Athletics Australia – News – Menjo the man at Zatopek:10

Josphat Menjo (KEN) has tonight marked the 50^th anniversary of the Zatopek:10 in style, posting the fastest winning time for the feature men’s 10,000m event since 1998.

The fastest man over 10,000m in the world this year, Menjo tonight turned on a dominant display at Melbourne Olympic Park to cross the line in 27:29.80 and post an emphatic victory over the field.

Commonwealth Games 5000m and 10,000m representative Ben St Lawrence was the first Australian over the line, taking out the national crown in 28:05.25.

Eloise Wellings claimed the women’s national title in a new personal best time of 32:08.31.

In a star-studded field that included national 10,000m record-holder Collis Birmingham and fellow Kenyan Luke Kipkosgei, a four-time winner of the event and the meet record-holder, Menjo wasted no time in asserting his dominance over the field, leading the men’s event from gun to tape.

Menjo was joined in the lead group by Kipkosgei, Birmingham, St Lawrence, Bobby Curtis (USA) and Liam Adams, the leaders passing the 3km-mark in 8:19.23 and clocking 13:58.30 at the halfway point.

Just beyond halfway Menjo pulled away from the field, extending his lead over Birmingham and continuing to move away from the field in the race for home. In the late stages of the race Birmingham dropped off the pace, paving the way for St Lawrence (28:05.25) and Curtis (28:08.78) to take out the minor places.

“It was very tough, I haven’t been training for the track so I said to myself I had to run a good time and see where I’m at, I haven’t seen the official time but I think it’s great for December,” Menjo said.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity and I would like to come back to Australia next year and maybe I can run faster.”

Kipkosgei went on to finish in fifth place in a time of 28:47.45 with Birmingham in seventh in 29:09.26.

Newly-crowned national 10,000m champion Ben St Lawrence said he was elated to have claimed the national title.

“I’m definitely happy to get the Australian title but it’s not as fast as we were hoping, it was all set up perfectly for us with the pacemakers and Menjo there until halfway but I don’t know what happened, we just couldn’t keep up,” he said.

“I’m really happy with the Australian title but hopefully we can go faster in the future.”

In the women’s event, reigning champion Eloise Wellings and 2008 victor Lara Tamsett led the field from the gun and established their dominance early, setting up a comfortable lead over the field and extending the buffer as the laps counted down with Jess Trengove and Clare Geraghty fighting a losing battle to maintain contact with the two leaders.

With 10 laps to go Wellings made her move, pulling away from Tamsett in a fast and furious charge that proved the decisive break, running away with the win in a new personal best time of 32:08.31 to post the fastest winning time in the event since 2003 and cut 11 seconds from her previous career-low time of 32:19.08.

“To be totally honest I wasn’t expecting that, I tried to get Lara to come through and really work together and I spoke to her before the race but obviously she wasn’t feeling that well, I know she’s a lot better than tonight and hopefully over the season we can have a lot closer duals and run a little bit quicker and work together a little bit more.”

Crossing the line within range of the 2011 world championships qualifying mark of 31:45.00 Wellings will set her sights on hitting the coveted standard in the new year.

“I think it’s there, I know it’s in me and it’s the first race of the season, I could come up with a whole lot of excuses why I didn’t do it but it’s the best I could do on the night,” she said.

“Hopefully I’ll get another chance, maybe in the US in April but there’s not many 10km events around. I’ll do a few 5km events and a 3km and have a bit of fun this domestic season, I did a lot of 5km races last year and I got to the middle of the year and I was a little bit flat so hopefully I’ll have a few fun races next year.”

Wellings tonight becomes the seventh woman to win the Zatopek:10 feature event twice in a row and the ninth to take the title on more than one occasion.

Wellings was followed across the line by Lara Tamsett in 32:32.02 and Jessica Trengove in 34:21.14.

In other action at Melbourne Olympic Park tonight:

– Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dale Stevenson took out the men’s shot put with a heave of 18.95 on his sixth and final attempt.

– Tamsyn Lewis took out the rarely-contested 600m event in a time of 1:27.77, just outside the national record time of 1:26.04 she set in August.

– Commonwealth Games representative Kaila McKnight won the women’s 1500m in 4:18.74.

Athletics Australia – News