<p><br />The Queensland Track Classic was the first Australian casualty of the coronavirus pandemic last year, but Brisbane&rsquo;s major athletics meeting bounced back with a vengeance in 2021.</p>
<p>Despite a last-minute panic following the announcement of a positive Covid-19 test in Brisbane, the Classic, a <strong>World Athletics Continental Tour Silver</strong> meeting, went off in style. Highlighted by outstanding performances from Rohan Browning at 100m and Catriona Bisset and Linden Hall at 800m, Brisbane presented the best meeting of the domestic season as a lead-in to next month&rsquo;s national championships in Sydney.</p>
<p>Browning, who has been threatening the Olympic automatic qualifying standard of 10.05 all season, hit it right on the button. He set things up with a relaxed-looking 10.14 (+0.4) in the heats before defeating New Zealand&rsquo;s Eddie Osei-Nketia in the final, 10.05 (+1.0) to 10.12.</p>
<p>Despite a post-race observation that &ldquo;I could have got out better&rdquo; &ndash; if that was correct, then his rivals should have got out <em>much</em> better &ndash; Browning was in control from the gun. Osei-Nketia kept him honest over the second half of the race without ever quite getting on terms.</p>
<p>Given continued good form and fitness Browning should become Australia&rsquo;s first male Olympic individual 100m representative since 2004 (Josh Clarke was selected for Rio 2016, but withdrew from the team through injury).</p>
<h3>Bisset and Hall go sub-2</h3>
<p>Two minutes has been the benchmark in Australian women&rsquo;s 800m &ndash; and a handy time internationally - since Charlene Rendina ran a national record 1:59.0h in 1976. That mark stood until Catriona Bisset ran 1:58.78 in the London Diamond League meeting in 2019, defying repeated assaults from Tamsyn Manou (Lewis), in particular.</p>
<p>Today Manou was in commentary as Bisset led Linden Hall to a 1-2 finish with both running under two minutes.</p>
<p>Bisset had lost to Hall in Sydney two weeks ago, letting her rival build a big lead before falling short of catching her at the line. Brisbane was the mirror image of that race; this time it was Hall doing the chasing along the finishing straight after Bisset had blasted through a 57.5 opening lap on the heels of a pacemaker. Hall moved to challenge off the final bend, but Bisset held her off all the way to the line to win, 1:59.12 to 1:59.22. Both women bettered the Tokyo auto standard (1:59.50).</p>
<p>&ldquo;I wanted to make the most of this (run),&rdquo; Bisset said, &ldquo;because who knows if the next race will go ahead.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It was only the third time two Australian women had broken two minutes in the same race. Manou was involved in both the other two, beating Madeleine Pape in Sydney in February, 2000, and then when she and Margaret Crowley were second and third behind New Zealand&rsquo;s Toni Hodgkinson in Brisbane in September the same year.</p>
<p>In third place in Brisbane 2021, Claudia Hollingsworth, who is coached by Craig Mottram and does not turn 16 until next month, ran 2:01.60.</p>
<h3>Bol again near Tokyo standard in men&rsquo;s 800m</h3>
<p>Peter Bol continued both his winning form and his series of narrow misses at the Olympic auto standard in taking the men&rsquo;s 800 in 1:45.48.</p>
<p>Ben Buckingham, who ran the steeplechase at Doha 2019, won here in a personal best 8:27.39 ahead of James Nipperesss, 8:31.97, and Matthew Clarke, 8:32.71.</p>
<p>Nick Hough and Liz Clay maintained their supremacy in the sprint hurdles, Hough&rsquo;s 13.51 in the men&rsquo;s 110 turning back Nicholas Andrews&rsquo;s PB 13:59. The Sharon Hannan-coached Clay survived a near-fall when she clobbered a barrier mid-race, to beat the Sally Pearson-trained Hannah Jones, 12.98 to 13.07.</p>
<p>Hana Basic gave the 11.15 auto standard in the women&rsquo;s 100m a fright, running 11.18 (+2.0) in the heat and 11.19 (+0.3) in the final. Despite narrowly missing the Tokyo mark, the rejuventated Basic, who ran 11.64 as an 18-year-old in 2014, made some significant progress on the Australian all-time list leaping into fourth place over &ndash; among others &ndash; Raelene Boyle, Kerry Johnson and Cathy Freeman.</p>
<h3>Kennedy again sets the standard in the jumps</h3>
<p>While not up to her national record form of the Sydney meeting, Nina Kennedy won the women&rsquo;s pole vault with an impressive clearance at 4.75m. She came in at 4.60m, needing all three attempts to clear the height, but sailed over 4.75m first time. Only one of her three attempts at a new national record 4.85m was close.</p>
<p>Kurtis Marschall won the men&rsquo;s event at 5.70m.</p>
<p>Brandon Starc won the men&rsquo;s high jump at 2.29m, before failing at the Tokyo auto standard of 2.33m.</p>
<p>Doha 2019 finalist Brooke Stratton returned from injury to take the women&rsquo;s long jump with a best leap of 6.63m and Chris Mitrevski was over eight metres again with a win in the men&rsquo;s event in 8.02m (+1.7) ahead of Henry Frayne&rsquo;s 7.85m (+1.6).</p>
