Patrick Johnson in action at the 2007 Australian Championships (© Getty Images)
Australia's fastest man, Patrick Johnson, had rarely looked better but he had also rarely run slower than he did at last week's Melbourne Track Classic. Something was wrong.
How was it possible that the national 100m record-holder (with 9.93) could clock only 10.47 (-1.0m/s) and finish back in fourth place in the opening event of the World Athletics Tour?
It was a question also asked by Welsh-born Tudor Bidder, his new coach at the Australian Institute of Sport, and the man who guided Johnson to his best international performance, a place in the 200m final at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki.
The answer simply came down to an energy-deficient diet.
Johnson last night coasted to a 10.30 (-0.8m/s) win in his heat of the 85th Australian Championships which double as the Telstra selection trials for the World Championships in Osaka in August.
Explaining Johnson's sudden about-face in form, Bidder said: "Patrick stopped eating. He decided he needed to lose some weight, get his skinfolds down. So he started eating salads and got off carbohydrates. It was a dietary intake problem."
So, problem solved and Johnson appears to be ready to take the race up to three-time and defending champion Josh Ross, who was second fastest qualifier for today's semi-finals with his heat win last night in 10.57 (-0.9m/s).
"I lost too many kilos recently. I sort of went from middleweight to featherweight, but now I'm back," Johnson said, smiling. "This is a championship format now for me and that's what I've set myself up for, just to get through the rounds."
However there were some disasters which could not be overcome.
Deakes and Steffensen out injured
Three of last year's Commonwealth Games gold medallists succumbed to injuries on the eve of these national titles.
Nathan Deakes, the 50km Walk World record-holder, withdrew from the meet because he is still building up training after an over-zealous physiotherapist (not his usual man) caused bleeding in his right hamstring.
John Steffensen, a 400m finalist at the last World Championships, also pulled out with a hamstring problem. He had hoped to become the first man to win the 200-400 double at the Australian Championships since Darren Clark in 1989, also then in Brisbane.
Scott Martin, the Commonwealth discus champion and now a consistent 20m shot putter, will have surgery on Saturday on his left foot after rupturing ligaments in the plantar plate. He faces at least two months out of the circle.
And Fabrice Lapierre, a gifted young US-based long jumper who was top 20 in the world last year with his best of 8.19m (Nuoro, 12 July 06), failed in the qualifying round yesterday. In wildly fluctuating wind, he managed to record a best of only 6.70m (-0.5m/s) on his third attempt after jumping well short of the board on his first and fouling his second.
For Steffensen, who opened his year with a 45.07 win over American prodigy LaShawn Merritt (45.78) in the Telstra Sydney Grand Prix on 17 February, the injury is minor if still highly annoying setback.
"It's a little hiccup, but it should never have happened," Steffensen said. "It's an act of humility. I'm very upset. I take responsibility for my actions, but I couldn't get an exemption (from the national championships) and that pressure to run quicker at this time of the year has brought this on."
Steffensen, who ran a 200m personal best of 20.79 (0.01 behind the first Australian, third-placed Josh Ross) at the Melbourne Track Classic last week, is coached by American John Smith and is pretty much on a US timetable.
In his absence now, the 400m crown looks to be between Sean Rowe, Chris Troode, Mark Ormrod and perhaps the 17-year-old schoolboy from the northern NSW country town of Mullumbimby.
Nowill wins Steeplechase title after Abdi falls in last lap
In the most controversial race of the first day of these championships, Algeria-born Youcef Abdi fell heavily when leading with 350m to go in the men's 3000m Steeplechase.
In the Sydney Grand Prix on 17 February, Abdi won the chase in a World Championship A-qualifying time of 8:22.7 (manual) from Martin Dent (8:24.2) with red-haired Queenslander Peter Nowill third in 8:30.1.
Last night in his own backyard Nowill won in 8:34.95 from Dent (8:40.07) with Abdi protesting he had been pushed down. He certainly lost plenty of skin from his shoulder and lay stunned on the track for quite a while.
"I was running right beside him (Abdi) and we were running into the (final) hurdle," Nowill said. "He just drifted a little into my direction and he ran into my leg. I don't know exactly what happened but he wasn't too impressed. But those things happen in racing."
For Abdi, who could not finish, the incident recalled a similar mishap in last year's Commonwealth Games when he was kicked in the head during a fall at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
On this occasion, Abdi commented: "I was running at the front and the next thing I know is that I am lying flat on the track. I have trained very hard and wanted to win the National title to qualify automatically for Osaka."
The only women's track final saw visiting American Laura Fleshman, 25, win over 3000m in 9:28.53 from Irish great Sonia O'Sullivan, 37, (9:32.31) with Eloise Wellings, 24, (9:35.88) third.
And the rest…
On the field Dani Samuels, 18, the first Australian ever to win a World discus title, pulled out a dramatic sixth-round personal best 16.17m to tie with Tonga's Ana Po'uhila in the open women's shot put.
Samuels, who won the World junior discus crown in Beijing last year, lost the Australian title on a count-back with Po'uhila's five other puts all superior to the Sydney girl's next best mark.
Adelaide's Alwyn Jones, bronze medallist at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, won the Triple Jump title with a leap of 16.80m (+3.8m/ps). His next best jump of 16.74m (+0.4m/s) confirmed his superiority over the field with NSW's Michael Perry, second with a best of 16.40m.
Queensland junior Liam Zamel-Paez, 18, won the High Jump with a clearance of 2.21m from former national champion Nick Moroney, 35 this year, who took second with a jump of 2.18m.
Japan's Hiroaki Doi, 30, produced the top four performances to win the Hammer Throw, his best of 69.89m too good on the night for Victoria's Pavlo Milinevskyy (66.57m).
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
