Athletics Australia – News – Australia clocks 9:17.56 for second at Penn Relays

Australia's finest middle distance runners went within centimetres of causing a major upset when they almost won the Distance Medley Relay event at the USA versus the World event staged at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on Saturday.

In front of a crowd of 48,542 roaring spectators Australian 1500m champion Jeff Riseley running the final 1600m leg ran out of track in the short 60m straight when trying to overtake Morroccan star Amine Laalou failing by just 0.08 of a second.

The Australian time of 9.17.56 was a national record beating the time set last year by Collis Birmingham, Sean Wroe, Ryan Gregson and Riseley by 9 seconds.

It was only 2 seconds shy of the Distance Medley Relay World Record set by the world's premier distance running nation, Kenya.

This time it was Gregson running the opening 1200m leg in his first competition since a stress fracture caused him to pull out of the Delhi Commonwealth Games last August who set up the race with an amazing opening leg over 1200m of 2.48.66. Gregson crossed the line in 3rd place less than a metre behind American superstar Bernard Lagat who gave the Americans the lead at the first change.

Commonwealth 400m silver medallist Wroe worked his way into second place with the fastest 400m split of the race of 45.95.

Running calmly Wroe, the leading member of Australian 2009 World Championships bronze medal winning and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal winning 4x400m relay teams handed off to Commonwealth Games 800m finalist Lachlan Renshaw. Renshaw looked strong all the way as he also recorded the top split on his leg running 800m in 1.46.29 and putting Riseley level with the American team  at the front of the race.

As they started the crucial final leg Riseley opted to trail American Russell Brown the current world leader over 1500m which is where he stayed for the next 3 laps.

For the next four laps the noise built to crescendo as one the most vocal crowd in US track and field showed why it has such a reputation.

The crowd was on edge as the Morroccan Amine Laalou, a 3.29 1500m man,  joined the tall Australian and Brown. 

But with 300m to go Riseley made a tactical error and allowed Morroccan to come from behind and steal a metre from Riseley just before the final bend.

The Penn Relays track at Franklin Field has it's finish line situated midway down the straight and not at the start of the curve where it normally is. This caught Riseley out as he swung wide around Brown as they entered the straight and went after Laalou.

The noise was thunderous as the 3 runners entered the final 50m with Riseley out wide desperately trying to reel in Laalou. Perhaps in another few metres he'd have got there but on this occasion he just failed to snatch what would have been a famous victory.

Team coach Nic Bideau said despite the losing by a narrow margin all the runners had every right to be proud of their efforts.

"We really thought we had a huge chance before we left but once we got here we quickly realised it's no easy task to travel for 30 hours across the world and take on the best distance running nations in the world and everyone one of our team ran incredibly well given that circumstance", Bideau said.

"They all had quite a bit of trouble sleeping before the race since arriving early Tuesday and you just never know how they are going to be feeling until you seem them out there.

"But they were all fine and all of them ran exceptionally well.

"We have a lot to look forward to in the lead-up to London with these athletes who are also being pursued by another crop of talented youngsters coming from behind.

"It is one event group in Australian athletics that is really going places as we approach the 2012 Olympics."

Behind Morrocco, Australia and the USA, traditional distance running powerhouses  Kenya and Ethiopia were well beaten indicating that as far as middle distances go, a changing of the guard could soon be apparent.

With thanks to Nic Bideau

Athletics Australia – News