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Hoffa’s 21.08m heave the highlight in Hobart - IAAF

Published by
Matt Scherer   Feb 20th 2011, 7:10pm
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Hobart, Australia - Reese Hoffa was billed as the star of the Briggs Athletics Classic in Hobart, and the big American did not let anyone down, producing an all-comers’ record in the Shot Put and providing the competitive stimulus to push emerging Australian thrower Dale Stevenson past the 20-metre line.

Blustery winds blowing across Hobart’s Domain track reduced many other events to seeming mediocrity, but it takes a very ill wind indeed to blow a 133-kilogram giant and a 7.25 kilogram steel ball off course.

After Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Stevenson had got the competition under way with a 20.05m effort in round one – his first throw over 20 metres after two competitions at 19.99m – Hoffa responded with a 21.08m. That effort added 65 centimetres to the Tasmanian all-comers’ mark set by Scott Martin in 2007.

“It took me while to get rolling,” said Hoffa. “I knew I had the power but the technique took some time.”

Stevenson was delighted to get past 20 metres and now sets his sights on the world championships A-standard of 20.50m.

“I’m just stoked to hit (20 metres),” he said. “It’s a bit of a benchmark in our event and hopefully that world championships qualifier is not too far away.”

Sally Pearson’s times of 11.57 (-1.3) and 23.60 (-0.4) to take the women’s sprint double may not have looked much against her results in much more performance-friendly conditions in Brisbane the previous week, but her margin of victory over Charlotte van Veenendal was almost exactly the same.

Weather is always in the lap of the gods, but Pearson will be looking for better conditions as she moves on to Melbourne (the opening meeting of the IAAF world challenge on 3 March) and Sydney (19 March) for her next two competitions.

Riseley, Lewis defy young challengers

The middle-distances saw the return of 2009 World Championships semi-finalist Jeff Riseley from injury with a dominant win in the men’s 1500m and of Tamsyn Lewis to her flagship event to win the women’s 800m.

At 24, Riseley is hardly in the veteran class yet, but the continued emergence of Ryan Gregson last year underlined that rapid progress in the middle distances can come at an early age.

In Hobart, returning from the foot injury which terminated his Commonwealth Games campaign, Riseley squared off against several younger rivals and got the best of them all. His strong finish took him to a 3:44.44 victory, two seconds clear of 20-year-old James Kaan, a finalist in the 2008 World Junior Championships 800m, and Brett Robinson, 19, the impressive winner of the U20 de Castella 3000 at the Zatopek Classic in December.

Nick Symmonds of the USA, in Australia training and competing with the OTC Elite group, was the next finisher. Not much more than a stride covered second, third and fourth, but Riseley’s finish carried him almost 15 metres clear.

“It’s my first race since missing most of last year with injury, so I just wanted to get to the front and take out the other runners,” said Riseley.

Lewis has stayed away from the 800 metres of recent times, the distance at which she won the 2008 world indoor title and has had most success outdoors. She abandoned her usual front-running tactics and was sitting mid-pack at the bell, but the 32-year-old veteran looked more comfortable than the times suggest in holding off 21-year-old Kelly Hetherington, 2:04.32 to 2:04.38.

Youth Olympic champ Hough upsets Davies

Like Pearson, Matt Davies was also going for two out of two sprint doubles on the Australian Athletics Tour. He duly won the 100m, too, in 10.75, but his hopes had already been dashed by a loss in the 200m earlier in the meeting.

Facing the worst of the conditions – a 2.7 metres per second headwind in the main straight – Davies was outrun 21.68 to 21.73 by 17-year-old Nicholas Hough.

Sprinter/hurdler Hough did not go to last year’s IAAF World Junior Championships but he won the 110m Hurdles at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, running 13.37 over the 91.4cm barriers.

“That was quite amazing,” Hough said. “I was up against some really good senior sprinters. I didn’t think I stood a chance.

“This is probably my biggest event aside from the Youth Olympics. I’m real excited.”

In the women’s 400m Hurdles, Commonwealth Games fourth placegetter defied the windy conditions to produce a winning 56.71 seconds run.

Frayne near 17m barrier

Henry Frayne maintained his good form in the horizontal jumps, though once again he fell centimetres short of a significant barrier. Having won the long jump in Brisbane with 7.98m he turned to his favourite Triple Jump in Hobart and produced a 16.91m victory over Alwyn Jones.

“Fingers crossed there are bigger things to come,” said Frayne. “I’ve sort of hit a plateau these past few years and I hope that might change this year.”

The Australian Athletics Tour now moves on to Melbourne for the opening meeting in the IAAF World Challenge on 3 March. The 2010 athlete of the year, David Rudisha, heads the list of international competitors.

Len Johnson for the IAAF

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