Ramsden takes world lead as McDermott claims dual wins

By David Tarbotton for Athletics Australia

Our small group of Aussies in Europe competed in four meets across the last five days.

A week after she cleared 1.98m in Germany, high jumper Nicola McDermott took two wins in three days in Belgium. In Brussels, she won her first-ever Diamond League event clearing 1.91m, followed but a comfortable victory at Heusden-Zolder, where she cleared 1.96m, ahead of two attempts at two metres.

Last Saturday in the northern Italian city of Milan, Perth’s Matthew Ramsden snatched the World mile lead from compatriot, Ollie Hoare, to post a very impressive winning time of 3:51.23. The mark was a two-second PB and elevated him to third-fastest Australian in history. It also earned him squad bragging rights, as he now sits higher on the Australian rankings list than national 1500m record-holders, Stewart McSweyn (indoors) and Ryan Gregson (outdoors). Third in the race was Ryan Gregson, registering a time of 3:52.38, fractionally outside his own PB and a time only five other Aussies have bettered. Despite ‘only’ passing the 1500m mark in 3:36.0, Ramsden’s time is likely equal to well under 3:35 for 1500m.

Four days later, Ramsden and Gregson were joined by Nic Bideau squad mates Stewart McSweyn and Gen Gregson at the World Challenge meet in Ostrava in the Check Republic. Competing in the 1500m, McSweyn was a close third to the winner, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, in a time of 3:34.25. Less than a second behind in sixth, Matthew Ramsden recorded a PB 3:35.23, just holding off Ryan Gregson 3:35.74. For Ramsden, it was his fourth PB in five races over the last 20 days.

Rio Olympic finalist, Gen Gregson continued to impressive with a good 5000m time of 15:24.33 for ninth place.