PREVIEW | Melbourne Track Classic

The stage is set for a big night of athletics at Lakeside Stadium for the Melbourne Track Classic, headlined by Olympic medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber and a host of rapid juniors ready to throw down the gauntlet in the sprints.  To purchase tickets for Chemist Warehouse Melbourne Track Classic click here

Javelin:

Olympic bronze medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber (Mike Barber) is ready to open her season at the Melbourne Track Classic as she begins her world title defence, after winning gold at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Barber warmed into her season after a slow start in 2021, hitting her straps when throwing 64.56m in the Olympic final to win bronze. The reigning world champion recently moved to Queensland and has been training at that the Queensland Academy of Sport, with the double incentive of the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games awaiting in 2022.

Fellow Olympian Mackenzie Little (Angus McEntyre) threw a personal best of 62.37m in qualifying at Tokyo, with the 25-year-old becoming an Olympic finalist on debut. Throwing for the first time in 2022, Little launched the 600g implement 56.56m in February to kick-start her year – set to build on that performance in Melbourne.

Australian Under 20 representative Mackenzie Mielczarek (Steve Cain) will take to her home track as she looks to bridge the gap to the nation’s premier javelin throwers, with her personal best of 54.91m at 19-years-old a strong foundation.

The last time we saw Michal Burian (Nick Baltas) was at his first Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Not only did he wear his adoptive country's colours for the first time, he proved his pride for the country when he threw 66.29m to claim the F44 world record in the javelin. The Melbourne Track Classic will be his season opener as he builds towards the 2023 Paris World Para Athletics Championships.

Men’s 200m (Peter Norman Memorial): 

Youthful exuberance will be on show in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m, headlined by the rapid junior pair of Aidan Murphy (Peter Fitzgerald) and Calab Law (Andrew Iselin).

Murphy shattered Fred Martin’s Australian Under 20 record when recording a blistering 20.41 (-1.3) last month, whilst Law laid down a scorching 20.67 (+0.3) two weeks ago – cementing the juniors as the two fastest 200m-men in the country this year.

Alex Hartmann (Travis Venema) holds a season’s best of 20.73, whilst 21-year-old Jake Doran (Paul di Bella) has gone 20.85. Victorian champion Dhruv Rodriguez-Chico (Tom Morehouse) and Michael Romanin (John Nicolosi) add depth to a strong field, whilst 18-year-old Cooper Sherman (Neville Down) will be out to better his career best 21.11 from December.

Tokyo Olympian Jun Yamashita (Japan) rounds out the Peter Norman Memorial 200m.

Women’s 200m: _­

Ella Connolly (Mark Ladbrook) has proven to be the woman to beat this year having won 17 of her 18 races, and after a scorching 22.95 personal best over this distance at the Queensland State Championships – she will be hard to beat here.

Connolly says she is one and done when it comes to the 400m after her dazzling 52.22 at the Sydney Track Classic, ready to reap the rewards of her strength work when dropping back down to 200m on Saturday.

Main challengers come in the form of fellow Queenslanders Bree Masters (Ryan Hoffman) and 17-year-old Torrie Lewis (Gerrard Keatign), along with Kristie Edwards (David Reid) and Monique Quirk (Mark Ladbrook).

Masters has consistently found her way on the podium in 2022, whilst Lewis continues to improve at a rate of knots en route to this year’s World Athletics Under 20 Championships in Colombia – both athletes also prominent in 4x100m relay team discussions.

The Victorian duo of Nana Owusu-Afriyie (Tony Marsh) and Mia Gross (John Nicolosi) round out the field, along with New Zealand’s Rosie Elliot.

Women's Long Jump:

Two young guns headline the action in a competitive women’s long jump field, coming in the form of 20-year-old Samantha Dale (Andrew Murphy) and 19-year-old Tomysha Clark (Renee Clark).

Dale leapt a stunning 6.70m earlier this month to progress to number seven on the Australian all-time list, having previously been ranked at number 45 prior to the 38cm personal best. The performance launches Dale into national team conversations, with the qualifying standard for this year’s World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games standing at 6.82m – a mark that is not out of the question.

Clark jumped a personal best of 6.49m on the Gold Coast in 2021 as part of being selected to represent Australia at the World Athletics Under 20 Championships, returning in 2022 to win at the New South Wales State Championships with a leap of 6.34m. The teenager looks ready to continue her steady progress this year as she looks to join Dale and Brooke Stratton in the upper echelon of the event within Australia.

The youthful field includes the likes of Annie McGuire (Gary Bourne) and Brittany Carroll (Larry Spencer).

Men's Long Jump:

Christopher Mitrevski (John Boas) has been in scintillating form to begin his 2022 campaign, reaping an equal personal best of 8.05m in the long jump, along with a 10.27 best over 100m – results that suggest the 25-year-old is about to take proceedings to another level.

Mitrevski will come up against 22-year-old Queenslander Zane Branco (David Reid) who has registered three consistent competitions so far this year, possessing a season’s best of 7.84m. The mark doubles as a personal best for the versatile Branco, with both men entering the Melbourne Track Classic bout in career-best form.

Oscar Miers (Gary Bourne) will be swapping the mat for the sand after competing in the high jump at the Sydney Track Classic, switching to the long jump in Melbourne off the back of a 7.84m clearance earlier this year. Miers adds another layer to what is set to be a quality event – serving as a prelude to the Australian Track and Field Championships which begin on March 26.

Also in the long jump will Nic Hum (John Boas) competing in his first long jump competition since claiming a breakthrough bronze at the Paralympic Games last year. Hum jumped an area record of 7.12m, and although he does not have a major championships to aim for this year, he'll be using this meet as building blocks ahead of the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris.  

