I felt like I lived a few lives this week. There were Australian records, an Aussie won the bloody Cheese wheel rolling competition, the marathon selections happened eventually and then a kajillion domestic athletes raced at Launceston and Lakeside. Read one of the biggest issues ever (you might need to open it in your browser to see it all) for some results, some opinions and some subtle humour of course. Enjoy.
FTK
#100. Live Show! The boys celebrated their century of podcasting with a live show in front of 80 guests. Chances are you weren’t there and also listened back to it later in the week with a bit of FOMO about kiwi fruit, chickens and calf talk. Joel and Brett’s predictions for Launny were a little wrong in the end but their Q & A responses were a little better. Read a study on how kiwi fruits impact on sleep here.
#101. Isaac Heyne. Brett recorded from London after a week of 135km’s including his win at Launceston while Joel was up in Armidale of all places. As to be expected, Joel was pretty disappointed with his race but at least he’s not injured. One of the nicest guys in running, Isaac Heyne, featured as a guest to take the heat off Joel and shared his running origin story that hopefully Brett thought was worthy of discussion. Here’s the Instagram page Isaac referred to where he’s currently letting his creative juices flow but there’s also some archive footage worth supporting here too…
Spiked Up
#13. The girls kicked off talking about their cankles, training highlights were Griffo’s 6*km (that 3000m in Oslo made sense after that session) and Rose’s 76 second 500m where she provided the following commentary…‘oh my god how am I going to finish this?... conserve… conserve… conserve… bricks in my shoes… sitting in a chair trying to run… 76 seconds…hardest last 100 of my life… all for a training effort! Sarah also outed Griffo as a serial bath user at 10 a week (and potentially the Aussie Record holder in that too).
#14. Griffo returned off the back of her 13 second PB and NR at Oslo to dissect the race with pacemaker Sarah and 4 second PB gal Rose. Sarah’s confession centred on the beef she developed at Jessheim when pacing in this race while Georgia’s flight habits were shamed by Rose. One NR holder does all the ‘wrong’ things on long flights, the other NR holder does all the ‘right’ things.
Live, Laugh, Love and Run
In a fortnight where pretty much everything happened Jack is lucky he has a spot on LLL&R or else there mightn’t have been room to cover his 2nd place and 27:44 from the Great Manchester Run 10k. Behind Jack were familiar names, Sondre Moen, Emile Cairess and newly selected Paris rep Pat Tiernan.
En Route to Paris
Weekly insight into how the three selected women’s marathoners are training in the lead up to the toughest Olympic Marathon in modern history? Yes please! Gen returns to our ears for the third time in as many marathon campaigns while Sinead will be able to tell her side of the treadmill mind games. Jess Stenson will make sure that this isn’t an East Coast dominated storyline and has the newest child across the three mothers so I personally am fascinated to hear what type of character baby Ellie will play and whether Archer Gregson will reprise his poo-villain role.
Their first episode focused on covering off the ladies timeline of events over the last few weeks including some of the technicalities that limited their sharing of the process. An interesting listen no matter what your opinion of the situation.
Listening to descriptions of the conditions in Launceston last weekend I instantly thought of the East Compton Clover’s famous fictional Cheerleading routine from Bring it On. Remember the part where they say ‘slow it down’? Yeah, well, that’s what the half marathon runners did on Sunday.
Five men under 65 is still pretty good going in the end but these men are certainly capable of something a little quicker in a little warmer conditions. Japanese-Kenyan James Rungaru was on the road to 2:06 as little as a few months ago so the Cocks boys were happy to claim his scalp. Despite the ‘slow’ comments by some post-race, Brett’s time of 63:12 was only one second off Ed Goddard’s winning time last year. Finally, Liam’s second place finish while great, would’ve been lost in the wash of the news that dropped on Wednesday with an updated Road to Paris website showing his name in bold inferring the WA boffins had worked out how to give him a spot in the Olympics. That news was confirmed on Thursday as Liam has been officially announced to be en route to Paris.
In the ladies half at Launny, Sinead Diver ran 72:10 in front of the in-form New South Welshman Abigail Nordberg by only 51 seconds. Milly Clark was third a few minutes back in 76:04 to claim the highest position by a Taswegian across the two major elite races.
