Hunt praised by Moneghetti and Japanese
NSWs Jeff Hunt finished third in his marathon debut at the Beppu-Oita marathon. Negatively splitting and running through the field strongly in the later stages of the race (he split an incredible 15:03 between for the 5km between 30 and 35 km) Hunt was in contention for the win and ultimately finished third in 2:11:00 behind Kenya's Jonathon Kipkorir (2:10:50) and 2:07 marathoner Daniel Njegna (2:10:55).Steve Mongehetti had the previous fastest debut - 2:11:18 at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, where he won the bronze medal - and was full of praise for Hunt.
"I ran 2:11:18 on debut in 1986 and then Lee Troop ran 2:11:21 in London in 1999. It's two pretty well credentialed people that Jeff has jumped ahead of so it gives you some understanding of how significant the run is," Moneghetti, now a national selector, said.
"The other thing that was important was that he ran on through the field, got up to second at one stage and then finished third in the race. It's not as if he has done it just being dragged along, he has been really competitive in the race."
Hunt was similarly praised by pundits in marathon mad Japan, with managing direction of the Japanese athletics federation, Keisuke Sawaki, reported as saying 'that Japanese runners need to learn from Hunt’s race'.
In 11th place was Martin Dent, also under the Commonwealth Games A-qualifier of 2:14:00 with a personal best run of 2:13:27. On the basis of Hunt's debut performance and Dent's personal best and 21st place finish at last year's world championships, both are expected to be named in Australia's Commonwealth Games team.
Chapple sets PB in half marathon victory
Competing in the Marugame half marathon, Nikki Chapple lowered her personal best to 68:37 with a strong front running effort to record an easy victory over local favourites Mara Yamauchi and Hiromi Ominami.Chapple passed through 10 kilometres in a fast 32:25 - four seconds faster than she could manage on the track at the Zatopek:10 - and slowed little over the next 10km, which she covered in 32:43. The Victorian crossed the line over a minute ahead of second placed Yoko Miyauchi and moves into fifth on the Australian all-time list behind the late Kerryn McCann (67:48), Benita Willis (67:55), Susie Power (67:56) and Lisa Ondieki (68:33).
Hooker back jumping
Steve Hooker has started his domestic season at low key meets in Perth. On Sunday he cleared 5.70m and made three unsuccessful attempts at 5.90m. A week earlier, just after finishing a similar competition, he successfully cleared 5.61m - off only an 8 step run up!
The Hunter and the Hunted
Despite the anticipation caused by the competing meets on Saturday - the Brisbane Athletics Classic and Hunter Track Classic - variable weather conditions foiled the success of athletes in either.
Strong A-qualifying performances were recorded in Brisbane by world champion Dani Samuels (63.70m), world championships bronze medallist Mitchell Watt (8.15m (-0.7 m/s)) and up and coming athletes Dale Stevenson (shot put: 19.45m) and Liam Zamel-Paez (high jump: 2.25m).
A further six B-qualifiers were recorded by Matt Davies (200m: 20.76s), Jody Henry (400m: 52.76s), Liz Parnov and Amanda Bisk (pole vault: both 4.10m), Kathryn Mitchell (javelin: 55.18m) and Laura Cornford (javelin:54.37m).
However, of the above aforementioned, only Davies and Mitchell join the list as new qualifiers. Similarly, only 400m runners Pirrenee Steinert and Clay Watkins were a new qualifiers last weekend in Canberra. With the two major meets of the domestic season - the Sydney Track Classic and Melbourne Track Classic - now less than a month away, aspiring athletes will need to pull out the stops if Australia is to reach its ambition of sending its largest ever team of athletes to the Commonwealth GamesThe most anticipated clash of the weekend - both within and between the Brisbane and Hunter meets - was the men's 800m. On that issue the Hunter Track Classic was the race to be in, with the time for each of the top six positions in Newcastle being faster than the corresponding place in Brisbane: Ryan Gregson negatively split his run in Newcastle to run a personal best and B-qualifier of 1:47.06 (53.59 second first lap) whilst Lachlan Renshaw, off a similar first lap after the pacemaker didn't achieve the requested 51 second target, ran 1:47.96 in Brisbane.
The other credible performances at the Hunter Track Classic was a runaway win in the 400m by Tamsyn Lewis in a B-qualifier of 52.86 seconds; a 7:55.91 run by Ben St Lawrence in the 3000m, with miler Mitch Kealey setting a personal best of 7:59.78 for second ahead of Olympic steeplechase finalist Youcef Abdi (8:03:40) and a fast finishing Kale Symons (8:03.74); and Kaila McKnight, who set the fastest 1500m time of the season with 4:13.97, running away from national 10000m champion Eloise Wellings (4:17.81) with a 64.39 second final lap.
Video courtesy of stevehooker.com.au
