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A tantalising array of head-to-head battles headline the 93rd Australian Athletics Championships this weekend, with more than 900 athletes from around the country set to descend on Brisbane (Qld).

Taking to the track or field across four bumper days of competition, entry lists confirm that our very best will compete for coveted national titles and, for able-bodied athletes, selection to the Australian Flame team bound for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing (CHN).

Amongst the rivalries are the following ten duels for gold, deemed by Athletics Australia Media as some of the most fascinating battles for national championship success in 2015.

W 100m: Sally Pearson (Qld) v Melissa Breen (ACT)
Pearson is the reigning national 100m champion and she starts in Brisbane after earlier this season lowering her 200m personal best to 22.97. On six occasions she has stood atop the podium for the event at the Australian Athletics Championships, with her program this weekend also set to feature the women’s 100m hurdles where she is on track to add an eighth Australian title.

Breen, meanwhile, is the Australian 100m record holder with a personal best of 11.11. She bettered the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships at the Canberra Track Classic earlier this season, which means that gold will ensure her automatic selection to Beijing 2015. Only two weeks ago she edged out Pearson for second behind Ella Nelson (NSW) in the 200m at the Sydney Track Classic.

Looking to spoil the party are Commonwealth Games 4x100m relay starters Michelle Cutmore (Qld), Margaret Gayen (SA) and Ash Whittaker (Vic), and Gold Coast-based Glasgow 2014 100m finalist Toea Wisil (PNG).

W 400m: Morgan Mitchell (Vic) v Jess Gulli (Vic)
Clocking a personal best of 52.22 to win the Australian title and ensure her automatic selection to Glasgow 2014 at last year’s national championships, Mitchell has back-to-back success in her sights this weekend. To date this season she has taken victory at the Hunter Track Classic and the Victorian Athletics Championships, before placing third at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge last weekend.

Storming home in lane one to improve her career best to 53.22, Gulli took victory in Melbourne (Vic) to ensure her position as a contender for the gold medal at the Australian Athletics Championships. Traditionally a hurdler, it was her first victory in the one-lap event this Australian Athletics Tour and the performance from the outside highlights her ability to deliver a gutsy finish up the home straight.

The 18-time national champion Tamsyn Lewis-Manou (Vic) is also scheduled to start, as are Glasgow 2014 starters Lyndsay Pekin (WA), Caitlin Sargent (Qld) and Anneliese Rubie (NSW) and the Australian under 20 champion Molly Blakey (NSW).

M 800m: Alex Rowe (Vic) v Jeff Riseley (Vic)Rowe shares the Australian record of 1:44.40 with Olympic gold medallist Ralph Doubell, and earlier this Australian Athletics Tour he dropped a season best of 1:45.38 to stake his claim for selection to the IAAF World Championships. A win at the Australian Athletics Championships will ensure automatic selection for Beijing 2015.

Riseley’s time of 1:45.29 to cross a narrow second behind world record holder David Rudisha (KEN) at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge saw him become the fastest Australian this year. The performance was his first qualifier for Beijing 2015 and delivered a second consecutive race where he was able to defeat Rowe.

Josh Ralph (NSW), who won gold at the Australian Athletics Championships last year, will also take to the start line, as will the fast improving Dylan Stenson (SA) and Luke Matthews (Vic).

M 1500m: Jeff Riseley (Vic) v Ryan Gregson (NSW)
Riseley and Gregson are former training partners, and both have their sights set on another national crown in the men’s 1500m.

Gregson was the better of the two at the Sydney Track Classic two weeks ago, clocking 3:36.51 to steal the victory after Riseley led for much of the race. It was his first start this season and highlighted the form he will bring to the track at the Australian Athletics Championships after a lengthy period of impressive training under his coach Nic Bideau.

Riseley reigned supreme in the 1500m at last year’s Australian Athletics Championships and he took victory in the event at the Hunter Track Classic earlier this domestic season. Impressively, Riseley was a finalist in the event at the Commonwealth Games last year, clocking 3:40.27 to place just outside the medallists in fifth.

Entry lists for the event confirm that the challenge will come from one of Australia’s most formidable distance runners Collis Birmingham (Vic), as well as Zak Patterson (Vic), Josh Wright (NSW), Jeremy Roff (NSW) and Athletics Australia Para-Athlete of the Year Michael Roeger (SA), who is an arm amputee.

