, which suggests the conditions were tough for the quarter milers.
In the 200m, Lynch’s stablemate Kevin Moore (PB 46.13) ran 21.39 (-0.9) and has a 400m lined up this Saturday (28th Jan) in Adelaide. All the big guns are in Adelaide - Offereins, Steffensen, Solomon, Wroe, Troode. Should be a cracking race.
Someone has pulled out of the Adelaide men’s 400m and Matt Lynch, winner of the Hunter TC race, has today been invited into the race. Needless to say, AA expect him to find his own way from Gosford to Adelaide and back and come good for the airfares, accommodation and meals. They’re not bad. I know Matt and like most student-athletes, he works part-time which can be onerous given the intensity and regularity of his training regime and he can ill afford the cost of interstate travel.
Yet, under the rules AA have created as guardians of the sport anyone who is accepted but declines to race in any of the three designated obligatory meets - Adelaide, Perth and Sydney - is automatically ruled ineligible for Olympic team selection.
It is, IMHO, nothing short of an outrage. The unmitigated arrogance of those who designed and/or approved of this aspect of the selection criteria is simply stunning. There apparently is no hardship clause. The only way out of this entrapment is for the incapacitated athlete to provide a medical certificate and go through the relative indignity of pleading their case to some faceless bureaucrat at AA who will suspect them of lying and, if they are, they’ll have been most likely forced into it as AA put promotion ahead of high performance. And they wonder why they had no individual track athletes in Daegu from 100 through to and including the 800m - men or women!
Speaking to a bloke who is ‘in the know’ earlier this morning and I believe Matt Lynch will be in Adelaide to run the 400m, as the funding has been found. Adds another quality in-form athlete to the field. Not sure who Matt Lynch is replacing. I guess we will find out when AA update the start lists.
Chasing gift money ended the career of Ambrose Ezenwa a few years a ago when he choose to run in gift over grand prix, he ended up straining a Achilles
on uneven grass, required surgery, retired after unsuccessful comeback from surgery.
Mens 400m
Alex Beck QAS
Jarryd Buchan VIC
Alex Carew VIC
Matt Lynch NSW
Kevin Moore NSWIS
Ben Offereins WAIS
Sean Wroe VIS
Clay Watkins SAIS
Unfortunately John Steffensen, Steve Solomon and Chris Troode have pulled out, but with Offereins there with Moore, Lynch & Wroe it should still be a very good race.
Thanks. Youngy is this the lane draw too? I cannot imagine Eric Hollingsworth, who does not coach Sean Wroe, would allow Wroe to be drawn outside of the favoured four lanes. There will be intervention if he is because the AA high performance manager, who does not coach Sean Wroe, apparently still cares and would only be acting to right a wrong.
On another mnatter - I spoke to Solomon’s coach Fira Dvoskina and she indicated Steve is at the AIS and training only at 70 per cent of max speed, which she agreed is totally aerobic. With the Olympic Trials only 5 weeks away I would doubt he could be ready to race by then (March 1-3) and even if he was, he’d come in underdone and may do his selection prospects a disservice. At least under the Australian system there is actually a process of selection which can give athletes extra time for find form and run qualifiers. My guess is Solomon will provide medical certificate and ask for that extra time. For those who care to know, Solomon is the schoolboy who at 17 last April won the Oz Open national title in 45.5. He shredded his hammy at a school carnival in Sydney in September or October 2011 in a 200m race at the halfway but ran it out in 21.2sec, hence the long convalescence.
The names are listed in alphapbetical order. Lane draw will be done on the day of the race, once all athletes have checked in.
The track record for SANTOS stadium, Adelaide is 45.54, by Michael Rehardt (QLD) on 23/03/2002. The first four past the post in that race all broke 46s. (Paul Pearce 45.84; Clinton Hill 45.85; Patrick Dwyer 45.95).
The only other sub 46s times at SANTOS stadium were in 2005 when Michael Blackwood 45.68 beat Daniel Batman 45.98 on 19th Feb 2005.
The best recent time was Joel Milburn running 46.17 in March 2010.
After reading about the “geniuses” running AA, and knowing how the italian federation is ruled, I wonder if there is an MBA in how to complicate things for athletes and coaches, attended by track federation’s rulers…
Athletics Australia-T&F Champ - Organization License
2012 Adelaide Track Classic
Santos Stadium, South Australia - 28/01/2012
Event 26 Men 400 Metre Open
Name Year Team Finals Points
=======================================================================
Finals
1 Ben Offereins WAIS 46.16 2 Matt Lynch NSW 46.48
3 Sean Wroe VIS 46.69 4 Kevin Moore NSWIS 46.86
5 Alexander Carew VIC 47.02
6 Clay Watkins SASI 47.40
7 Jarryd Buchan VIC 47.78
8 Andrew Giam 89 SA 49.59
Still many errors in execution of race plan but Lynch is getting it together. Arm swing and elbow angles poor final 50m - plenty of obvious gains there in a hurry if the training advocated is adhered to. With Kevin Moore, his proprioception deserted him on the back straight and he chopped his stride dramatically entering through the 200m start zone while his opponents stayed open and swept by. Kev did nothing through the third 100m segment and was trailing world student games medallist Sean Wroe by 7m with 50m to go. BUt Moore woke up and charged to the line 4th just a stride behind Sean. Much room for improvement but Kev was blindsided out in lane 6 and had not run a competitive 400m since early December.
