Athletics Australia – News – Pearson wins in style in Lausanne

Sally Pearson has announced her arrival on the Samsung Diamond League circuit with a bang this morning, clocking a wind assisted 12.47 (w: +3.3) to take victory and beat the world's fastest hurdler this year in Lausanne (SUI).

Pearson arrived in Europe with a season best of 12.74 from the Gold Coast Winter Series and she lined up against American pair Kellie Wells and Danielle Carruthers, who had so far dominated the 100m hurdles internationally in 2011.

With Wells having clocked a world-lead time of 12.50 at the US trials last weekend, Pearson knew she would be in for a tough fight but insisted the competition would only assist her, and it did, from start to finish.

The 24-year-old was beaten to the first hurdle by Wells, but demonstrated her strength as the race wore on to dip on the line to win. Despite the meet organisers initially awarding Carruthers with the victory bouquet, Pearson knew she had won.

“I knew that I’d won when I got to the finish line. The wind was pretty strong which in the hurdles can be a hindrance as you get too close to the hurdles and it puts your rhythm off but a win’s a win and I’ll take it.

“I felt Danielle (Carruthers) all the way, I could hear her screaming alongside me. It was funny one of the male hurdlers said in the warm up ‘it’s not tennis’ because of how loud they were.

“It was really good having her there, having that competition. I didn’t get my signature start but that’s to be expected having just gotten off the plane from Australia, but I still came out with a really good time.”

Coach Sharon Hannan had predicted a time of 12.58 and consequently Pearson is now looking forward to what lays ahead for her in training.

“I don’t know what Sharon’s going to say, she’s probably wracking her brains thinking ‘what the hell are we going to do now?’ I ran a tenth faster than what she predicted so she’s probably thinking ‘now what’.”

“I just need to get some races under my belt now and keep doing what I’m doing. Touch wood things have been going really well and I hope it continues on this trail.”

The Australian record still stands at 12.50, which Pearson set in Monaco three years ago.

Carruthers finished in second with 12.48, followed by TiffanyOfili-Porter (GBR) in 12.64. Wells, who afterwards said her legs were ‘dead’ finished in sixth with 12.76.

Elsewhere two world leads were set, on and off the track. Asafa Powell (JAM) beat European champion Christophe Lemaitre (FRA) in the 100m and ran the fastest time in the world this year, of 9.78. Meanwhile on the runway Teddy Tamgho (FRA) won the triple jump in 17.91m, to extend his previous world-lead by 24 centimetres.

Yarelis Barrios (CUB), who finished behind reigning Australian world champion Dani Samuels at the 2009 IAAF world championships, won the discus with a second round throw of 64.29m. Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton (USA) finished in fourth.

Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR) took out the javelin with his first throw of 88.19m, which was three centimetres shy of the world-lead. That huge throw is currently held by Vadims Vasilevskis (LAT) who today finished in last place, while Russian Sergey Makarov looked as though he may challenge Thorkildsen’s lead after he threw 87.12 in the penultimate round.

Rounding out competition on the runway, Renaud Lavillenie took victory with a 5.83m leap. Raising the height to what would have been a world lead of 5.88m, the Frenchman was unable to clear the bar, with his first attempt enough to hold off runner-up Malte Mohr (GER, 5.73m).

To view and download full results, please click here.

With thanks to Zarah Al-Kudcy