Athletics Australia – News – Perth set for two day Tour Final

Athletes vying for division championships will learn their fate in the next two days as Australia’s best track and field stars descend on Perth for the Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final on Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1.

Set to battle it out for the sprints/hurdles, jumps, throws and distance titles, a myriad of Olympic medallists, Commonwealth and world champions will line up at the Western Australian Athletics Stadium as the race for the $10,000 winner’s cheque reaches an exciting climax.

Olympic silver medallist and Commonwealth champion Sally Pearson heads into the Tour Final as favourite for the sprints/hurdles crown, with the Queenslander in 2011 undefeated across 100m and 200m. Times below 11.40 (100m) and 23.27 (200m) will take her total point score to a solid 24 and with the addition of the 100m hurdles to her program for the first time since the Commonwealth Games she will headline the two days of blistering athletics action.

Standing in her way are 15-time national champion Tamsyn Lewis, national 400m champion Ben Offereins, Commonwealth Games 4x400m relay gold medallist Brendan Cole and Flame athletes Lauren Boden and Aaron-Rouge Serret. The quintet head into the Tour Final with a minor placing all but secured and conditions permitting are capable of not only taking it up to Pearson but also etching world championships qualifiers next to their name.

Adding spice to an already outstanding sprints/hurdles start list is Jana Rawlinson in the 400m hurdles. Set to compete for the first time in Australia since 2006, Rawlinson is a dual world champion (2003, 2007) and has the 2011 IAAF world championships and 2012 London Olympics in her sights.

A seemingly unbeatable leader with 28 points, world and world indoor championships medallist Mitchell Watt is the jumps champion in waiting. Two world championships qualifiers in the past ten days suggests he is once again capable of an 8.35m plus leap which would take his final point score to a perfect 38, the most possible for an athlete competing in one discipline.

The challenge for Watt, though, comes from world indoor and Commonwealth champion Fabrice Lapierre and newcomer to the top ten of the Australian All-Time list for triple jump Henry Frayne.

Lapierre, who together with Watt provides arguably Australia’s best head-to-head athletics duel, on the same runway last year soared an unbelievable wind assisted 8.78m leap to become national champion whilst Frayne will look to stake his own claim for world championships selection with qualifying performances in both the long and triple jump.

Reigning world discus champion Dani Samuels currently sits atop the dais in the throws division, but local favourite and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Kim Mickle is hot on her heels.

If in Perth Samuels reprises her IAAF Melbourne Track Classic form (first, 61.00m), the national champion will boast a 24 point total and guarantee a minor placing.  To ensure victory she needs to win and throw further than 64.49m in turn taking her final point score to 28. Mickle, however, threw a personal best 63.82m at the Sydney Track Classic and on her home track later a similar performance is likely to take her point score total to 28.

Unable to make a play for prize money, but an exciting addition to the throws start lists is Commonwealth champion Benn Harradine. Competing domestically for the first time this year at the Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final, Harradine arrives home in Australia in blistering form having only a fortnight ago heaved an IAAF world championships qualifier of 65.60m for second at an indoor event in Sweden.       

The race for the distance crown is heating up with the current top five – Ben St Lawrence, Lachlan Renshaw, Georgie Clarke, Tamsyn Lewis and Jeff Riseley – split by only two points. As St Lawrence is not competing, Riseley, Lewis and Commonwealth Games representative Kaila McKnight, who to date has only one performance next to her name, look set to challenge for the crown.

Riseley will line up for the 800m and victory in a time quicker than 1:45.61, a personal best, could take his final point score to 23 for an almost unbeatable lead, whilst McKnight is capable of a sub-4:10 run in the women’s 1500m to finish her domestic season with 22 points. Lewis is the only athlete in the race for prize money in two divisions (sprints/hurdles, distance) and an 800m time below 2:01:50 will almost guarantee a top three finish.

The Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final will be held in Perth on Thursday, March 31 and Friday, April 1.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or at the gate.

To download and view the current Australian Athletics Tour leader boards, please click here.

To find out more about the Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final including current entry lists, please click here.

Go for 2&5 Australian Athletics Tour Final
Thursday, March 31 & Friday, April 1
5:30pm (8:30pm AEDST)
Western Australian Athletics Centre

 Athletics Australia – News