Athletics Australia – Queensland strong sprints

It will be paradise for fans of sprinting at the Queensland Track Classic this Saturday 29 March, with the majority of the program to be fought out on the home straight in Brisbane. 

Headlined by the Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson (Qld), who will compete in the women's 100m, the penultimate event before the 92nd Australian Athletics Championships will welcome a bounty of the country's fastest men and women to compete in no less than six heats of the 100m, four heats of the 200m and multiple state-versus-state relays. 

Pearson's start will provide the IAAF World Indoor Championships silver medallist with one final competition opportunity before she challenges for the national crown in the women's 100m and women's 100m hurdles the following weekend.

She will be joined on entry lists for sprint events by national 400m champion Caitlin Sargent (Qld), IAAF World Junior Championships hurdles finalist Michelle Jenneke (NSW), IAAF World Junior Championships bound Ryan Bedford (Qld) and Joshua Robinson (Qld) and visiting internationals Toea Wisil (PNG) and Louise Wood (GBR).

A semi-finalist in the women's 400m at last year's IAAF World Championships, Sargent will start in the one-lap race on the hunt for her first Commonwealth Games Qualifier, while Jenneke will launch from the blocks only days after recording her first qualifier for Glasgow 2014 at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge. Selected to compete in the men's 200m and the men's 400m respectively at Eugene 2014, Bedford and Robinson will both battle it out in the men's 200m this weekend.

In the longer 800m, national 1500m champion Zoe Buckman (Vic) will lead from the front alongside steeplechaser Genevieve LaCaze (Qld).

Buckman burst onto the world scene in Moscow 2013 last year, winning her heat and semi-final in the women's 1500m to become the first ever Australian woman to progress to the final round of the event at the IAAF World Championships. LaCaze trainsalongside her under the guidance of Nic Bideau, and the 24-year-old is continuing her return from a foot injury in 2013 that forced her withdrawalfrom the Australian Flame team for the IAAF World Championships.

A high-flying contingent of Australian Flame are also confirmed for the women's pole vault, with national record holder and local favourite Alana Boyd (Qld) set to take to the runway alongside London 2012 Olympian Liz Parnov (WA) and 2007 IAAF World Youth Champion Vicky Parnov (WA). 

Boyd boasts multiple Commonwealth Games A-Qualifiers for the event ahead of the Selection Trial in Melbourne next weekend, while both Parnov sisters are B-Qualified and keen to stamp their mark at the 4.50m A-Standard before competing at the Nationals.

In the men's and women's triple jump, the runway is likely to be dominated by national champion Linda Leverton(Qld) and the now Australia-based Phillips Idowu (GBR).

Competing on her home track, Leverton is edging closer to the Glasgow 2014 A-Standard for the triple jump, while Idowu, who is both an Olympic and IAAF World Championships medallist, will compete for the second time in Australia after winning at the Sydney Track Classic earlier this month.

The Australian record holder Benn Harradine (Qld) will compete in themen's discus after setting a meet record of 63.59m to win at the IAAF Melbourne World Challenge. It will be the second competition of the season for the 2010 Commonwealth champion and he will face a stiff challenge from IAAF World Youth Champion and 2013 Athletics Australia Junior Athlete of the Year Matthew Denny (Qld). 

Australian Flame debutants from the 2013 IAAF World Championships Dane Bird-Smith (Qld), Rhydian Cowley (Vic) and Tanya Holliday (SA) round out the charges to watch, with the trio to start in the combinedmen's and women's 5000m walk. All three are selected to compete at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in May, and more information on the team for this event available here.

For more information on the Queensland Track Classic, including entry lists and the meet timetable, please click here. 

The conclusion of competition on Saturday night will see the athletics world shift its attention to the 92nd Australian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games Selection Trial the following weekend at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne.

The first opportunity for athletes to confirm their nomination to the Australian Commonwealth Games Association for selection to Glasgow 2014, the event will welcome more than 800 athletes from across the country for four days of competition.

Additional information on this event is available here.

 

Athletics Australia