I hate to do it but it’s the role of the media newsletter industry to point out some not so great performances and DNS’s. Reece Edwards 69:41 was best described by himself as ‘very very bad day’ while after receiving a pump-up last week it proved too be one half marathon too many in the space of a couple of months for South Aussie Tara Palm who DNS’ed after a late sore throat. I suppose you’re allowed to DNS after you’ve won three halves in a row in the build-up to Gold Coast, what’s a fourth half?
After the sun came up a bit more in Tasmania the 10km race got underway and Gen Gregson won the women’s race in 32:03 which was only 3 seconds off her WA listed PB! It would’ve been a handy $2,000 worth of pocket money despite falling short of a PB. Eloise Wellings was back about a minute or so and then the rest of the field paled in comparison to the depth in 2023’s event with only the top three under 35 minutes. The depth of women’s running in Australia was all at Lakeside instead for Athletics Victoria’s XCR event. 12 ladies there went under sub 35 with the winner Canada’s Andrea Seccafien sneaking home in 32:36, five seconds in front of former Aussie rep Melissa Duncan.
Peeking at the men’s result from Lakeside is worth a look for those interested in how packs affect race results. It’s clear that Dale Carroll (29:23) outlasted Ben Chamberlin (29:27) in the two-man lead pack late in the race. 15 seconds back was a pack of five including Andy Buchanan. 20 seconds behind them was another group of eight who all missed out on going under 30 minutes by around 10-17 seconds.
Back to Launny to wrap it all up though where 13 men went under sub 30 (an improvement of 2 from 2023). Isaac Heyne (28:34) continued his return to form by finishing first in virtual dead-heat with Ed Marks (28:34). Shoutout to Dean Menzie who at the age of 36 and having been in the game for a fair while, notched a 10km PB of 30:04. Results like that keep those in the 30+ age bracket in the game.
So what did we learn then from the two events over the weekend? Well, firstly it can be bloody cold in Tasmania so just consider that if you want to fly down from sunny Queensland before racing in the half. Maybe the 10km option is smarter as it’ll feel less like Antarctica at 10am. However, if the plane runs out of fuel early and has to stop at Tullamarine there’s plenty of packs to jump in at Lakeside no matter what pace group you’re after. As for the cannibalisation of events with two premier 10km events on at the same time? Perhaps if you’re a Victorian by the likes of Ed Marks, Seth O’Donnell, Logan Janetzki or Luca Di Conza you might’ve been disappointed not to race in Lakeside for your club, but, with 2nd and 3rd finishes for Ed and Seth (and associated moolah) and a PB for Logey and Luca you can’t be too sad. Lock either event in for next year I say, and if you go to Tasmania, you can always use the ‘too cold for a PB’ excuse.
There were three Diamond League meets since Issue 32 and there are no more scheduled until after the June 30 World Athletics qualification period so we can all, once again, take a big breath and absorb what the f*** happened last fortnight. And what it means for the potential make-up of the Olympic team in the shorter events. Trigger warning, selector discretion will be needed.
1. The girls might be coming for Jess Hull but she’s back as the queen of the 1500m.
Jess Hull lost the 5000m record one weekend and claimed back her 1500m record the next with her 3:55 in Eugene. It was her second consecutive 2nd place finish in a DL meet and she followed it up with a 3rd place in Oslo’s 3000m event. That Oslo 3000m was the scene of Georgia Griffith’s 8:24 Australian Record and 1st place in the same race. Her cherry on top was her own 3rd place in the 1500m a few days later in Stockholm only 0.13 seconds off her PB.
When it comes to the Women’s 1500m selections for Paris, if you rewind back to the Australian Championships in April, it was Jess Hull, Georgia Griffith and then Linden Hall in the top 3. A few seconds back was Sarah Billings and her inflamed tonsils. Since that meet, regular readers would be aware of Sarah's dip under 4 minutes, however you mightn’t be aware that Linden Hall has also registered a 4:00, 4:01 and another 4:01 at her last three starts. Jess and Georgia would appear to be locks considering their top two finishes at the National Champs, but the selection for third isn’t so assured, especially if Sarah was to drop another 4:00 or similar.
