Sydney turned on a wet night for the fourth leg of the Australian Athletics Tour, The Sydney Track Classic. The meet which boasted three Olympic champions, four world champions and a world record holder did not disappoint.

Despite a damp track, Mitchell Watt took advantage of the otherwise favourable conditions in the men’s long jump. heading into the final round with 8.08m under his belt, Watt all but leaped his way to Daegu with a world leading 8.38m (+1.5 m/s) jump.

"I think if someone had said at the end of the season that was going to be my best jump I probably would have taken it. To have that so early in the year- I’m pretty surprised,” Watt said.

The feature track race of the evening, the men's 800m, was expected to be a battle between 800m world record holder David Rudisha and the Olympic 1500m champion, Asbel Kiprop. Rudisha's preferred pacemaker, Sammy Tangui, led the field through 400m in 51.5 seconds with Rudisha, Kiprop and Australian champion Lachlan Renshaw following. Tangui stepped off the track at 450m and then with 250m to go Rudisha showed why he is the fastest man in history as he cleared away from the field with ease and take the win in 1:44.80. Renshaw kicked away from Kiprop with 100m to go crossing the line in 1:46.08.

Whilst most middle athletes can only dream of running a 1:44.80 800m, Rudisha was not phased by the time. "The time was a little disappointing. I think if the conditions were better, then I could have run faster,” he said.

The world record holder will now go back to hard training in Kenya before opening his European season in Doha in May.

Olympic 400m hurdles champion, Angelo Taylor, showed strong early season form to take out the 200m and 400m double in the space of an hour. In the 200m Taylor overcame a sluggish start to win in 20.71 seconds holding off a late challenge from school boy, Nicholas Hough, who finished second in a personal best 21.03.

An hour later Taylor came back and controlled the men’s 400m from the front, running strongly over the last 100m to hold off Australian champion Ben Offereins (46.16s) and 17-year-old Steve Solomon (46.24s) for winning time of 45.71 seconds.

“I really wasn’t sure how I’d go tonight. The 200m was tough, I got left behind in the first 50m and had to play catch up,” Taylor said.

“The 400m was a lot more comfortable- the first 200m felt a bit rough but the second 200m really played to my strength. I’m happy to come away with two wins."

The Women's 1500m turned out to be one of the most exciting races of the evening with Jamaican 800m specialist Kenia Sinclair, stepping up in distance to win in 4:06.50 from Georgie Clarke (4:10.10) and Bridey Delaney in 4:10.32.

"It was my first 1500m in two and a half years. I wanted to try and run 4.05, but I’m happy with the time," Sinclair said.

Perhaps the best performance of the night came from 15-year-old world youth bound athlete Anna Laman, who ran a six second personal best to finish fourth in 4:13.62. Laman showed composure beyond her years as she tucked in behind her much more experienced competitors.

"I started off really fast. I wanted to try and get up there with the girls, I knew if I put myself in the race then they were going to push me along," Laman said.

World champion Dani Samuels won the women’s discuss with a fourth round attempt of 58.34m. The throw wasn't up to Samuels’ usual high standards and the disappointment showed afterwards.

"I’m really disappointed with that. I know I can do a lot better than that and hopefully I can turn it around in Perth and throw something around the 64 meter mark."

In contrast, Commonwealth, World and Olympic Champion Valerie Adams showed why she is all of those things as she consistently threw over 20 meters all night. Adam's was delighted with her effort of 20.55m.

Sally Pearson is slowly getting closer to Melinda Gainsford-Taylor's Australian 100m record of 11.11. In the 100m she got an early jump on the field and continued to pull away all the way to the end to meet record 11.21 seconds (0.1 m/s). A little over an hour later she was back in action in the 200m. An impressive bend meant the Olympic 100m hurdles silver medalist had the race under control very early, holding her form in the straight to win in 23.12 seconds as she edges ever closer to the 23 second barrier.

Even before the race started the men's 1500m didn't follow it's script, with pacemaker, Abraham Chepkirwok, pulling out after straining his calf on the warm up. Josh Wright took pace making duties but a fast time was never really on. Pre-race favourite Jeremy Roff took the lead at 900m and was chased by USAs Craig Miller, but Roff's bold running was rewarded as he moved away strongly over the final 600m to win in 3:39.03.

“That’s my first 1500m of the season so to come away with the win is really important,” Roff said.

Miller (3:39.42) and Nick Toohey (3:39.37) finished second and third respectively, with the latter breaking 3 minutes, 40 seconds for the first time.

One of the most exciting initiatives of the night was running the boy's and girl's under 14 Little Athletics 400m finals just before the open men's and women’s races. Racing at the Sydney Track Classic gave these children a taste of world class athletics. The boy's and girl's races were won by Patrick Frith and Louise Hill respectively.

The Australian Athletics Tour concludes in Perth in a fortnight, with the national championships taking place a fortnight following that in Melbourne.