Athletics Australia – News – Birmingham a gallant 10th-

Australian half-marathon record holder Collis Birmingham (Vic) has this morning crossed an outstanding 10th in a hotly contested men's 3000m final at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot (POL).

Closing out the Australian Flame campaign at the championship, Birmingham's performance, which saw him run 7:57.55, sees him match the placing of Craig Mottram (Vic) from the same event at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Budapest (HUN) and equal the third best performance by an Australian man in the 3000m in the history of the championship.

The race started slowly, with multiple athletes heading to the front in the opening laps to move through the first kilometre behind Augutine Choge (KEN, ninth, 7:57.46) in 2:48.83. As the paced increased coming into the last six laps, Birmingham moved wide in an effort to remain in touch with a more speedy contingent of leaders, with the IAAF World Cross Country Championships top-eight finisher battling some tough jostling into the final 1000m.

The eventual winner Caleb Indiku (KEN, first, 7:54.94) then increased the pace to a sprint with three laps to go and didn't relinquish the lead, as Bernard Lagat (USA, second, 7:55.22) became the oldest men's medallist at Sopot 2014 in taking silver and Dejan Gebremeskal (ETH, third, 7:55.39) won bronze.

Scheduled to compete the 5000m at IAAF Melbourne World Challenge later this month, Birmingham ran 7:46.15 to place sixth behind the winner Choge (KEN, first, 7:44.85) in his heat and advance to the final this morning.

His performance continues a strong start to his 2014 season, with the national 10,000m champion impressive at the Go for 2&5 Perth Track Classic last month when he ran an impressive sub 4-minute mile to finish second behind visiting middle distance specialist James Magut (KEN).

It has followed what was a very impressive 2013, with Birmingham's athletics resume last year including a top-eight finish at the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships, a new Australian record in the men's half marathon, competition in the men's 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships and victory in the men's 10,000m Australian championship to ensure his automatic nomination for selection to compete at the upcoming Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Live Results for the event are available via iaaf.org by clicking here.

To view and download entry lists and to view the championship timetable, please click here.

Attention now returns to the Australian Athletics Tour, with the Sydney Track Classic to be held next Saturday 15 March before the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge the following Saturday 22 March.

For more information on the National Athletics Series, incorporating the Australian Athletics Tour, please click here.

To purchase tickets to both events, please follow this link  to the Ticketmaster website.

Athletics Australia – News