<p>Dani Stevens continued her comeback from injury with a 62.22m win in the women&rsquo;s discus ahead of Britain&rsquo;s Jade Lally (58.24m) and Taryn Gollshewsky (58.08m). Her five valid throws were all beyond the 60-metre line. Matt Denny won the men&rsquo;s event with a best distance of 61.42m.</p>
<p>World champion Kelsey-Lee Barber continued her subdued return to post-Covid competition, finishing third in the javelin with a season&rsquo;s best 57.74m. New Zealand&rsquo;s Tori Peeters won with 59.25m from Mackenzie Little&rsquo;s 59.13m.</p>
<h3>Montag and Cowley win national and Oceania 20k titles</h3>
<p>Jemima Montag and Rhydian Cowley won the Australian and Oceania 20km race walking championships in Melbourne&rsquo;s inner-city Fawkner Park on Saturday (27) morning.</p>
<p>Montag took over two minutes off her previous best and moved to second on the Australian all-time list behind Jane Savile in winning her titles in 1:28:50.</p>
<p>Cowley, 1:22:28, was narrowly beaten across the line by Declan Tingay, but 22-year-old Tingay had received a third warning in the closing stages. The consequent two-minute time penalty dropped him down to third place in 1:24:27 behind Kyle Swan 1:24:08.</p>
<p><strong>Len Johnson for World Athletics</strong></p>

The Queensland Track Classic was the first Australian casualty of the coronavirus pandemic last year, but Brisbane’s major athletics meeting bounced back with a vengeance in 2021.

Browning, Bisset and Hall tear it up in Brisbane

<p><br />Gold medallists, at least of the track and field variety, don&rsquo;t grow on trees in Australia. When Kelsey-Lee Barber produced a final-round stunner in the women&rsquo;s javelin in Doha last October to jump from fourth to first, she replaced Sally Pearson as Australia&rsquo;s only reigning world champion.</p>
<p>Like all other athletes around the world, Barber finds herself suddenly in a world full of uncertainties. The Covid-19 pandemic throws into chaos the carefully-laid plans most athletes make and follow towards an Olympic Games. Worse, they can&rsquo;t make new plans until the scope and duration of the crisis becomes clearer. And no-one can tell them when that will be.</p>
<p>What to do? For Barber, it&rsquo;s simple. Stick to what you know until you know more.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Our plan is our plan leading into the Olympic Games, until we&rsquo;re told otherwise,&rdquo; Barber says.</p>
<p>Barber was to resume competition at the World Athletics Continental Tour Queensland Track Classic (20 March). The meeting was postponed, as was her next planned outing at her national championships. Further, all competition was suspended until May, at least, and early Wanda Diamond League meetings were off.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re working towards an Olympics Games,&rdquo; says Barber. &ldquo;What is good is that we still have that same end-goal, but circumstances mean that the preparation and the lead-up have to change. We&rsquo;ve got to re-assess, shift some things around. Instead of competing, we go back into training and when, and if, those competitions come back on-stream we pick them up again.&rdquo;</p>
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<p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B90M1J6H0OO/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Control what you can control. In sport we are taught to focus on what is within our control and to be comfortable with uncertainty. Right now, that means look after yourself and one another. Train if you can, but also take the time to be with loved ones. Sport is a small part of this big world. 📸 @nancyjphotography . . . #asics #javelinthrow #thatjavelingirl #sport #trackandfield #covid_19</a></p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" href="https://www.instagram.com/kelsey_roberts/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Kelsey-Lee Barber</a> (@kelsey_roberts) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2020-03-17T01:03:55+00:00">Mar 16, 2020 at 6:03pm PDT</time></p>
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<p>Canberra-based Barber says Australia is still in a relatively good position. Throwers generally need access to more facilities than track athletes, but Barber says she has had no issues there yet.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Everything is open (though) were being more vigilant in terms of contact with other people, observing the social separation distances. If our gym gets shut down, that would be one area we would have to re-consider. With things like that, as long as you know what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve you can work around it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Even something as big as a postponed or cancelled Olympic Games.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Olympics are big, but my career is about more than the Olympic Games. I have other goals and other things I want to achieve,&rdquo; Barber says.</p>
