International teams confirmed for Nitro Athletics

China, Japan, and England are the latest nations to confirm they will be sending teams for Nitro Athletics Melbourne when the ground-breaking series kicks off at Lakeside Stadium next year.

Across Saturday 4^th and Thursday 9^th and Saturday 11^th February, the new sports entertainment series will see the best athletes of Australia pitted against the rest of the world in a new style of athletics that will revolutionise global track and field.

When it comes to rivalries nothing can beat an Ashes-style clash between old enemies England and Australia.

Just as the two nations share a competitive grudge in cricket, rugby and cycling, England and Australia have had a long standing competitiveness in the track and field too.

“There will be six teams on the start line in Melbourne, but the mini-battle between Australia and England will always fascinate Aussie sports fans,” said Nitro Athletics Ambassador and 2006 Commonwealth Games 400m champion John Steffensen.

Stretching back to the days of Roger Bannister and John Landy, there are several notable battles between the two nations. In 2006, the English women's 4x400m relay team seemingly won gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, only for the Australians to take first place after the English were disqualified due to a change in the relay order.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Australia's Mitch Watt went blow-for-blow against British long jumper Greg Rutherford. Whilst Rutherford ended up prevailing in front of Watt, and the rivalry took another leap forward at the 2015 World Championships when Fabrice Lapierre too claimed silver behind Rutherford.

“It’s a great rivalry that has stood the test of time," Steffensen continued.

"The rivalry will be ignited again in Melbourne next year, and no doubt continue through to the world athletics championships in London in 2017, and onto our home soil at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games,” Steffensen said.

England Athletics Chief Executive Chris Jones is looking forward to putting their best team forward for the ground-breaking Nitro Athletics series.

“We are always looking for exciting and innovative ways to create new opportunities in our sport, whether for those taking their first steps into athletics and running or to offer unique challenges to those who have reached the very highest levels,” Jones said.

“Travelling to Australia for Nitro Athletics also affords us the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with Australian conditions ahead of our athletes’ appearance at the Commonwealth Games in 2018.”

While the English relish the opportunity to match up against the Australians, it's not the first time our Asian neighbours have competed on our shores either. Last season, Chinese javelin throwers Lu Huihui and Li Lingwei travelled to Sydney for the Australian Athletics Championships. Likewise Japanese 400m hurdles athlete Keisuke Nozawa posted an Olympic qualifying time in Sydney ahead of his Rio 2016 campaign. 

Aside from facing tough Australian opposition, the visitors will too match up against the world's greatest athlete in Usain Bolt (JAM) as he competes and captains his team the 'Bolt All-Stars'.

Chinese athletics fans are already well acquainted with Bolt, as the Beijing 2008 Olympics provided the unforgettable launching pad for Bolt’s extraordinary sprinting career. Bolt astounded everyone in 2008 when he won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m Olympic gold medals in world record time, and seven years later he repeated the triple-crown in the Bird’s Nest at the 2015 IAAF Beijing World Athletics Championships.

Bolt’s exploits in China have inspired a new generation of young Chinese sprinters. At the 2015 world championships, Bingtian Su made the men’s 100m final becoming the first Asian athlete to do so. The Chinese men’s 4x100m relay team (Youxue Mo, Zhenye Xie, Bingtian Su, Peimeng Zhang) catapulted themselves onto the podium to win silver behind Bolt’s Jamaican team.

Just as the Chinese impressed in 2015, the Japanese sprinters left their imposing mark on world sprinting in 2016 when they too won silver behind Bolt and the Jamaican team in the 4x100m relay at the Rio Olympics.

The Japanese foursome of Ryota Yamagata, Shota Iizuka, Yoshihide Kiryu and Asuka Cambridge are just some of the emerging young stars of the Japanese athletics team gearing up for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Nomination Process for Team Australia at Nitro Athletics Melbourne begins today, with athletes
encouraged to complete an online nomination form available by CLICKING HERE.

It is open to all athletes that have competed at a national and/or international level in the past 18
months.

Nominations will be accepted until 11:59pm AEDT, Sunday 27 November 2016.