Posted: February 3, 2006

Athletics: Jamieson And Walsham Clinch Commonwealth Berths

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Sarah Jamieson and Suzy Walsham finished 1-2 in today's 1500m final at the Telstra Selection Trials & 84th Australian Athletics Championships, clinching berths on their nation's Commonwealth Games team.

Jamieson broke her own championship record with a 4:05.52 clocking, well inside the 4:09.50 Commonwealth Games "A" standard. Walsham followed in 4:08.72, also inside the standard, and far ahead of third place finisher Lisa Corrigan (4:14.74).

In the men's 1500m final, Lachlan Chisholm beat back the challenges of Collis Birmingham and Paul Hoffman to defend his national title in 3:40.87. But none of the top-3 came near the "A" standard time of 3:37.70, and indeed were slower than the "B" standard of 3:40-flat. Interestingly, fourth place finisher Mark Fountain ran 3:33.68 last September, well inside the qualifying period which began on 01-Jul, and Craig Mottram, who did not run in the 1500m race, clocked 3:34.80 last July. The selectors could pick a team of Fountain and Mottram, but Mottram has not yet decided if he prefers to make the 1500m or the 10,000m his second event to his primary gold medal quest at 5000m.

Andrew Letherby won the 10,000m title in 29:33.31, but he intends to run the marathon at the Commonwealth Games.

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