<p>&ldquo;At times we have to step back and focus on the things that matter.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Denny: &lsquo;I rely on athletics to make money&rsquo;</h3>
<p>Discus thrower Matt Denny has had a full domestic season, and competitions in New Zealand as well, but he was still stunned by the turn of events which saw the remainder of the domestic season curtailed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;For the first few days I was stunned. I was looking forward to Brisbane which was to be my first competition at home since the (Gold Coast) Commonwealth Games. There was going to be a lot of family and friends there. I wanted to pop out an Olympic qualifier.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was a bit of a shock. (Athletes) hate uncertainty, not knowing what will happen, or what won&rsquo;t be happening.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Rearranging training camps and competition, along with reduced earning opportunities, are some of the consequences.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;d made plans, when we were competing, when we&rsquo;re peaking, how the season could look. And the competitions where I could make money. I rely on athletics to make money.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Australian thrower Matt Denny in action in the hammer</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Taking a broader view, Denny says: &ldquo;I have my health and us young athletes are less affected than older ones and we&rsquo;re all less affected than athletes in Italy, and other places, where a lot of things are suddenly closed down.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Denny had originally planned to go to Italy early in May and base in Europe for the rest of the season.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s all shut down and we&rsquo;re in a holding pattern.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s frustrating trying to prepare when you don&rsquo;t know when the season starts, or what notice you&rsquo;ll get when competition resumes, whether you&rsquo;ll go straight into Tokyo, or how the qualifying system will be affected.</p>
<p>&ldquo;But you just have to control the controllables and decide once we know,&rdquo; Denny says.</p>
<h3>Starc - &lsquo;I like to be flexible, but I also like to have a plan&rdquo;</h3>
<p>Brandon Starc, men&rsquo;s high jump Diamond Race winner in 2018 and sixth in the world championships last year says he likes certainty, but athletes need to be able to adjust, too.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I like to be flexible, but I also like to have a plan,&rdquo; says Starc.</p>
<p>As the plan Starc and his coach, Alex Stewart, had is being ripped up by the global pandemic, flexibility is paramount right now.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Competitions are the biggest issue,&rdquo; says Starc. &ldquo;The Queensland Track Classic (a World Athletics Continental Tour status meeting) was meant to be happening last night (20 March), with good competition and good points.&rdquo; It was postponed, the Australian championships likewise.</p>
<p>Starc&rsquo;s first European competition was set down for 28 May (the Golden Gala in Naples), but that is now uncertain. For the first time in more than six years he could be spending the winter in Australia, which would mean going straight in to Tokyo off training camps and whatever competition can be arranged.</p>
<p>Which validates Starc&rsquo;s plan-but-flexible approach.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Australian high jumper Brandon Starc</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like planning everything out to the last detail because you&rsquo;ve got to be able to adjust, for injury, for example, or meetings being cancelled.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Starc has no problem accessing facilities, training for the most part at the New South Wales Institute of Sport campus at Homebush, site of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.</p>
<p>Starc says he is coping well mentally with the disruption, is training well. Full steam ahead, then, even if the destination remains shrouded in fog.</p>
<h3>Isolated on New Zealand&rsquo;s North Island, Buscomb says: &lsquo;Our sport is about managing challenges&rsquo;</h3>
<p>&ldquo;We were going to Flagstaff in April for a training camp, but that&rsquo;s been cancelled now,&rdquo; says Camille Buscomb. &ldquo;Then it was on to Europe for races, and St Moritz for another camp in June. But we just don&rsquo;t know that far forward.&rdquo;</p>
