Tactical races with big finishes were the flavour of the 10000m races at the 2024 Zatopek:10 at Lakeside Stadium.
The women’s race meandered in its early stages and never really got going in earnest among the main protagonists until the final lap, laying the perfect platform for Australian 5000m record holder Rose Davies to unleash her customary finishing kick to take victory.
It was national record holder Lauren Ryan who jumped first on the final lap, kicking past Davies and leader Leanne Pompeani with a sharp acceleration with 300m to go. But almost immediately Davies countered and then pulled away over the final 200m for a second-and-a-half victory in 32:21.71.
Ryan was second in 32:23.30 with Pompeani third in 32:32.51.
“I was pretty nervous coming into this. Obviously Lauren is the Australian record holder, Leanne is running really well at the moment and I knew Holly (Campbell) would be sneaky out there,” Davies said.
“I feel like I have had a new found confidence this year and I’m really happy to finish with the best race of the season.”
The men’s race had more intrigue with a number of lead changes over the final five laps before Jack Rayner reigned supreme for his fourth consecutive national title over 10000m.
Former Australian marathon record holder Brett Robinson looked strong when in the lead in the final kilometres, temporarily gapping the field before a chase pack of Rayner, Seth O’Donnell, Sam Clifford and New Zealand’s Oliver Chigwell caught back on. It was then O’Donnell who would force the pace, looking promising before fading, but there was no answer from the field when Rayner hit the lead and set sail for home.
Rayner stopped the clock at 28:26.12, becoming only the second Australian after Steve Moneghetti to win four 10000m titles in a row.
“Last year was bittersweet coming second but winning the Australian title, so it is nice to win the whole race,” Rayner said.
“Hopefully I can add another one next year to make it five, I will do it for as long as I can.”
Clifford (28:29.17), Chignell (28:35.08) and Robinson (38:37.74) filled the minor places.
The performance of the night was undoubtedly Cameron Myers’s 3000m victory in a new Australian junior record of 7:41.11, five seconds better than his previous mark. Myers ran astutely in the lead after pacemaker Brad Mathas dropped out, controlling the tempo before kicking away for victory ahead of new personal bests from Jude Thomas (7:42.30) and Jack Anstey (7:42.60).
“Distance running in Australia has gone to a new level and all athletics in general. It’s great to be a part of it and it’s great to have people actually wanting to come down and watch these sort of events. That’s something that is big for the sport, especially domestically,” Myers said.
Linden Hall opened her season in style with a comfortable victory in the women’s 3000m in 8:43.02, just two-and-a-half-seconds outside her personal best set earlier in the year at the Sydney Track Classic. Hall ran away from Abbey Caldwell, who clocked a personal best of 8:51.49, in the second half of the race. In third Amy Robinson went under 9 minutes for the first time, running 8:56.53.
In shorter events on the track Ella Connolly took out the 60m in 7.29 seconds (-0.2), just one-hundredth-of-a-second outside the Australian record for the distance that she set in January. Jacob Despard won the men’s race in 6.72 (+1.4) by two-hundredths-of-a-second from Tayleb Willis. 
Over 800m there was a breakthrough performance from World Junior representative Daniel Williams, who ran strongly to victory in 1:47.88. Tess Kirsopp-Cole comfortably took out the women’s race in 2:02.42.
In junior races the it was South Australians taking line honours in the Ondieki 3000m with Tessa Ebert winning by a tenth-of-a-second in 9:24.77 from Imogen Baker, while in the de Castella 3000m Jonathon Harris won by almost two seconds in 8:12.00.
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