RUDISHA, LAGAT WIN IN MELBOURNE
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

The global track season opened today in Melbourne, Australia, and David Rudisha and Bernard Lagat started their long outdoor campaigns with victories at the Melbourne Track Classic, part of the IAAF's World Athletics Challenge series.

Rudisha, the Kenyan who twice broke the 800m world record last year, won his specialty in a solid 1:43.88, beating American Nick Symmonds (1:45.09) and Australia's Lachlan Renshaw (1:45.66). 

"Tonight was good," Rudisha told Athletics Australia.  "I've run 1:43 for the first time this season and that's a great start to the year."

Lagat, who won the USA indoor 3000m title last weekend in Albuquerque, shook off his jet lag quickly, running a stadium record 13:08.43.  As it often has, Lagat's superior sprint speed in the final 100m made the difference, giving him a good final cushion ahead of Australian Ben St. Lawrence (13:10.08 PB) and American Chris Solinsky (13:10.22).  Thirteen men broke 14 minutes, including Americans Matt Tegankamp (13:16.27) and Andrew Bumbalough (13:16.77 PB), and Australia's Craig Mottram (13:25.15), who filled out the rest of the top-6.

"In such a strong field I knew it was going to be tough tonight," Lagat told Athletics Australia.  "But, that competition has pushed me to my fastest result at this time in the season ever and that's a result worth talking about," Lagat said.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Australia's Jeff Risley upset Kenya's Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop in the 1500m, 3:36.71 to 3:37.63.  American Alan Webb was third (3:37.82), and his former University of Michigan teammate Nick Willis of New Zealand was fourth (3:38.76).

In the women's competition, Jamaica's Kenia Sinclair ran the first sub-2:00 performance for 800m this season (1:59.63), and Britain's Jemma Simpson won the 1500m (4:08.49).

The next competition in the IAAF World Challenge series will be the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston, on 07-May.  However, many of the athletes who ran in Melbourne tonight will also compete in Sydney in the Sydney Track Classic, the fourth of the five-stop of the Australia Athletics Tour, on 19 March (the Melbourne meeting is also part of this tour).