Patrick Johnson running at the 2003 Australian Championships (© Getty Images)
Sprinter Patrick Johnson took the giant stride toward world class, and strongman Justin Anlezark confirmed his greatness with a huge Shot Put national record at the Telstra Australian athletics championships over the weekend (3-6 April).
And Sydney's Jana Pittman, 20, confirmed her current world number 1 ranking status with her second sub-54sec run over 400m Hurdles with her 53.95 victory. Russia's Yulia Pechonkina was the only woman in 2002 to break 54 seconds.
Johnson, 30, a Queenslander based in Canberra, ran a personal best 20.50 against a stiff 1.4m/s headwind to win Saturday's 200m final and complete the sprint double. He won his first 100m title on Friday in 10.25 against a cold 1.4m/s wind, ending Matt Shirvington's five-year reign. ‘Shirvo’ ran 10.34.
After completing his fifth race of the meet Johnson explained: “This was a rehearsal for world champs. Now we'll go into quality work which I'm looking forward to. We haven't really tapped into what I can do yet.”
“I proved here I can perform under pressure. This whole year is about getting ready for Athens (the 2004 Olympics) which will be redemption for Sydney. The Sydney Olympics came too early for me and it frustrated the hell out of me.”
Like a human mortar, Toowoomba's 130kg giant Anlezark put his shoulder behind the cannon shot and hurled it 20.96m deep into world class real estate. He set the old standard winning gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games with 20.91m in Manchester.
“I'll go to the US in four weeks and hopefully the big boys over there will make me go over 21m that will really set my place in the world standards which will be brilliant,”said Anlezark, whose mark is eighth best in the world this year.
The 2002 IAAF World Cup shot silver medallist was delighted to collect his fifth national title and is anticipating the World championships in Paris with great motivation. His wife is expecting their first baby three days after he competes. “I heard Athletics Australia is going to give me a private jet to fly straight home for the birth,” Anlezark said, giving a wink.
Of Australia's three athletics medallists in 2000, Cathy Freeman was the only one to win gold again in Brisbane. She anchored Victoria's 4x400m relay to victory Saturday, backing up from her sixth individual 400m title in 51.66sec on Friday.
The silver medallists, long jumper Jai Taurima, bombed out with an injury on Thursday, and pole vaulter Tatiana Grigorieva cleared only 4.10m to finish second Australian and third overall behind New Zealand's Melina Hamilton and Victoria's young Rosanna Ditton, who each cleared 4.20m.
Reigning men’s World Pole Vault champion Dmitri Markov won with 5.50m despite painfully bruised feet, when he dropped 5m to the ground after being blown off-course by a crosswind in light rain the previous night. The event was postponed until mid-day Saturday, and continued to be troubled by officiating decisions, with fellow Olympic finalist Viktor Chistiakov protesting the crossbar was not horizontal.
Markov has complicated the Australian team selection process somewhat because, although as defending champion he has a wildcard entry to Paris, he actually is only a B-qualifier and, depending on the selectors' interpretation of their own published criteria, his win over the A-qualified Chistiakov (5.40m) and Paul Burgess (5.20m) could make for an uncomfortable week for them until the Australian team is announced.
Queensland's Alastair Stevenson won an incident-married 1500m in a slow 3:42.99, narrowly from Sydney's David Byrne after Sydney's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Yusuf Abdi fell in the lead 50m from the finish, when pushed from behind by Victoria's Michael Power attempting an inside run. Power finished fourth and was disqualified.
With her English coaches Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson watching from the grandstand, Victoria's Tamsyn Lewis won her sixth national 800m title in 2:00.13, matching the six high jumps won by her mother Caroline and six sprints titles by her father Greg.
Lewis kicked hard 200m out to break Perth's leg-weary front runner Susan Andrews (2:01.30), who had run 2:00.94 in her heat in a valiant solo bid to reach the Paris qualifying time.
“But I'll tell them mine were six titles in a row,” laughed Lewis.
Sydney's Andrew Murphy, 33, achieved the rare distinction of claiming his 10th successive Triple Jump title with a leap of 16.73m (tailwind 1.0m/sec), a heartbreaking 7cm short of the Paris B-qualier.
Kyle Vander-Kuyp won his 10th title in the 110m hurdles with his 14.14sec run, coming after a season of injury woes.
Sharon Cripps (Qld) brought up the sprint double with her 200m win yesterday in 23.39sec (headwind 1.1m/sec) and fellow Queenslander Bronwyn Thompson bounded from third to first on the last long jump of the competition with her 6.55m desperation effort.
Jane Saville won the 20km walk selection trial in 1:31:47, expressing her disappointment that selectors would not exempt her so she could have raced in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge series event in Portugal.
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) for the IAAF
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