<p>So, Buscomb is at home, in Cambridge on New Zealand&rsquo;s north island. &ldquo;I can train freely, but I&rsquo;m unable to train with the (Melbourne Track Club) group.&rdquo; She has access to all the facilities she needs, has one High Performance Centre nearby and can travel to Auckland to access the one there.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s more the specific planning that we can&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; Buscomb says. &ldquo;I can continue training. I have the Olympic qualifiers, so I don&rsquo;t have to be looking for races when there aren&rsquo;t any.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Camille Buscomb winning the 2016 Zatopek 10 in Melbourne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>As for Tokyo, timing is certain until she knows otherwise. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m assuming I&rsquo;ll be competing in August. (Not knowing for certain is) a different type of obstacle. Our sport is about managing challenges.&rdquo;</p>
<p>For the present, Buscomb is working to the set dates. &ldquo;The end of July, start of August, is what I&rsquo;m training towards.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to think too far forward. I&rsquo;m just thinking of training well, staying positive, and doing the things I can do each day.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Competitive lull a good fit for Bisset</h3>
<p>In some ways, the curtailment of the Australian domestic season came at a good time for Catriona Bisset. After a break-through season last year, she was coming back from the injury which wrecked her world championships campaign.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel like I was rushing the domestic season anyway, training through races. I reached a good level of form and needed to get the season over and done.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bisset can get back to base training. A planned altitude camp at Albuquerque has been cancelled, but &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got an altitude tent,&rsquo; she says, &ldquo;I can get back to my aerobic base, I can self-isolate at altitude.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Australian 800m runner Catriona Bisset</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Bisset has full access to all her training facilities as she trains in a small squad under veteran coach, Peter Fortune, who guided Cathy Freeman to an Olympic gold medal.</p>
<p>Bisset has the automatic Olympic qualifying standard and remains optimistic the Games will go ahead. Even if they do not, she says, post-Olympic competition probably will.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tricky if we don&rsquo;t have races leading into the Olympics. Maybe lots of athletes won&rsquo;t be in their best shape possible.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Whether the Olympics go ahead or not, I am planning on racing then.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I love training, love running. My aims have never been solely championships, but to race and run PBs.</p>
<p>&ldquo;As long as I&rsquo;m racing, training well, and have my group to train with, I&rsquo;m happy.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Hall: &lsquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to waste energy worrying about things. No one has the answers yet&rsquo;</h3>
<p>Linden Hall says the day following the indefinite postponement of the Australian championships was hard.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Saturday morning session, it was very morbid. For a lot of the group the nationals was their Olympics: they&rsquo;re thinking, &lsquo;why am I even here&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Hall has gone back to the training block which would have followed the national titles in any case, but a planned altitude stint in Albuquerque has been cancelled, along with competitions following that. She&rsquo;s not sure what will replace them yet.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Australian middle-distance runner Linden Hall</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to waste energy worrying about things. No-one has the answers yet. It&rsquo;s not like they&rsquo;re holding back on anything.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Hall says Australian athletes are luckier than many of their European counterparts. They have a full domestic season under their belts, which for Hall culminated with a PB 800 behind Georgia Griffith and Catriona Bisset, while the northern hemisphere has come out of winter.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s back to some base type training, revise plans once the situation becomes clearer and, says Hall, &ldquo;hold on to the hope some things will come good.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Len Johnson for World Athletics</strong></p>

Like all other athletes around the world, Kelsey-Lee Barber finds herself suddenly in a world full of uncertainties. The Covid-19 pandemic throws into chaos the carefully-laid plans most athletes make and follow towards an Olympic Games. Worse, they can’t make new plans until the scope and duration of the crisis becomes clearer. And no-one can tell them when that will be.

