Sally McLellan breaks the 35-year-old national 100m Hurdles record at the 2007 Australian Champs (© Getty Images)
Brisbane, AustraliaWith a little charity from the starter after her blocks slipped and with the persistence of youth, Sally McLellan finally broke the 35-year-old national 100m Hurdles record on the last day of the 85th Australian Championships which doubled as the Telstra Selection Trials for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka, Japan.
"It's about time the record is gone"
Pam Ryan (formerly Kilborn) ran a electronically timed Australian record of 12.93 in Warsaw in June 1972 en route to the Munich Olympics – the 12.5 second hand timed result of the same race (three watches – 12.5; 12.5; 12.6) being officially recognized as equalling the World record held by Anneliese Ehrhardt earlier that month..
Ryan, now 66, was delighted to present the 20-year-old Queenslander with a medal at the national championships today. Fiona Cullen (13.23) and New Zealand's Andrea Miller (13.29) shared the occasion.
McLellan, the 2003 World Youth 100m Hurdles champion, ran 12.92 (+0.7) to break Ryan’s record and clinch the 100 sprint-100 hurdles double for the third year in succession, having clocked a personal best 11.23 on the flat the night before. No other Australian has ever won this double.
"When I got over that line and I saw 12.94 (on the infield clock) I went 'come on, be nice to me officials' and then it was rounded down. That waiting, that two seconds, felt like a lifetime," said McLellan, who is coached on the Gold Coast by Sharon Hannan.
Her record chase accelerated in Athens at the 2006 World Cup last September when she broke 13-seconds for the first time with her 12.95 to finish fourth. Then she twice bettered Ryan's mark during the Telstra A-Series in Australia this year only to lose the record due to excessive wind assistance.
"I can't understand why somebody hasn't broken the record before now," Ryan said. "I didn't have tracks like this in my day. And we had one Australian Championship where everybody got together once a year, not like now when they have the (domestic) series.
"The 100m Hurdles only came in as an event in 1969, so I had only nine races over 100m hurdles before I retired. All the others were over 80 metres.''
In fact Ryan won the silver medal at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games in the 80 Hurdles, behind fellow Australian Maureen Caird. Now McLellan brings fresh hope that an Australian can revisit those glory days in the sprint hurdles.
"It's about time the record is gone, but I think Sally was very lucky the starter stopped the race. They all ran out a couple of steps and she put her hand up.
"Everyone else was already over the first hurdle and on their way to the second when the starter pulled the race up for her."
McLellan revealed that her blocks had slipped and fortunately for her she had the maturity and presence of mind to raise her hand to indicate an unfair start. So Sally can be well pleased with the sometimes unfairly maligned officials who looked after her at the start of her record run - and at the photo-finish.
Pair of sprint titles for ‘The Boss’
Josh "The Boss" Ross, 26, also brought up a double - his first - adding the 200m (20.51, +4.7) to the 100m (10.08) title he earned a day earlier.
Patrick Johnson, a 2005 Helsinki World Championship 200m finalist, was a desperately close second in 20.53 with New Zealand's James Dolphin third in 20.71.
"I could feel Johnson on the other side of the track and it was neck and neck the whole way down the straight and I just pipped him," Ross said.
His new coach, Emil Rizk, later expressed his belief in Ross's talent by declaring Australia's sprint king would add the Long Jump to his competitive programme next year. Rizk said he thought Ross could reach 7.90m by the start of 2008.
"I started as a long jumper and moved to the sprint, only five years ago," said Ross, determined to follow in the footsteps of other long jumper-sprinter types such as Allan Wells, Carl Lewis, Kareem Streete-Thompson and Jesse Owens to name a few.
"I got to about seven metres competing for Wallsend club (in the Newcastle inter-club series). I'd love to pop one out right now and see how far I could go. The Long Jump is going to work in well with my sprint training."
Lewis also at the double
Tamsyn Lewis, 28, also brought up the 400-800m double for the first time in 26 years. Her two-lap run in 2:00.71 in the hot and blustery weather was impressive and her fastest for three years. Fellow Victorian, Madeleine Pape, 22, was a good second in 2:01.50.
World Junior Discus Throw champion Dani Samuels from Sydney led through every round and typically saved her best for the sixth and final attempt when she landed an Osaka B-qualifying distance of 60.40m to defeat former World champion, New Zealand's Beatrice Faumuina (58.02m).
Another Kiwi, Monique Williams, fared better in winning the women's 200m in 23.28 (+2.6) from the impressive Papua New Guinea sprint queen, Mae Koime (23.38) who had also run a close second in the 100m the previous day.
Sydney's Justin Merlino looks like the next big thing in Australian men's hurdling after winning the Men’s 110m hurdles crown in 13.55 (+1.5) to the delight of his motherly coach Fira Dvoskina. Slashing his previous best of 12.98, Merlino's Osaka B-qualifier made him also the second fastest Australian, behind 1996 Atlanta Olympic finalist, Kyle Vander-Kuyp.
Nick Bromley took his third 800m title in a row in a tactical race won in 1:48.42, turning the tables on Victorian Jeff Riseley (1:48.55) who a week earlier won the Melbourne Track Classic in a huge personal best of 1:46.88.
After a five-year hiatus, Tim Parravicini, 26, regained the Long Jump title but he sailed close to disaster, fouling his first two attempts before risking all on his third jump for a winning 8.01m (+1.2). He then fouled his next two attempts and passed on his last. World Youth champion Chris Noffke was second with 7.97m (+1.3) ahead of Frederick Erin of France (7.89m, +1.8) and World Junior champion Robbie Crowther (7.88m, +1.3) in a star-studded competition.
West Australia's Kym Howe, 26, cleared a World Championship A-qualifying height of 4.55m to win the women's Pole Vault from Queenslander Alana Boyd, 22, who vaulted an Osaka B-qualifying 4.35m.
And Melbourne-based Ben Harradine continues to impress, winning the Discus Throw title with 60.89m.
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
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