2. The Bowerman Mile did not disappoint.
Josh Kerr got the win over Jakob Ingebritsen but more importantly from an Australian perspective, Olli Hoare notched an Olympic qualifier and an important head to head victory over Cam Myers who himself got one over some pretty handy Africans in Abel Kipsang and Lamecha Girma. The Men’s 1500m is shaping up to be just as spicy for selections as the Women’s 1500m. The one thing that might make things easier is if Stewy chooses to focus on the 5000m at Paris and leaves Adam Spencer, Cam Myers and Olli Hoare to fend off any late charge from Jesse Hunt. But hey, the 1500m/5000m double is do-able from the timetable of the Paris Olympics so Stewy might be reading this and saying ‘f*** you Fraser, I’m doing whatever event I get picked for’.
3. Does Catriona Bisset need to do anything more to confirm her spot?
Finishing fourth at the National Champs in April, Catriona might’ve been a little concerned in her position in the pecking order despite having the fastest qualifier (1:57) and being very competitive globally in 2023. Her last two races in the past fortnight have been two sub 2:00 performances with her 3rd place finish in Oslo a nice bonus.
The only person who might unseat her from going, with Abbey Caldwell and Claudia Hollingsworth already selected, is Claudia’s fellow On teammate, Bendere Oboyoa. But where and when will these On runners race again? Their new uniform dropped last week but apart from that it’s been all quiet on the emerald green front. I get the feeling that when they do launch overseas, Claudia and Bendere are not going to be wasting any time twiddling their thumbs… For anyone wondering if Claudia will throw her name into the 1500m mix I’d suggest simmering down your hopes as the 800m/1500m double is especially hard given the heats and finals in both. The same applies for the 1500m/5000m double for females because of the way the timetable works out which leads well into…
4. The 5000m/10000m girls are shaping up nicely.
If Jess Hull opts out of the 5000m spot she’s already qualified for then Rose, Lauren Ryan (2nd fastest Aussie this year) and Izzi Batt-Doyle are sitting in the box seats. Rose has her own spot thanks to her 14:41 and Izzi has position 26 in the quota (out of 42) at the time of writing so Lauren Ryan could hope that she either improves her quota spot above Izzi or runs the qualifying time (14:52) to take out the guesswork… oooorrrr prays that Jess Hull looks at the 1500m/5000m double and goes ‘yeah, nah, not for me’. As we get closer to the June 30th deadline I wonder if Lauren has sent any inquisitorial texts to Jess about her plans for Paris?
Lauren herself ran 15:03 at a fast Eugene race within the last fortnight and wasn’t particularly pleased reading between the lines of her Instagram reflection. Izzi meanwhile ran 30:23 over 10k in Madrid and broke my internet for a few minutes until I learnt that it was a downhill course. Still, to move your legs at NR pace for that long is probably the first step in aiming for a late 10km qualifier. Speaking of the 10km, the 5000m/10000m double is do-able and Sifan Hassan might be joining Lauren Ryan in that attempt. Plus Sifan will probably run the marathon as well. And carry the flag. Then joke and smile about why she chooses to do all these hard things…
5. Other Things You May or May Not Have Seen On The Track This Week
Jess Hull did beat Ellie St.Pierre for the second time this year at Eugene, a week or so after Ellie herself ran 14:34 over 5k for anyone following that battle since February.
Beatrice Chebet, who featured in Issue 22, ran a new Women’s 10,000m record of 28:54 at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in Eugene.
Jake Wightman, friend of the show and former World Champ, ran a 3:47 Mile PB in the Bowerman Mile. There were 5 PB’s in total in the race including Cam Myers who on one hand ran an National U/20 record but on the other hand, wasn’t blowing his horn about his performance. Looking forward to seeing what type of result he must be expecting of himself.
Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet ran 12:36 for the second fastest 5000m ever in a field where 13 men went under 13 minutes and there were 6 national records. Joshua Cheptegei, the current WR holder with 12:35, finished 9th in the same race. Do you reckon he was watching the big screen as Hagos finished?
