20 at hl e t ic s
20 at hl e t ic s
jeremy roff won the albie thomas mile breaking the magical 4 minute banner.
three or four strides he had the lead and then continued his celebrations- much to the delight of the crowd. The question remains whether the crowd was there for an athletics meet or to see a celebrity? Then again, does it really matter? The feature event of the night was the‘ Gatorade Bolt’ which despite the absence of Usain Bolt was the most eagerly anticipated event of the evening. Wallabies winger, Lachie Turner, showed up league’ s fastest men to take out the event in 11.10 seconds. Jarryd Hayne couldn’ t live up to his Nike body suit and pre race expectations running 11.20 to finish in third. The underwhelming results of the Rugby League players perhaps highlights the fish bowl mentality of the NRL- the men who are often praised as the most athletic men in Australian sport all, except for Turner, fell short of Melinda Gainsford-Taylor’ s Australian record- for women- of 11.12 seconds. The Albie Thomas Mile provided Commonwealth Games bound Jeremy Roff to blow out the cobwebs and fine tune his commonwealth
Games preparation. Roff Participated in what was more or less a time trial. Training partner Dave Byrne took Jeremy to 600m in 1:27, before James Nipperess took over pace making duties, when Byrne stepped off the track, leading Roff to the bell in 3.01. Roff was able to lift over the final 400m in cold and blustery conditions to finish in 3:59.79- a good run in tough conditions.“ The race was toughconditions aren’ t great but it was just awesome to be a part of this event. I can honestly say that’ s the first time I’ ve rocked up to the track in a limo,” said Roff. Perhaps the most outstanding performance of the night came in the David Baxter Memorial 100m. 16 year old Youth Olympic Games 110m hurdles champion, Nicholas Hough, showed his class to record 10.63 into a 0.6 m / s headwind against older and more experienced comepitition.