Asafa Powell at 2009 Sydney Track Classic (© Getty Images)
Asafa Powell didn't need a ride in the attending ambulance after all as he ran a huge personal best in the 400m, but tonight really belonged to the local heroes at the Sydney Track Classic.
An enthusiastic overflow crowd of 7480 turned out on a warm night to watch eight Olympic gold medallists in action at Olympic Park, Homebush.
The Sydney Track Classic is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
5.95m for Hooker
The spectators were generous in support of winners and losers, but they saved their loudest cheers for Steve Hooker, the first Australian male track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for 40 years.
Hooker was sensational, clearing 5.95m at his first attempt before going out at 6.10m despite two very good attempts.
The 5.95m broke American Jeff Hartwig's meet record of 5.90m set in 1998, and would have won every Olympic gold medal up to Beijing which Hooker won with 5.96m.
It was a gritty performance in the swirling wind which prevailed at the lower heights but also because it was Hooker's sixth consecutive international victory in a month conquering all comers on three continents.
"Initially it was really tricky, warming up when the wind is playing around," Hooker said. "But I'm really happy with how I jumped. Conditions got better at the end. I think it was just stand placement that cost me on my second attempt at 6.10m. Hopefully I'll have another crack at something above 6m in the Melbourne Track Classic next Thursday (5).”
"I went for 6.10m because I wanted a PB (personal best) and also it's 20ft. It would have been a good milestone."
There were no desperate third-attempt clearances tonight. Hooker made four of those in Beijing - the most ever in Olympic history. He did need a second attempt at 5.80, but even that was more than Russia's Beijing silver medallist Yevgeniy Lukyanenko could manage.
Lukyanenko finished second again but with 5.45 after missing at 5.60m and then failing twice at 5.80m. Athens Olympic gold medallist Tim Mack of the US finished equal third on 5.30m with Victorian, Lucas Blake.
Samuels’ defeats Olympic champion
Hooker's win had been expected, not so fellow Aussie field eventer and Sydney 20-year-old Dani Samuels who produced some hometown heroics in defeating US Olympic Discus Throw champion Stefanie Brown-Trafton.
Brown-Trafton managed 61.72m and was far from disappointed, but Samuels - the youngest discus finalist in Beijing coached by Denis and Hayden Knowles - won with 62.21m which was an A-qualifying performance for the World Championships in Berlin in August.
"I felt in form to do an ‘A’ (qualifier) at least. It's good to have the Americans here," said Samuels, referring also to Becky Breisch (59.75m) and Aretha Thurmond (58.84m) who threw well but not quite good enough to take third away from former World champion Beatrice Faumuina (59.75m) of New Zealand.
"I'm happy with this mark," said Brown-Trafton. "I would have been happier if I had won, but I really don't have any ego. This is my first comp and I'm looking for this to be my life low. I'm looking to go maybe 70m, wouldn't that be great."
Wroe’s smart tactics and a point to prove
…Powell – it didn’t hurt so much
Olympic semi-finalist Sean Wroe from Melbourne, coached by Australia's new national coach Eric Hollingsworth, won perhaps the most eagerly-awaited track race, the 400m.
With Asafa Powell, history's second fastest 100m runner (at 9.72sec) in the field, anything could have happened from an upset victory to abject failure for the much-loved Jamaican.
Wroe put together the smartest tactical performance to win though in 45.28 sec, a Berlin A-qualifier, with America's gifted Xavier "X-Man" Carter pulling through for second in 45.75 just clear of fellow B-qualifier Kurt Mulcahy (45.84) from the northern New South Wales township of Mullumbimby.
Then came Powell in a B-qualifying and huge personal best time of 45.94 ahead of Australia's Commonwealth champion John Steffensen (45.98), Athens relay silver medallist Clinton Hill (46.33), Australian titleholder and Olympic semi-finalist Joel Milburn (46.51) and Jamaicans Sanjay Ayre and Wilan Louise.
Powell's previous best was 47.17 and his coach Steve Francis ordered him to enter the Sydney race because he wanted to test his character. Mission accomplished, as Powell cruised through the first 100m in all of 11.65sec before turning it on with 200m to go.
With 100m to go Powell moved powerfully and with 50m to go it seemed he might pull off a huge upset but he could not go on with the job.
"My coach said cruise for the first 200m and bring it home. This tells me I'm a lot stronger this year and it will be a different ball game."
Indeed, Powell revealed before coming to Australia he had run 32-flat for 300m in "sand shoes" on grass, an improvement of a full second on his previous best.
"I'm just motivated,'' Powell said."The 400m didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I'm OK. I don't need the ambulance."
Wroe had his own motivation: "Being a 400m runner I couldn't let a 100m man beat me," he quipped. "But also there was an opinion poll on the AA (Athletics Australia) website which asked who do you think will win the Sydney 400? My name wasn't on there. I felt I had a point to prove."
In the later 4x100m relay Powell anchored a Jamaican squad (Andrew Hinds, Ainsley Waugh, Nesta Carter, Powell ), to a 38.62 sec win over an Australian quartet (Patrick Johnson, Joshua Ross, Arron Rouge-Serret, Matt Davies) in 38.96. New Zealand were third in 39.49.