With competitions on hold, flexibility is key as athletes continue to pursue their 2020 ambitions

<p><br />Catriona Bisset wants to set the record straight.</p>
<p>Yes, the Australian 800m record-holder has fought a publicly acknowledged battle with depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. And, yes, today she is in a much healthier place thanks to her loving and strong support network, but it would be remiss to simplify Bisset&rsquo;s life journey.</p>
<p>That is not how the engaging and articulate 25-year-old would want it. Her story is not black or white, it is in shades of grey and it is all the better for that.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in a really good, healthy place,&rdquo; explains Bisset, who last July smashed Charlene Rendina&rsquo;s 43-year-old Australian 800m record with a 1:58.78 performance at the London Diamond League. &ldquo;But this is not a simple tale of overcoming adversity. I&rsquo;ve spent years learning to be mentally resilient, building a strong network of friends and support team around me. And it was going through this process that allowed me to reach the places I have.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Early athletics roots</h3>
<p>Raised in the Australian capital city of Canberra to an Australian father and Chinese mother, who was born in Nanjing, venue for the 2021 World Athletics Indoor Championships, athletics was an important part of her life since joining her local athletics club at the age of six.</p>
<p>Keen on many sports, Catriona enjoyed swimming, touch football and netball but loved athletics. Initially she focused on the sprints and, more particularly, the 400m.</p>
<p>At the age of 12 she finished fourth in the U14 400m final at the Australian Championships, but her budding dream of a promising competitive athletics career was soon to be put on a decade-long hold.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Catriona Bisset en route to the Australian national 800m record at the 2019 London Diamond League meeting</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;From the age of 12 or 13 my athletics did not go very well,&rdquo; she recalls of this dark period of her life. &ldquo;I had a navicular bone issue but I was also not dealing well with being a young, adolescent girl in sport. I compared myself with other athletes but didn&rsquo;t understand that everyone&rsquo;s body changes at different rates. I lacked self-awareness. I was too young to understand my emotions.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Athletics to the backburner</h3>
<p>For the next decade, but for occasional appearances in school competitions, athletics took a back seat. She focused on her academics and toiled with her various issues, largely in silence.</p>
<p>After graduating from school she left home at the age of 17 to start a Bachelor of Architectural Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. However, the switch only served to worsen her mental well-being.</p>
<p>&ldquo;All the years where I didn&rsquo;t address my issues left me with a low opinion of myself and those early days at university were probably the worst time,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;I had moved out of home, I was away from my support network and by the end of my first year at university I became suicidal. I realised I had to do something about it. I went back to Canberra and I started seeing a psychologist and taking medication.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>The past seven years has not been a &ldquo;smooth trajectory&rdquo; for the amiable Australian middle-distance runner and to this day she still faces mental health challenges.</p>
<p>However, over time her life became more balanced and she slowly re-engaged with running. While studying in Sydney she dipped in and out of training sessions under the coaching of Dean Gleeson and decided to fully commit in 2016 after witnessing firsthand the euphoria felt by a training partner who has claimed multiple PBs that season.</p>
<h3>A new coach, a renewed commitment</h3>
<p>&ldquo;At that moment I saw how intoxicating athletics can be,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It was at that moment my mind flipped and I thought, yes, I&rsquo;m going to do this properly again.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Later that year she ran a PB of 2:11.85 in Sydney but it was in early 2017 after moving to Melbourne to start a postgraduate degree in Architecture and connecting with a new coach, Peter Fortune, which was to act as the catalyst for her rise on to the world stage.</p>
