Athletics Australia – News – Birmingham back for title three at Zatopek:10

National 10,000m record-holder and Commonwealth Games finalist Collis Birmingham is looking to join Australian athletics legends Ron Clarke, Steve Moneghetti and Andrew Lloyd as a three-time winner of the Zatopek:10, with the Victorian announcing he’ll be racing the 50th anniversary edition of the track classic next month at Olympic Park, Melbourne.

Wasting little time in the wake of last month’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi (IND), Birmingham, the reigning Zatopek:10 and national 10,000m champion, has already returned to his Victorian alpine training base at Falls Creek to prepare for the race, which will double as the national championship for the 10,000m track event.

After an impressive 2009 in which he lowered the national 10,000m record, Birmingham continued to impress in 2010, clocking new personal bests over 3000m (7:38.77) and 5000m (13:10.97) to move to second on Australia’s all-time lists for both events.

With the Zatopek:10 also providing an opportunity to post a world championships qualifying time in the scarcely contested 10,000m event, Birmingham has much to race for.

“I don’t think the break has affected me much, I’ll be in pretty good shape for Zatopek and if the race goes right, the goal is a world championships qualifier and then hopefully the win or to be right up there,” said Birmingham, whose national record of 27:29.73 sits comfortably inside the world championships qualifying standard of 27:40.00.

“We could quite easily have three guys all qualify [for the world championships] from the race, if not have more get the qualifying time. With the calibre of the field, it will be tough to win.

“There’s that extra bit of incentive being the 50th Zatopek but I’m also going for my third win and I’m defending my title, so there’s plenty to run for.”

Birmingham will be amongst the race favourites come December 9, with fellow Commonwealth Games representative and 2010 City-2-Surf winner Ben St Lawrence (New South Wales), world cross country representative Liam Adams (Victoria), and 2008 NCAA Track and Field Championships 10,000m runner-up Shaun Forrest (Victoria) all confirmed to line up in the feature men’s race at Olympic Park.

Named after one of history’s most decorated distance runners Emil Zatopek, the Zatopek:10 has been contested annually since 1961 with 2010 set to be the 50th consecutive running of the 10,000m track race.

Zatopek is a Czech athletics legend, who most famously won gold in the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon events at the 1952 Olympic Games. Zatopek also broke the men’s 10,000m world record on five occasions, in addition to setting a further 13 world records in five other distance running disciplines.

The Zatopek:10 will be held at Olympic Park, Melbourne on the evening of Thursday December 9, 2010, with the men’s and women’s 10,000m races to be the highlights of an exciting track and field program.

Full details of event fields will be released progressively in the lead-up to the meet.

Tickets to Zatopek:10 are now available and can be purchased online or by calling (03) 9428 8195.

Athletics Australia – News