Difficult Night for WAIS Track and Field Athletes

WAIS track and field athletes experienced mixed fortunes at Thursday night’s Melbourne Track Classic.

The much hyped men’s 400m event sprung a genuinely surprising result with unheralded NSWIS athlete Steven Solomon upsetting a strong field to win in 46.12 ahead of Sean Wroe (46.23) and Kevin Moore (46.32). WAIS national champion Ben Offereins finished fourth in 46.46.

National 200m champion Jody Henry had a difficult run in blustery conditions, finishing seventh in a time of 24.31, behind race winner Sally Pearson (23.36.

Russian born WAIS pole vaulter Sergey Kucheryanu took out the men’s pole vault after clearing 5.30m. Kucheryanu relocated to Perth recently to work with WAIS coach Alex Parnov and holds a personal best over 5.80m. Kucheryanu claimed victory ahead of Joel Pocklington (5.10m) and Stephen Cain (4.95m).

In the men’s shot put, Matthew Cowie threw a distance of 15.29m for sixth place behind American great Reese Hoffa (21.10m) and Dale Stevenson (19.41m).

The next instalment of the Australian Athletics Tour is the Sydney Track Classic on March 19.