Weekly wrap: Tallented duo walk to Commonwealth Games
The leading performance was a new personal best by dual Olympic medallist Jared Tallent, who sped around the streets of Hobart to take out the opening leg of the IAAF racewalking challenge, which doubled as the national 20km walk title and the selection trial for the Commonwealth Games. Tallent's time of 1:19:15 had him finish almost three minutes ahead of Luke Adams' time of 1:22:07.Tallent's wife, Claire, took out the women's event in 1:32:40 ahead of Cheryl Webb's 1:33:28, with both securing a spot in the Commonwealth Games team by finishing in the top two at the selection trial and possessing an A-qualifier.
The day prior, at the Briggs Classic, Ryan Gregson and Collis Birmingham were the highlights on the track and Dale Stevenson and Petrina Price in the field.
Gregson finished eleven hundredths of a second outside his personal best in a time of 3:37.35 in a runaway victory from Mitch Kealey (3:39.83), a meet record. In the 5000m, Birmingham also broke the meet record with a run of 13:24.62.
Stevenson continued his consistent form in the shot, throwing another A-qualifier of 19.23m, whilst Price leapt to 1.90m ahead of Ellen Pettitt (1.86m) in the high jump. Pettitt equalled Price's season leading performance two days later back in her home town of Perth, her first A-qualifier.
Pettit's performance came on Perth's new synthetic track, which gave a glimpse of its potential for fast times, with quicking sprinting times recorded into the traditionally strong Perth winds. National record holder Patrick Johnson clocked 10.40 seconds ahead of Matt Davies' 10.43 seconds, run into a 2.4 m/s headwind.
On the same track, in her first competition back after a shattered thumb suffered in a social game of netball, world championships representative Kim Mickle recorded a Commonwealth Games A-qualifier of 57.21m.
Australia's Commonwealth Games hopes have taken another blow, with national 1500m record holder Ryan Gregson withdrawing from next month's event due to injury. 
Commonwealth Games 5000m representative Ben St Lawrence has shattered his personal best in the 3000m at the Notturna Di Milano meet in Italy. 
Matt Shirvington has backed the Commonwealth Games boycott of John Steffensen - convinced Athletics Australia must make significant changes before again becoming a "super power" in track and field. 
AA chief executive Dallas O'Brien said Steffensen would be required to front a tribunal after being charged with breaching the organisation's code of conduct with his comments at April's national championships. 
It will take another generation of athletes to dip under the brand new 800 metres world record of one minute, 41.01 seconds. 
Outspoken athlete John Steffensen has reportedly chosen to quit the Delhi Commonwealth Games team as a protest against Athletics Australia. 