PREVIEW | Australian 3000m Championships

Last year's Australian 3000m Championships  provided much needed ranking points to athletes staking their claim for green and gold jerseys. This year's edition will do much the same, with the Commonwealth Games/World Championships “double chance” in everyone’s minds, whilst being fascinating distance races in their own right.

To be held as two of the main events as part of the Sydney Track Classic, NSW will welcome many of the best domestic distance runners in the country to battle it out for qualifiers, points, bragging rights, and ultimately, National Titles.

The event will be Live Streamed via Athletics Australia’s Facebook and Youtube pages.

Women’s 3000m (7:59pm AEDST):
2021 Champion – Genevieve Gregson, VIC (8:51.24)

Two-time reigning 10,000m champion Rose Davies (Scott Westcott) will go into this weekend’s race with the fastest 3000 & 5000m PB, plenty of form, National Titles and a world of confidence. Her Zatopek victory in stifling conditions six weeks ago against the likes of Isobel Batt-Doyle (Nic Bideau) and Eloise Wellings (Nic Bideau) was incredibly impressive, alongside her recent win on the roads at the Run The Bridge 10km in Hobart (32:32). Davies will go in favourite this weekend to win her second National Title of the season.

With that said - this time last summer we saw one of multiple upsets across National distance-event finals at Sydney Olympic Park, with Jenny Blundell (James Fitzgerald) gritting her way to the National 5000m title and, ultimately, onto a plane to Tokyo. The two-time Olympian across two different distances (1500m at Rio 2016, 5000m at Tokyo 2020) is forever a tough customer on the big stage, and whilst she is coming back from a hiatus after last year’s Olympics, she will not race for second.

One to watch will be the smooth-moving Amy Bunnage (Tim O’Shaughnessy). The Australian Under 20 representative has been prolific over 1500m and steps up to the open ranks here, with her true potential largely unknown after being raced conservatively. Her best of 9:19.00 looks almost certain to go, with the time not reflective of her immense talent.  

Also featuring in the race will be Melissa Duncan (Gavin Burren), who after coming back from a stint of racing in Japan for Team Shiseido (a Japanese skincare/make-up brand) is looking for another successful chapter in her Australian running career. Placing third at this event last season (in a Personal Best of 8:55.61), she has run well across the 1500m this season and will look to match it with the front pack.

Natalie Rule (Tim O’Shaughnessy) split 9:07 through 3000m at Tuesday’s Box Hill Burn when glued to the back of Rose Davies - enough to suggest she can be a major player in this encounter. Rule is yet to piece together a performance on the track that demonstrates just how good she is, but could Saturday night could be her night?

Cara Feain-Ryan (Ben Norton) and Brielle Erbacher (Jody Erbacher) – the fourth and fifth-ranked steeplechasers in Australia last season – will be out to make their first Australian team this year and get the pointy end of their season off to a great start without the barriers this weekend. The Sydney University & twin-sister duo of Holly Campbell (Jeremy Roff, 4:13.99 1500m last weekend) & Paige Campbell (Philo Saunders, 4:46 Road Mile last week) are also showing good form so far this season, and will want to continue that on their home track on Saturday.

Men’s 3000m (8:44pm AEST):
2021 Champion – Jack Bruce, QLD (7:51.81)

The final event of the Sydney Track Classic is set to be a tantalising National Final, with an incredible range of athletes competing for the 7.5-lap title. We got a glimpse of many in this weekend’s field in the 5000m Adelaide Invitational – an exciting race with ten athletes within ten seconds, and ultimately Sam McEntee winning – but some exciting additions to the 3000m will take the race to a whole new level.

The Canberra-based hometown hopefuls, Jye Edwards (Dick Telford) and Rorey Hunter (Dick Telford) will both make their highly anticipated returns to the track this weekend. After both having breakout seasons across 2020/2021, it was Jye Edwards who was simply unstoppable in his incredible domestic run to the Olympics, culminating in arguably the greatest 1500m National Final ever as he defeated Stewart McSweyn (Nic Bideau) and registered an Olympic Qualifier within the space of three-and-a-half minutes - his teammate Hunter just behind to win bronze. The Telford talents will look to recreate some of that superb 2021 form again as they hope to open their season with more National medals.

Coming back to Australia from a successful indoor season in the U.S. is Cameron Griffith (Joan Hunter) who recently dropped a 7:47.18 Personal Best in Boston. The US-based Australian will look to impress outdoors and show his development as a versatile athlete.

And if we can read much into the 5000m at the Adelaide Invitational, this weekend is going to be a tight one. Sam McEntee (Nic Bideau), Jack Bruce (Nic Bideau), Joel Tobin-White (Nic Bideau) and Isaac Heyne (Adam Didyk) all went sub-13:40, and all within four seconds of one another. The incredible junior-turned-open athlete Jude Thomas (Collis Birmingham), who broke Ryan Gregson’s 12-year Australian U20 Record at this Championship last year (7:52.11), was just a few seconds adrift. Bruce is the defending Champion for this event, but he’s going to have to fend off many an attack to go back-to-back in 2022.

With the likes of Tokyo Steeplechase Olympians Matthew Clarke (Adam Didyk), and Japanese visitor Kosei Yamaguchi (sub-8:20 Steeplechaser) thrown into the mix, it’s anyone’s guess as to who may come out on top in the “equalizer” event that is the 3000m.

Will it be the youth of Thomas? Will it be the return of Edwards? Or Bruce to win again? Whatever the result, what a race this one will be, and a fitting finale to another high-octane edition of the Sydney Track Classic.

By James Constantine and Lachlan Moorhouse for Athletics Australia and Athletics NSW
Posted: 11/3/2022