Lastly, on the Norwegian front, in Oslo in front of home fans, Jakob Ingebritsen snuck home Superman style for first place in 3:29 in a 1500m where Olli ran 3:31 and Stewy finished further back in 3:38. The Norweigan’s other major homeboy of Karsten Warholm (400m Hurdles WR holder) did not replicate Jakob’s heroics and lost to Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos. And that’s the quota for field events/non-middle distance events reached for the next six issues.
There’s now only one more issue of The Blue Line to go before the qualifying period shuts. How much more will be added to the scripts in each of these events?
Now for the opinion piece about the Women’s Marathon selection. It’d be rude not to have something on it within this running focused newsletter. From where I do most of my running and writing, in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, I am afforded the luxury of sitting outside the at times ‘echo chambers’ that exist within running groups. Does it make what I have to say and think better? No, but it does allow me to have an outsider’s perspective at times and form my own views without influence as much as this is possible in our socially connected world these days. If you read the words ‘South Australia’ above and thought of the inherent bias towards any SA athletes, may I remind you of that Monty Python witch burning scene first before you put me on the cross. It’s also worth declaring a conflict of interest is present from my involvement with RunAsOne and Izzi Batt-Doyle. But again, Monty Python, witch burning, you get the point hopefully...
To the average punter on the street, you say the words ‘team’ and ‘selection’ in regards to sport and people immediately think of a team sport like AFL or cricket. Selection committees or panels make their decisions in those sports, A, B and C get picked and D gets dropped from that week’s team based on form or match-ups. Sorry mate, you’re in the reserves this week. D might feel aggrieved or hard done by but is unfortunately left with no option but to just train harder and prove the selectors wrong. Supporters of the team either congratulate or berate the selection committee on social media. It happens every week for the team I follow (Essendon that is if you were wondering, who are currently 2nd…) and will continue to.
It’s an accepted process that works for team sports because they are subjective. The marathon is also a subjective sport. Don’t be fooled by the clock. If someone wins a race through running solo the whole way they are congratulated more than someone who runs the same time and finishes 10th in another race. The times are the same but the races are clearly not. Similarly if you run 2:10 on a course with 1000m of elevation gain you are either Kilian Jornet or cheating. To allow for these discrepancies between marathons and to ensure that the best athletes are selected, most countries employ a selection committee to decide who will represent them. If you need an example of that, consider the selections of Kenya and Ethiopia’s teams as referenced in prior issues of TBL. They have not picked the fastest three runners and they are the most successful marathoning nations. This system was well known prior to the selections being announced and I don’t recall anyone saying it was corrupt and unethical beforehand but maybe that’s because I live by myself? Even if the process is right, individual selectors can be like AFL umpires and are, would you believe it, human and can get things wrong. Hence, in that scenario, there is an appeals system in place.
Oh, so just in case you think the selection committee got something really wrong, you can appeal? Yep, you certainly can. But what every Under 10 footballer learns is that an umpire is rarely, if ever going to change their minds as are selection committees on matters of judgement. DRS in cricket has made that statement a little less concrete than it used to be but essentially the way sport works and functions is reflective of how the greater society we live in functions. If you don’t agree with someone or something that is the result of a group of experts well, you can ask a few question to make sure it’s not an obvious major error or incorrect application of law but at the end of the day you usually have to trust that the experts got it right. An example of a major error in this case would’ve been Joel Tobin-White being named to run the marathon. An example of an incorrect application of law/selection policy, was the basis for an appeal to the National Sports Tribunal and the determination of that appeal in summary revolved around three main issues. Firstly, the lack of reasoning provided to the non-selected athlete was a fault of AA’s. Secondly, the process of reallocating quota positions to other athletes was found to be not actually properly well written into the selection policy even though that was the underlying objective. Thirdly, the appeal on the grounds of bias within the actual selection was also dismissed, or in Tribunal Officer Elisa Holmes words, ‘For reasons upon which I expand below (Editor: i.e. in the determination document), I do not need to consider the second ground of appeal’.
