It seems in track and field as in life, and Aussie weather for that matter, that when it rains, it pours.
Last night at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, a brand new name entered the world of 1500m Olympic hopefuls when Canberra's Jye Edwards stormed home and raced away to win the Melbourne Track Classic 1500m in stunning fashion.
He missed Olympic qualifying by a couple of seconds, but the manner he performed the task and did so without a pacemaker of note to help him, was both commendable and indicative of things to come.
"I felt great and am just ready to run fast," he said upon pulling up. "Next Thursday we can give that Olympic qualifying time a real crack, but man is it crowded up there for selection now.
"I doubt Australia has ever had this many men in the 1500m all running this fast."
Indeed. And to be honest, probably only the global force in this event that is Kenya can boast the depth of talent currently that Australia has. It really is quite astonishing.
Edwards last night ran 3.39. With someone to drag the field through the first 1000m in say 2.21, he would have pretty much run the Olympic qualifying time of 3.35, a time already achieved by three Aussie athletes including Oli Hoare who shocked the world when he ran 3.32 indoors in New York a month ago.
https://twitter.com/OceaniaAths/status/1360719363326713860?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThat night he had pacemakers and men determined to run a time. The 23-year-old Edwards did not, coming from behind the leaders in a tactical race adding more merit to his performance.
Stewart McSweyne (3:31) and Matt Ramsden (3:34) are the other two to have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in this event.
Australia can take only three, and here's where life gets tricky.
The winner of the Australian Championship, on in a couple of weeks, is automatically selected to the team should he run the 3:35 qualifying time. Meaning, if Edwards can jag a win at the Nationals, in 3.35 or better he goes. And Hoare is NOT competing at the Nationals.
"I know the equation and this race next Thursday is going to tell a lot about where everyone is at," said Edwards who has been invited to run in that 1500m at Box Hill, a sanctioned 1500m, where all runners will be aiming for the qualifying time.
There will be a pacemaker and this is going to be a super hot field which will include not just Edwards, but also McSweyne and Ramsden and our previous 1500m Australian representative Ryan Gregson.
But not Hoare who is in the United States.
This is the benchmark race of the year.
Last night in the women's 1500m, Gregson's gifted wife Genevieve Gregson, ran a stunning tactical race to record her 2nd fastest 1500m time ever. She stopped the clock in 4.10.
This isn't her event and she is already on the plane for Tokyo, where she will go as the track and field team's captain.
Her event is the 3000m steeplechase and even though she'd like to double at Tokyo, she can't. "The scheduling of the races doesn't allow for the 1500m and the 3000m steeplechase to be run by the one person. But saying that, to run this fast over 1500m is a great sign as to where I'm at and I am very happy with that effort."
So she should be.
She sat behind the speed, and played that cat and mouse game before unleashing a powerful finishing burst from the 150m mark home, racing away and missing her lifetime PB by just 1 second.
She runs in Brisbane on Saturday night in the final Track Classic of the year before the Nationals, in her pet race and she should dominate it.
World class sprinter Bendere Oboya kept her amazing win streak against Australian women going, winning the 400m last night in a sluggish 53.04sec, but that wasn't surprising as she went out hoping to run a world leading first 300m and there wasn't too much left in her legs over the last 50m. Two weeks ago she ran 51.61sec which ranks her in the top three in the world on performances played out this far this year.
"I did feel very heavy-legged in the run home but I'll go to Brisbane now and run another race on Saturday. I just need and want to compete as much as possible because as an athlete you just improve more when competing," she reasoned.
One of the biggest runs of the night by dint of world standards was performed by 400m hurdler, Chris Douglas who clocked a stand-up-and-take-notice time of 49.70sec.
It wasn't an automatic Olympic qualifying, which is 48.90sec, but when looked at in perspective, he is closer to a podium spot at the Games than others who have qualified in other events.
And he looks likely to go faster as the track wasn't conducive to super fast times last night.
In the field, Commonwealth Games silver medallist for Australia, Matt Denny, made his return to completion after some time off with horror injuries recording a win in the discuss. He needs a 66m heave to make the team and last night he threw 60.56m which shows he is close to the mark.
The action heads to Brisbane on Saturday night and it has attracted basically all the very, very best Aussie athletes who are all keen to peak at that meet and the Nationals.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/news/athletics-1500m-olympic-qualification-close-for-jye-edwards/52bbd5a4-34a7-4af4-ae8b-6563e20c4fb9
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