Thomas takes surprise win over Jackson
Another local won the 400m Hurdles with Tasmania's Tristan Thomas, 22, clocking the second fastest time ever by an Australian at 48.86sec.
His focus and strength enabled him to withstand a searing attack over the 10th barrier and in the long sprint to the line from 2005 World champion and Beijing bronze medallist Bershawn Jackson of the US, runner-up also in a Berlin World Championships A-qualifying time of 49.06, with South Africa's Beijing finalist LJ Van Zyl third in 50.42.
"It's like a dream. You don't beat Jackson. He's a freak," said ginger-haired Thomas. "In his defence, he's in winter training and he'll come on later in the season. But in my favour I could have given up at hurdle 10. He came up hard. I really focussed on attacking off the last hurdle."
Jackson was generous in defeat: "He (Thomas) is a great kid. He's got a lot of talent. He's going to be the next Australian star.”
"In 2005 (his World title-winning season) I was in college and ran my first race also in February in 49.5 so I'm ahead of the game. It's been so cold where I live in Chicago I haven't run hurdles outdoors. I've done only three sessions and they've been here in Australia."
Walker produces a strong opener
There would be no such upset in the women's 400m hurdles as Jamaica's Olympic champion Melaine Walker was strong in her return to the event, winning in the exact A-qualifying time of 55.50.
Australia's Lauren Boden, 20, was second in 56.63.
"I did it last year and it was more fun for me," Walker said. "But after the Olympics it's not fun anymore. You absolutely have to do what you're supposed to do."
Walker has raced 400m Hurdles last year and this year in Sydney - hometown of Jana Rawlinson - without actually getting to run against Australia's reigning World 400m Hurdles champion.
"I guess when the time is right an athlete knows when they're supposed to race," Walker said. "When the time is right, we will race."
Hard to miss McLellan
Sally McLellan, Australia's other hurdles star, seemed omnipresent though tonight, racing in Australia's 4x100m relay and winning the 100m Hurdles in an A-qualifying time of 12.84 (+0.7m/s) and 100m sprint in 11.39 (-1.7m/s).
The Olympic silver medallist opened her season last year with 12.81 and tonight's run was just as impressive. Hard to believe that it took her all summer in 2007 before she could finally break Pam Ryan's long-standing Aussie hurdles record of 12.93 and now she opens her campaign with faster runs.
"My start was brilliant but I was a bit messy over the last couple of hurdles," McLellan admitted, although she broke Michelle Perry's meet record. "It's a good sign. And this crowd is magnificent, noisy, fantastic."
In all there were eight Australians among the 15 athletes who achieved a World championship A-qualifying mark tonight.
Oliver – 13.29
David Oliver, the US indoor and outdoor sprint hurdles title winner and Olympic bronze medallist last year opened his outdoor account winning with a scintillating 13.29 (nil wind).
He broke Colin Jackson's meet record in beating fellow American Joel Brown (13.52) with Sydney's Justin Merlino earning a Berlin B-qualifying time of 13.87 in third.
"I really lost it there over those last couple of hurdles. I must have run out of gas," Oliver said. "This is my fastest opener ever. In 2006 I opened with 13.36 in late March and last year I opened with 13.42. Last year I didn't accomplish what I wanted to and it gave me fuel for this year."
Undervalued Vili over 20m again
New Zealand's Olympic, World, World Indoor and Commonwealth titles-holder Valeri Vili won as she pleased heaving the shot 20.09m improving on her own meet record.
She tried to be diplomatic about the perceived lack of financial support she receives in her homeland in response to questions about her father's British heritage and her husband's French citizenship which presents alternatives.
"To some extent you don't feel valued, but I do the sport because I love it," Vili said. "I do have options and I have had offers, but even though you feel unappreciated sometimes, you stay loyal.
"If I was doing it for the money though, I'd be gone."
Gregson – junior record
Although Kenya's Yusuf Saad Kamel, running under the colours of Bahrain, won the 1500m in 3:36.72 from Australian Olympian Collis Birmingham (3:37.01) it was the Australian junior record of 3:37.23 run by third-placed Ryan Gregson which the crowd celebrated.
"I had a stress fracture and I've been trying to concentrate on the World Cross Country Championship (junior 8km race) so I haven't done anything on the track," Gregson, 18, explained.
"I believe if you want to run a good 1500m you've got to run a bloody good 10km. I'm putting money in the bank, the kilometres in the legs."
Gregson took two seconds off the under-20 national record set by former World championship finalist Mike Hillardt in 1977.
"Pressure is a privilege," said Gregson. "But it's important to be patient. I have a great coach (the passionate Ian Hatfield) who always says it doesn't matter what you do when you're 20, it's what you do when you're 25 that matters."
400m the natural future for Lewis
And yet another patient Aussie, the World Indoor 800m titleholder Tamsyn Lewis continues to chip away at her 400m race, winning tonight in an A-qualifying time of 51.44.
"It's really nice when you hit the home straight and hear the crowd cheering," Lewis said. "I really want to break 51 in Melbourne on Thursday and show people I am a 400m runner.
"I've got to be realistic. I cannot run 1min 54sec for 800m like Pamela Jelimo. I will run some more 800s in my career but I cannot say when. I got an indoor World title out of it and that's the best experience of my whole life. But I'm not naturally an 800m runner."
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