Same day as this Adelaide GP, another 400m Fast Track squaddie, James Grimm, won the 400m in a stroll at the NSW Country champs in Newcastle and backed up to win the 200m next day in 21.55 into a 4m/psec headwind.
MEDALS CLEAN SWEEP TO COACH STUART MILLER
2012 NSW Country Track & Field Championships - 27/01/2012 to 29/01/2012
Athletics NSW
Hunter Sports Center, Glendale
Results - Sunday Track-Afternoon
Event 393 Men 200 metre Open
Meet Record: R 20.90 1973 Leo Hollesteele, LIT
Name Age Team Finals
Section 1 Finals Wind: -4.0 1 3168 Grimm, James 21 Athletics Wo 21.55 *
2 3454 Leeson., Brodie 18 Athletics Wo 22.28
3 3490 Miller, Justin 28 Athletics Wo 22.46
4 4016 Egan, Harry 25 Maquarie Hunter 22.74
5 582 Parry, Lachlan 21 Illawarra Bl 22.96
6 581 Parry, Joshua 23 Illawarra Bl 22.99
7 3186 Farrell, Benjamin 20 Arm (Armidale) 23.71
8 2307 Meers, Elliot 20 Maitland Sen 24.33
9 3096 McKay, Joshua 20 Athletics Wo 25.55
Age refers to the age the athlete turns in 2012. None of the podium finishers will celebrate a birthday for quite a while yet. Leeson at 17 appears a good prospect for the 400m in time.
Justin Miller won the 100m title; Grimm also ran two rounds of 400m to win that title a day earlier. After the 200m sweep the boys received a standing ovation (but not from the rival Wollongong club, Illawarra Blue Stars, apparently. This trio departed the Blue Stars to join Athletics Wollongong after State Relays Champs early this season due to consistent meddling in their coaching affairs by a certain Blue Stars administrator who always thinks she knows better).
I would tend to ignore the second set and look at the first. I have a female sprinter who is very close to those numbers and she is 56. However, she tends to have better recovery and less speed, and she can use that 200 jog to recover pretty well, so your athlete might go 55; 54 seems a bit quick but within reach. I have written speed reduction curve fitting apps that do extremely well given two or three fly sprints at different distances (e.g. 30 fly and 200 fly). Let me know if you have a recent short and long fly and I’ll try that.
I was just looking Athletics Australia all time list for 400 and decided to see if I could find the top 20 400m runners, personal bests for 100 and 200. sources are AT rankings (all-time) and IAAF sites. The suggested times are calculated as follows.
200(1) = (400m Time - 3.5)/2
400 (2) = (200m time x 2) + 3.5
Suggest times
Rank Athlete 100 200 400 200 (1) 400 (2)
1 Darren Clark 10.47 20.49 44.38 20.44 44.48
2 Miles Murphy 20.59 44.71 20.605 44.68
3 Pat Dwyer 20.6 44.73 20.615 44.7
3 John Steffensen 20.79 44.73 20.615 45.08
4 Joel Milburn 10.85 21.41 44.8 20.65 46.32
5 Rick Mitchell 21.04 44.84 20.67 45.58
6 Ben Offereins 10.6 21 44.86 20.68 45.5
7 Robert Stone 20.44 44.98 20.74 44.38
8 Daniel Batman 10.19 20.44 45.02 20.76 44.38
9 Clinton Hill 45.06 20.78
10 Sean Wroe 10.52 20.97 45.07 20.785 45.44
11 Mark Garner 20.82 45.08 20.79 45.14
12 Paul Greene 10.48 20.94 45.16 20.83 45.38
13 Bruce Frayne 10.45 20.59 45.21 20.855 44.68
14 Casey Vincent 21.14 45.3 20.9 45.78
15 Chris Troode 10.69 21.41 45.42 20.96 46.32
16 Dean Capobianco 10.25 20.18 45.47 20.985 43.86
17 Brad Jamieson 21.45 45.5 21 46.4
18 Michael Rehardt 21.21 45.54 21.02 45.92
19 Declan Stack 45.55 21.025
20 Steve Solomon 45.58 21.04
hitting a slight rise and fall on a grass track that was said to be “perfect”. I was way past it anyway, but it has cost me more in physio bills than I won for racing on grass.