John Landy Memorial Mile:

The first edition of the John Landy Memorial Mile is set to be held at this weekend’s Melbourne Track Classic, with Rorey Hunter (Dick Telford) and Callum Davies (Collis Birmingham) prominent names in the field.

Hunter opened his season with a swift 7:47.66 run to finish in fourth place of the national 3000m bout at the Sydney Track Classic, enough to suggest that that the 29-year-old is ready to fire in what is traditionally his best event. Hunter has won a medal in this event at the last three national championships, with the feat a credit to his craft and class.

Davies has been lightly raced this year but his 3:43.47 win at the Queensland State Championships saw him unleash a punishing finish, one that he will be looking to repeat here in Melbourne in the presence of more esteemed company. The 22-year-old who owns a 3:38.89 personal best looks primed to take things up a notch in 2022, and this could be the first step.

Junior duo Thomas Diamond (Stephen Ellinghaus) and Cameron Myers (Philo Saunders) are flying this season and look capable of running well under their personal best marks of 3:47.86 and 3:46.30 respectively as they stake their claim for the World Athletics Under 20 Championships in Colombia.

Women's 1500m:

Abbey Caldwell (Gavin Burren) and Claudia Hollingsworth (Craig Mottram) have proven their class on the domestic scene yet have never raced head-to-head over 1500m, with this the first encounter which could them close to, if not under, the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games standard of 4:04.20.

Caldwell went agonisingly close that mark when running 4:04.79 at the New South Wales Milers Series, on that occasion being paced through 800m before launching an assault over the final 700m to demolish her personal best.

The 16-year-old Hollingsworth holds a personal best of 4:12.13 but is undoubtedly capable of better, yet to really test the clock due to focussing purely on winning. Hollingsworth has raced strongly over distances ranging from 400m-1500m this season, and looms as one of the brightest junior prospects of the current Australian crop.

Natalie Rule (Tim O’Shaughnessy) produced a breakthrough run to finish second in last week’s national 3000m final, whilst teammate Amy Bunnage (Tim O’Shaughnessy) is another junior on the rise, with her 4:14.62 personal best likely to place her near the pointy end of this encounter.

Women's 3000m Steeplechase:

At the Adelaide Invitational it was Cara Feain-Ryan (Ben Norton) who stamped her authority on the women’s 3000m steeplechase within the domestic scene, with the smooth-mover clocking 9:45.14 en route to victory on that occasion – a tidy season opener.

Feain-Ryan finished in seventh place of the national 3000m final at the Sydney Track Classic and is set to return to her pet event in Melbourne, where she will be looking to close in on her personal best of 9:36.35 ahead of the national championships.  

Brielle Erbacher (Jody Erbacher) posed the biggest threat to Feain-Ryan in Adelaide when finishing in second place with a time of 9:48.14, with the Queensland duo leading the charge in the event. Erbacher is certainly one to watch in 2022 after making significant progress in 2021.  

Tokyo Olympian Georgia Winkcup (Ben Liddy) will be out to improve on her 10:03.87 from Adelaide.

Women’s 100m:

Celeste Mucci (Darren Clark) backed up her 13.02 in the 100m hurdles with a swift 11.53 run over 100m to round out a slick double at the Sydney Track Classic, and approaching this affair fresh – she will be hard to beat.

Mucci will have to hold off Nana Owusu Afriyie (Tony Marsh) and Ebony Lane (Matt Carter) if she is to take the victory, with Lane returning from injury and Owusu Afriyie progressing throughout the season.

A fleet of fast-footed juniors will be hot on their heels, lead by Hayley Reynolds (Andrew Lulham) who holds a season’s best of 11.63. Olivia Matzer (Brett Robinson) and Taylah Cruttenden (Brayden Clarke) will also fly down the straight after a week in Melbourne on Athletics Australia’s sprints and relay camp – eager to draw first blood ahead of the national championships.

Georgia Harris (Paul Pearce), Jordi McMillan (David McMillan) and Aleksander Stoilova (Dan Suchy) round out the field, with all six juniors having already qualified for the 2022 World Athletics Under 20 Championships.

Men’s 100m:

Once again, Australia’s fastest men will be chasing Eddie Osei-Nketia (New Zealand).

Jack Hale (Adam Larcom) finished behind Rohan Browning and Osei-Nketia in Adelaide, and finished second behind the Kiwi in Sydney – leading the charge for the Australian men in Browning’s absence. With a season’s best of 10.26, Hale will be eager to take more scalps to bolster the confidence ahead of the national championships.

Jake Penny (Mandi Cole) makes his season debut on the national stage after a breakthrough season in 2021, whilst 20-year-old Tasmanian Jagga Pybus (Wayne Mason) gets his chance after clocking 10.43 last month.

Jacob Despard (Rolf Ohman), Alex Hartmann (Travis Venema), Josh Azzopardi (Rob Marks) and Will Roberts (Fred Martin) have all run in the 10.3-range this season and will be competitive in this battle down the straight.

Men’s 800m:

Jack Lunn (Steve Fabris) will fly the flag for Australia when he comes up against James Preston (New Zealand), Mituko Kaneko (Japan) and Jared Micallef (Malta) in the men’s 800m.

Lunn has been a model of consistency in the 1:47-range but will be eager to return to his 1:46.71 best, getting his chance to snare a rare victory in the absence of Peter Bol who has unsurprisingly dominated the domestic scene.

Dylan Stenson (Justin Rinaldi) stakes a claim as the next best Australian hopeful, along with Jye Perrott (Ben Liddy) who has been granted a promotion after finishing fourth in the 800m B race at the Sydney Track Classic.  

Preston set a new personal best of 1:46.25 in Sydney, making him the deserved man to beat here.

To purchase tickets for Chemist Warehouse Melbourne Track Classic click here

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 17/03/2022