The reports that AA failed to honour the NST’s order to select a new committee comes from this statement from Holmes which doesn’t paint such a black-and-white DO AS I SAY order from the NST (the bold emphasis is mine).
‘Athletics Australia may consider it appropriate, if permissible within the relevant rules and guidelines, and if reasonably practicable within the time allowed, to convene a new Selection Committee, independent from the original Committee, for that purpose in order to avoid any concerns in relation to bias that any athlete may have. I am not in a position to make a specific order about this because no submissions were made orally about the appropriate course in the event that I allowed the appeal (in addition to those already provided in writing) and I am, therefore, unaware of whether or not there are any genuine practical or other constraints preventing this course. It is, however, obviously desirable as a matter of fairness if circumstances allow.’
Finally, it is worth including Holmes’ closing comments that her determination suggesting a new selection committee acknowledges that it is ‘inherently preferable for those with knowledge and experience in athletics, including marathon, to assess athletes’ performances and other matters relevant to athlete nomination pursuant to the Nomination Criteria’. In layman’s speak that means we have to trust the selectors to get it right whoever they are as long as they are experts (which they are), much like in a hospital you trust the Doctor operating on you to get it right and your local politician to represent you. But hey, we all know they even get it wrong or decide things not in your favour and well, that’s life sometimes!
It’s clear not everyone rationalises decisions by higher bodies like me though and accepts that well, that’s the system we have in place, so we may as well just live with it. Amongst the news this fortnight I have read some incorrect facts (I spotted three in the first version of this ABC summary) and some very interesting online comments from members of the general public and former Olympians. The one that knocked my socks off the most was from Lisa Weightman’s manager who said that ‘AA's (Athletics Australia) integrity has to be questioned and their actions have to be considered unethical’. I disagree with that statement and that’s my opinion. Will I now get emotional and write a letter to take down what he said because I am upset he has called Athletics Australia unethical? No. Instead I read it, looked up from my computer outside and realised the world isn’t falling apart. Then I looked back at my computer at the things athletes were doing at the same time in the Oceania Championships this week. Then I looked at the Diamond League results from Oslo. Then I looked outside again towards the Flinders Ranges and realised none of it will really make a hoot of difference in about a hundred years.
I won’t be alive in a hundred years to know if that’s the truth or not but I will (hopefully) be alive in two months time when the Olympics is on. A little bit of perspective wouldn’t go astray between now and then in supporting the selected athletes to ensure they reach the start line in the best possible shape. When they subsequently cross the finish line you can bet there’ll be calls of ‘D would’ve run better’, or ‘A,B or C should never have been picked’. Does that help D? Does that help anyone? Can I do anything about those types of calls? The answer is no, no and no which is all a bit negative. So instead, I’ll be focusing on the positives on August 11th and cheering on whichever three Australian’s line up in the marathon and so should you. If this saga has left you a bit sad or disappointed though then take solace in that as an Essendon fan, I was once disillusioned with the AFL after the drugs saga, but over time, and it hasn’t even taken a hundred years, I’m now right behind the Bombers as we currently sit 2nd.
For the meantime though, if anyone thinks it’s still fair game to criticise those who have been picked, my ready-made email response I have for them is Aussie golfer Cam Smith’s ‘that’s pretty not that good’ after he won The British Open and someone asked him about LIV Golf. But hey, it’s all an opinion right, and just because I have an opinion doesn’t mean you have to agree with me after all.
As this Issue gets prepared and sent to the internet publishers the results of the Oceania Champs are filtering through from Suva. Click here to see the results.
If you’re looking for
a man infinance related running news. Read this report on some of the money within the 2024/25 Federal Budget. $1.5 billion is being provided for the Brisbane Olympics with another $1.2 billion for a monorail connecting Brisbane and Sunshine Coast as an infrastructure upgrade for the Olympics. Ok, it’s not a monorail, but it is a rail link and saying monorail allows me to exploit this Simpsons scene.Speaking of Brisbane, the Brisbane Marathon Festival also happened last weekend. Not as ‘elite’ heavy as Launny and Lakeside, the quirkiest part of the results was Japanese winner Saeki Makino missing out by 1 second on the time incentive prize money. Don’t feel too bad though, he still won $1500 for winning. Tim Vincent was the only winner to dip under a bonus time and claimed $1750 for his 64:07 1st place in the half marathon.
