Ben Offereins - surprise winner of 400m at Australian champs (© Getty Images)
Sydney, AustraliaSydney, AustraliaAfter an opening day of qualification rounds and a low key Steeplechase, the action really got underway on the second day of the Telstra A-Championships at Sydney Olympic Park (5 March).
Established stars vanquished on huge night for the ‘kids’
Perth teenager Ben Offereins stole the national 400m title from three members of Australia's Athens Olympic 4x400m silver medallist relay team at Sydney Olympic Park last night.
Offereins, 18, ran ‘blind’ from the outside lane (nine) but led from the start to win in a personal best 46.37sec.
He beat Olympic relay squad members John Steffensen (46.51), David Geddes (46.57), Mark Ormrod (46.60) and Patrick Dwyer who was sixth in 47.20sec. Geddes was a relay reserve for Athens, the others came home with medals.
“Usually I go out really slow and everyone has a go at me so I changed (tactics) and went out fast,” Offereins said. “Those guys are so good. I just went out there to have some fun. And I won. I can't believe it.”
Offereins, whose coach Aaron Holt has just been retrenched by the West Australian Institute of Sport, was one of a handful of Generation Next youngsters who liked what they saw at the Australian titles and swiped the gold medals.
It was a huge night for the kids, with Brisbane schoolboy Chris Noffke, 17, jumping a slightly wind-aided 8.00m (+2.2m/sec to win the Long Jump from John Thornell, 19, (7.93m, legal +1.7m/s) and Tim Parravicini (7.92m, legal +0.1m/s).
Noffke also cleared a wind-legal 7.83m to improve his own Australian under-18 record.
Sydney's 16-year-old Dani Samuels won the national women’s Discus title with a best throw of 55.78m, behind New Zealand's 1997 World champion Beatrice Faumuina (60.79m).
Samuels is now favourite to bring up a double as she tops the national list in the Shot Put which will be contested on Sunday. If she takes the shot put crown she will be the youngest to win in more than 50 years.
Sally McLellan, 18, from the Gold Coast, won the national 100m title in 11.77 (nil wind) and the 2003 World Youth hurdles champion is favourite for Sunday's 100m Hurdles _ a double last achieved by Jane Flemming in 1988.
Wollongong schoolgirl Sophia Begg, 16, won the High Jump with a leap of 1.86m to show her strong competitive temperament.
Ross retains title
Hardly more experienced at this level himself Josh Ross, 24, retained the Australian 100m title with a performance full of power and promise.
Ross imitated a robot - stiff and mechanical - in an amusing 10 metre walk back down the track after the final but he performed like a well oiled machine moments earlier.
“Sometimes I don't know if I'm a machine or human,” Ross, from Maitland, said after sharing his physical gag with a bemused but mystified crowd of around 3000.
He may be the new clown prince of pace Down Under but he wasn't fooling around when he tore apart a strong field which included fellow indigenous Olympian Patrick Johnson, the national record holder at 9.93sec, as well as former national record holder and five-time national champion Matt Shirvington.
Coming into the final, however, ``expert`` opinion was divided on who would win after Johnson cruised to a semi-final victory in 10.27sec into a headwind of 2.6m/sec. In calm conditions that converts to 10.08sec which is faster than Ross's personal best of 10.12sec.
Ross and Johnson reacted together in the final, but Ross produced a powerful reverse thrust over the first couple of steps which set up a pulverising first 60m, the momentum carrying him to a two metre win in 10.22sec (tailwind 0.5m/sec) from Johnson 10.44sec, Sydney-based Nigerian geologist Ambrose Ezenwa (10.45) and Shirvington (10.46).
'Budgie' flies low but successfully
After a four-year dry-spell Perth's Paul `Budgie` Burgess, 25, won his third national title in the pole vault, but he was slightly disappointed with his height of 5.60m, ahead of Melbourne's Steve Hooker and Adelaide's Dmitri Markov who both cleared 5.50m in a turning breeze.
Mottram and Johnson on-form
The distance races were dominated by some older players, with Melbourne's Sarah Jamieson retaining the 1500m in 4:09.42 - fastest time ever run at the nationals from Georgie Clarke (4:10.57) and Suzy Walsham 4:13.19).
Craig Mottram won the 5000m in a canter in 14:01.38, good considering he has come off a 180km training week as he sets himself for a medal chase at the World Cross Country Championships in France on March 19-20.
"I'm in really good shape. I'm super strong.'' Mottram said. "I've got a big session on Tuesday, another big session Thursday and then I fly out. The work's nearly done.
“I'm going there [France] to get a medal. I said it last year and I was probably ten seconds behind a medal. Last year I hung on for seven kilometres. I'll hang on for 12km this time because I'm stronger now."
Benita Johnson won her 5000m title in 15:46.53 sprinting away over the final 1500m in an impressive display of fitness as she prepares to defend her World Cross Country crown.
Another encouraging performance came from Sydney's Nick Bromley, who won the national 800m title in a personal best of 1:48.09, turning to look back three times as he coasted down the homestraight before reaching the line with his arms out as though he were expecting to catch a bouquet of roses.
Coached by the veteran John Atterton, Bromley enthused: "I came to John as a 4:05 1500m runner, coming off a stress fracture. I've come a long way from 1:51 last season to 1:48 and the national title.
“I'm only 21 and I've been running 800m for 18 months. Another year and bring on the Commonwealth Games (in Melbourne, March 2006).”
Mike Hurst (Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Australia) and IAAF
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