WAIS Track and Field Stars Ready to Go at Perth Nationals

With less than a week until the Go for 2&5 88th Australian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials kick off in Perth, the eyes of the athletics community are now fully fixed on the three days of blistering track and field action in store from Friday, April 16.

Descending on Perth’s all-new Western Australian Athletics Stadium, the nation’s best track and field athletes will battle it out for national glory and a coveted nomination to compete at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, in October.

WAIS scholarship holder and reigning Olympic, Commonwealth, world and world indoor champion Steve Hooker will headline the meet with his sights firmly set on toppling the 6.14m world record held by Sergey Bubka (UKR), an achievement that would see him go down as one of the world’s greatest all-time athletes and pocket $100,000.

The pledge of cash by the Western Australian Government only increases interest in one of the meet’s showcase events to be held on the final day of competition from 1:30pm, Sunday, April 18.

Not to be outdone on the Perth runway, Hooker’s WAIS pole vault training partners Amanda Bisk and Liz Parnov – who both boast Commonwealth Games A-qualifiers – will join fellow WAIS athletes Alana Boyd, Vicky Parnov and Ellen Pearce in the battle for the three tickets to the Delhi Games in the women’s pole vault at 7.10pm on Saturday, April 17.

Liz Parnov – one of the youngest competitors at the meet – was recently selected alongside nine other Australians to compete at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August, while Bisk enters the competition with a new personal best of 4.40m, recorded in March.

Bringing together four of the five 4x400m relay team members from the Berlin world championships, the men’s 400m will be one hot lap when the guns sounds at 4.00pm next Sunday.

Entering the race with his hometown crowd behind him, WAIS athlete Ben Offereins has enjoyed a wildly successful stint on the Australian Athletics Tour, including a new personal best of 44.86 at the Sydney Track Classic. Looking to secure consecutive national crowns Sean Wroe will be hot on his heels, with Joel Milburn and John Steffensen, the 2006 Commonwealth Games champion, also challenging for their place on the dais.

Flame athletes Jody Henry, Tamsyn Lewis and Pirrenee Steinert will face off in the race for the women’s 400m national crown. Lewis, a multiple national champion, will have her work cut out for her with Henry entering the race having improved on her personal best three times in the past two months to 52.30.

WAIS athlete Kim Mickle will start as favourite in the women’s javelin competition despite suffering a string of injury setbacks in recent months. The Commonwealth Games and World Championships competitor will be looking to retain her number one Australian ranking.

World champion Dani Samuels also heads to Perth in stunning form, making for a fantastic women’s discus throw final at 1.05pm on Sunday, April 18.

After stamping her authority on the senior international scene with her victory at last year’s world championships in Berlin, Samuels enters the meet having heaved a massive 65.84m to improve on her personal best at the Sydney Track Classic is February and with the knowledge she has not been beaten on Australian soil this summer.

In other field highlights, newly-crowned world indoor champion Fabrice Lapierre takes on former world youth champion Chris Noffke and former world junior champion Robbie Crowther in his quest for back-to-back national crowns and the 8.49m Australian record held by Jai Taurima.

After his last-ditch leap to take home the title last year, Lapierre will be hoping for a far less nail-biting outing in the West Australian capital, lining up as hot favourite if injury keeps world and world indoor championships bronze medallist Mitch Watt out of action.

In a race for only three tickets to Delhi, Australian Flame representatives Collis Birmingham, Ryan Gregson, Jeff Riseley and Beijing Olympian Mitch Kealey, each with a Commonwealth Games A-qualifier to his name, will take to the 1500m start line alongside Berlin world championships representative Jeremy Roff.

Gregson heads west with a new personal best time of 3:35.42 to his name, whilst Riseley’s confidence will be soaring after giant-killing results in 2010. A victory over Beijing Olympics gold medallist Asbel Kiprop at the Melbourne Track Classic and back-to-back line honours over 2008 Games silver medallist Nick Willis of New Zealand will make for a fast and furious race for the national crown when the final gets under way at 3:10pm on Sunday, April 18.

In other meet highlights:

– Aaron Rouge-Serret and Patrick Johnson, both with Commonwealth Games A-qualifiers, will set the straight ablaze alongside Flame teammate Matt Davies in the men’s 100m, with Melissa Breen and Laura Whaler leading the charge in the women’s event. Qualifying rounds commence from 5:45pm, Friday, April.

– Olympic and world championships representative Scott Martin joins runner-up for the 2009 national crown Dale Stevenson in the shot put at 3.00pm, Sunday, April 18.

– Keen to continue his strong return to competition after an 81.32m Commonwealth Games A-qualifying heave at the Melbourne Track Classic, Beijing Olympian Jarrod Bannister will start as favourite in the men’s javelin at 2:35pm, Sunday, April 18.

Headlining the AWD action will be world record-holders Louise Ellery (shot put/javelin throw seated), Evan O’Hanlon (100m/200m ambulant), Timothy Sullivan (100m/200m/400m ambulant) and Hamish MacDonald (shot put seated), who will lead a host of athletes with a disability into battle next weekend.

The Go for 2&5 88th Australian Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games selection trials are off and racing at 2.30pm, next Friday, April 16.

– Athletics Australia