Lesley Weston

Melbourne Track Classic

// March 6th, 2009 // Track and Field

Last night’s Melbourne Track Classic was a strong start to the Track and Field season. The weather was chilly, with spurts of rain during the evening. Obviously not exactly conducive to seeing record breaking performances and personal bests.

Steve Hooker jumped strong, at 5.80m. He missed 3 times at 6.0m, but still a good effort.

The lovely Asafa Powell also ran at the meet, finishing the 100m in 10.23 secs. During his after-race interview he said (in that likeable Jamaican accent) that the headwind played a factor in his “slow” time. I for one was not disappointed in seeing the race over in a “slow” 10.23 seconds.

Nesta Carter, also of Jamaica finished 2nd in the 100m with 10.42 secs. Rouge-Serret came 4th in the 100m, and a close 2nd to the X-man Xavier Carter in the 200m, which was quite exciting for the young Aussie. In the announcer’s words “Rouge-Serret’s future is so bright, he has to wear sunglasses”.

Collis Birmingham put up a personal best of 5 seconds in the 5000m with a time of 13:16.26 and finished off the race forcefully.

USA’s David Oliver easily won the 110m hurdles. But this wasn’t the most exciting thing he did during the meet. In Oliver’s after-race interview he was coaxed to take off his top for all of the ladies in the crowd. Let’s just say, the crowd were pleased!

Crowd favourite Sally McLellan ran both the 100m hurdles and the 100m sprint at the meet, and won both, but was pushed by Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton in the hurdles, winning with 13.06 secs just .05 of a second faster than her competitor. Tamsyn Lewis ran a solid 400m in 51.86secs.

During the evening, Dj Grant Smilie played some tunes in between events, and during the Pole Vault to rev up the athletes. It was definitely a welcome change from Athletics Victoria, and I found it hard to stay in my seat!

I will be uploaded my photos from the Track meet asap! Come back later to check them out.