It was a fortnight of breaking old records as well as Australian records. In the Bowerman Mile, Josh Kerr broke Steve Cram’s 39 year old British Mile record while in Germany, New Zealander James Preston (who raced some of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series races) ran 1:44.04 to win an 800m race and break a 62 year old record of Peter Snell’s..
If you were sceptical of Athletics Australia’s ethics this past fortnight, I can brighten your view of them by comparing their performance to the French Athletics Federation. The Frenchies made an error on their nomination form and now two athletes won’t be at the European Championships. Sacre bleu!
Speaking of more global athletics news, World Athletics has gotten on the front foot ahead of Michael Johnson’s new athletics league in ramping up their own prize money on offer at a newly created Ultimate Athletics Championships. Essentially it’s a condensed version of the actual World Champs so it’ll just reward the top dogs of athletics even more. I’m not sure that’s entirely positive for the growth of the sport but maybe they’re playing the strategy of trying to compete with other more lucrative sports. This news was the feature piece of WA’s new four year business strategy which also included a mention to some updated rule changes and events (4 x 100 Mixed relay, steeplechase mile, take-off zone for horizontal jumps and more).
Finally, Kilian Jornet came out of the woodworks to win the third stop of the Golden Trail World Series at Zegama for a record 11th time. Kilian is the Rafael Nadal of trail running at a select few events and Zegama is his French Open. He doesn’t race as much as he used to anymore so it’s pleasing to see that when he does, he absolutely rocks up to go hard. Which he did, winning by 8 minutes and only two minutes off his own course record.
I might consider Athletics to be a subjective sport but there are some interesting things you can do with the times. Something I’ve tried really hard to make work is the following mathematical calculation…If you add the following ‘Major’ Australian Men's Records: Joseph Deng’s 800m, Olli Hoare’s 1500m, Craig Mottram’s 5000m track and 5km road times, Jack Rayner’s 10km Road, Brett Robinson’s Half Marathon and Shaun Creighton’s 3000m Steeplechase, what do you think you get?
…
…
…
Scroll too fast and you’ll see the answer! You’ll never know when you need the practice of adding minutes and seconds together…
…
…
…
…
2:07:25 is the answer which is 6 seconds faster than Brett’s Marathon Record but pretty bloody close.
A similar exercise with the Women’s records of; Catriona Bisset’s 800m, Jess Hull’s 1500m (NEW), Rose Davies 5000m (NEW), Benita Willis’ 5km road, Lauren Ryan’s 10000m, Kerryn McCann’s Half Marathon and Gen Gregson’s 3000m SC… What do you get?
…
…
…
C’mon, second opportunity, will you get it right this time? Not that I can’t stop you from googling the times and using an actual calculator…
…
…
…
….
2:22:19 which is 45 seconds slower than Sinead Diver’s Marathon Record. Even with a few new records dropping lately, Sinead’s Marathon Record from Valencia 2022 is still out of this world compared to the Men’s when you fudge the numbers a bit.
It’s actually a relatively quiet period for running given the last few months. The Diamond League winds down for several weeks to allow most of the competitors an opportunity to compete in their respective area championships.
June 7th - June 12th: European Athletics Championships
June 19th - June 23rd: African Athletics Championships
June 21st - June 30th: USA Olympic Trials
July 7th: Paris Diamond League and Gold Coast Marathon
Of course those are just the events that are coming up. There’s also big things coming in the merchandise department of Grattan House when Fashion Director JTW finishes his next creation.
This division of Grattan House welcomes any and all reader feedback. Really, I do!
If you want more or less of something or want something investigated then please enquire at theblueline@grattanhouse.com with an email starting with ‘Dear Fraser Darcy,’.
And remember, The Blue Line serves as both an extended show notes of Grattan House podcasts while also broadening the profile of Australian distance running. Send it to your mates, co-workers and your next door neighbour so you can start preparing them for athletics chat at the Olympics in less than 50 days time.