Men 1 Mile Australian Championship Albie Thomas Mile
The 16 man field was reduced to 13 when three athletes did not start including Northmen Luke Boyes. I am sure that the men who contested the B race would have been interested in a promotion as the Top six all finishing quicker than the Championship winner (4:10.56) and twelve men all finishing quicker than the last placed A race athlete (4:15.14). Race organisers would have loved to see another sub 4 minute mile and some food for thought to perhaps offer a cash incentive for the fastest athlete on the night a change up for those in the lower ranked races, otherwise we could see some false seed times being captured in future events.
Women 1 Mile Australian Championship Albie Thomas Mile
Carley Thomas was the quickest off the line in 1.86 seconds across the camera and led through the first lap when Georgia Winkcup responded to the youngster Eliza Lawton in the second lap increasing the pace from 1:16 to 1:09. Hollingsworth class from 800 to the Mile shown through taking the Title in 4:36.53 with Carley sixth (4:40.07) and Winks seventh (4:42.71) 4 seconds off her 2021 performance when the event was scheduled in December.
PRE-SESSION
Jasper Scamps-Magro (4:11.64), Alessio Parisi (4:33.36) and Alexander Kraszewski-Francia (5:03.20) relegated Brad Sharpe to fourth position on the Club Rankings for the Mile. Something the association perhaps needs to review as there are two published State Mile Championships on the ANSW Calendar (Wollongong - January) and a comment that was repeated a few times on the livestream that the Albie Thomas meet is considered the Australian Mile Championships.
800
The Mens 800m A Race saw longtime northman and now usyd athlete Jye Perrott kick for home with 200m to go and that did surprise the pack but was matched by Byron Bay Runner and WU20 rep Daniel Williams who almost took down Peter Bol in Adelaide last week. The top 2 were able to negative split with Norths Mason Cohen (1:49.43) taking the last podium position having been DQ'd and then reinstated for an infringement. Ashton Hanna continued his low 1:50 performances with the third clubmen Luke Murphy going down on the bell after having his heels clipped.
The Womens 800m A Race looked like a formality for Abbey Caldwell as she too also kicked with 200m to go and no response from the rest of the pack as Victorians took all the podium positions with Matilda Ryan (2:04.45) in fifth and only her second sub 2:05 (Zatopek - Dec 2024) of her career and Fleur Cooper (2:06.54) in sixth chasing her WU20 season best of 2:05.14 (Aug 2024).
The commentary on the livestream for the main session suggested there was some good cash on offer and that may have changed the strategy or race execution for some of the athletes and hence the times were slower than predicted in what was described as great running conditions for a Thursday evening.
Matt North went quicker in his pursuit of going Sub 2:00 again in his C race performance and junior athlete Alexandra Bova (2:19.09) also went better than her previous visit to the Crest during the Milers Club meets.
Supporting Events
Ethan Mckenzie won the Open Men 5000m in 15:02.74 and 7 seconds slower than his NSW 5K Champs performance. He will be able to compare his lap splits on the Live Results as the ANSW Photofinish team recorded every athletes lap times. Small things that mean a lot and can help athletes review their race and consult with coaches on possible training changes or race execution.
In a surprising twist there were also Field events on offer, given there are so many distance athletes doing warm ups in all directions on the track and infield, William Lyne was able to win and go a little further than his opening competition last week only throwing two of the six attempts for 56.27m. William is the Grandson of Life Member George Lyne. The ever smiling Joey Ryu finished second with a 30cm higher Vault than his 2024 World Athletics Ranking confirmed and a good season opener.
Live Results