M 110m hurdles: Nicholas Hough (NSW) v Sam Baines (Vic)
Hough earned automatic selection to the Commonwealth Games when he won gold at the Australian Athletics Championships last year, before going on to place fourth in the final at Glasgow 2014 in a then personal best of 13.57. At the Queensland Track Classic earlier this month he again improved on that performance to cross in 13.52, just 0.02 seconds outside the qualifying mark for Beijing 2015.

Baines too has improved his fastest ever time this year, with the 24-year-old clocking 13.67 to cross second behind Hough at the Sydney Track Classic two weeks ago. Coached by Ash Mahoney, Baines was a finalist in the sprint hurdles at the 2010 IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton (CAN), crossing fourth.

W High Jump: Eleanor Patterson (Vic) v Hannah Joye (Qld)
Patterson is the Commonwealth high jump champion, and in her last competition at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships she sailed over her equal personal best height of 1.96m to deliver back-to-back under 20 national titles. The long-standing national record of 1.98m is on the horizon for the 19-year-old and victory will ensure her automatic selection on the Australian team for Beijing 2015.

Joye made her open age major international championship debut at the Commonwealth Games last year, advancing to the final where she placed sixth. The silver medallist behind Patterson in Sydney (NSW) earlier this month, she has bettered her season opening biggest leap on two occasions to now boast a career best of 1.92cm, just two centimetres shy of the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships.

Also set to soar are IAAF World Junior Championships representatives Cassie Purdon (Qld) and Nicola McDermott (NSW), as well as 2009 IAAF World Youth Championships starter Amy Pejkovic (NSW).

W Pole Vault: Alana Boyd (Qld) v Nina Kennedy (WA)
Boyd is the Australian record holder with a personal best of 4.76m, and at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge last weekend she sailed over the Beijing 2015 qualifying mark of 4.50m for the first time this season. It delivered her the win, and provided the ultimate confidence boost before she takes to the runway on her home track this weekend.

The rising star of the pole vault this year has been Kennedy, with her best mark of 4.59m the biggest ever by an under 20 aged athlete in history. On two occasions she has bettered the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships and should she win the gold medal at the Australian Athletics Championships she will be automatically selected for Beijing 2015.

Boyd and Kennedy have a formidable field of starters to contend with, however, with all of Liz Parnov (WA), Vicky Parnov (WA), Emma Philippe (WA) and Jamie Scroop (SA) to duel for gold.

W Javelin: Kim Mickle (WA) v Kathryn Mitchell (Vic) v Kelsey-Lee Roberts (ACT)
The women’s javelin gold medal will be one of the hardest to win at the Australian Athletics Championships this weekend, with the top-three athletes all ranking amongst the top-12 in the world in 2014.

Mickle is the Commonwealth champion and at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge last weekend she threw 66.57m, less than 30 centimetres shy of the national record she threw at the same event in 2014.

Mitchell boasts a personal best of 66.10m, and on three occasions this Australian Athletics Tour she has placed second. A 63.70m throw at the Canberra Track Classic delivered her first qualifier for Beijing 2015, with a win this weekend delivering a second national title and automatic selection for the IAAF World Championships.

Roberts is the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, and she tasted victory earlier this season with a 63.78m throw at the Canberra Track Classic. She was the second placed Australian with a throw of 62.22m at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge last weekend.

The event also welcomes the Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sunette Viljoen (RSA). Viljoen won the women’s javelin at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge with a throw of 66.62m.

M Ambulant 100m: Scott Reardon (NSW) v Gabriel Cole (SA)
Ambulant events see athletes from multiple para-athletics classes compete against each other for coveted national crowns, and Reardon and Cole will lead from the front in the 100m at the Australian Athletics Championships.

Reardon is the world champion for his T42 leg amputee class, and has a season best of 12.24, which doubles as an A-Qualifier for the IPC Athletics World Championships this October.

Cole, who has a limb deficiency in his left arm, has clocked 11.15 this season, with the T47 class athlete eyeing off his first A-Qualifier for Doha 2015 where he will look to improve on his silver medal from two years ago.

W Wheelchair 800m: Angela Ballard (NSW) v Madison de Rozario (WA)8
Ballard and de Rozario are training partners under the watchful eye of multiple Paralympic champion Louise Sauvage.

Both have achieved the A-Qualifier for their T53 wheelchair class, with Ballard clocking 1:52.23 at a Summer Down Under event in Canberra and de Rozario crossing the line in 1:52.44 at the ACT Athletics Championships last month.

Athletics Australia