<p>Thrust into a training group known as the Wolfpack, overseen by three coaches including Fortune, the man who guided Cathy Freeman to the 400m gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she has thrived in a quality training environment which includes Australian 1500m and mile record-holder Linden Hall.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You would never expect Fort to be a world-class coach because he is such an adorable grandpa figure,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;When I first joined the group I was by no means an elite athlete, but he allows such room for growth. He has no expectations just that you are lovely and get on with everyone in the group. He will give as much back to you as you do for him."&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Catriona Bisset wins the 2019 World University Games 800m title</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In 2018, Bisset started to reap the benefits as her PB plummeted by six seconds to 2:03.48 across the course of the season.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In some ways running 2:03 was bigger for me than the 1:58 (Australian record),&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;It made me believe I had the potential to make future Australian teams. It gave me huge motivation.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>2019 breakout</h3>
<p>Her 2019 domestic season ran like a charm. She set five 800m PBs including a 2:00.48 clocking in Sydney to be crowned Australian champion.</p>
<p>Then at the Australian University Championships, she stopped the clock in a stunning 1:59.78 to smash through the two-minute barrier for the first time.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That run was when it all hit me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I had a total meltdown. To run a solo 1:59 almost out of nowhere was a pretty overwhelming feeling.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She moved on to Europe to compete at the World University Games in Naples, and struck gold in blisteringly hot temperatures.</p>
<p>In the form of her life, Bisset continued competing in Europe and earned an invite into the London Diamond League. Confident of a good showing she settled quickly into the race and passed the bell in third in a time of around 57.5.</p>
<p>With 200 metres remaining and &ldquo;chomping at the bit&rdquo; she kicked on chasing race winner Lynsey Sharp of Great Britain to take second spot in 1:58.78 and breaking the national record.</p>
<p>&ldquo;As soon as I saw Lynsey&rsquo;s time of 1:58 &ndash; I knew I&rsquo;d broken the Australian record,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;It was not something I&rsquo;d targeted but I knew it was just a matter of time because my training sessions had been going ridiculously well.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>&ldquo;I feel very grateful for that race and what it has done for my confidence,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I feel it has changed the way I think about myself, it is like I belong, and deserve to be here.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Injury halts Doha ambitions</h3>
<p>Shortly after the euphoria of London, Bisset&rsquo;s season, however, was to take a cruel twist as just eight weeks out from the World Athletics Championships in Doha she was diagnosed with a stress reaction in her ankle.</p>
<p>Largely restricted to cross training and limited speedwork in the countdown to Doha she arrived in Qatar &ldquo;mentally and physically exhausted.&rdquo; Describing this period as &ldquo;horrible&rdquo; and, understandably, short of fitness she trailed home a distant sixth in her heat in 2:05.33.</p>
<p>Finally returning to full training in early January, Bisset has enjoyed a good start to the season Down Under both in Canberra (2:02.41) and winning at a windy Auckland (2:04.45). The Australian Championships looms later in March in Sydney as a target, beyond that she hopes to spend a stint training at altitude in Flagstaff, before embarking on a European campaign ahead of what she hopes will be an appearance at the Tokyo Olympic Games.</p>
<p>There is little doubt the timing of her injury last year was a huge blow but she has re-emerged with a positive mindset.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I know having gone through that experience will make me better prepared for Tokyo,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;I feel grateful to be healthy. I&rsquo;ve never felt so confident going into a new season. I look at the indoor results and when I see people running 1:57 or 1:58, I take it as a challenge. If they can do it, why can&rsquo;t I?</p>
<p>&ldquo;My ambition for this season is to be consistent and do things with conviction.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Mentally in &ldquo;a good place&rdquo; at the moment she is honest enough to admit, however, her mental state can &ldquo;change quickly&rdquo; and predictions of the future are hard to make.</p>
<p>With only her life experiences to draw upon she is reticent to offer too much advice to others going through their own personal battles, but she does have some general thoughts.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I would encourage people to share their experiences,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Start somewhere small, talk to a friend or anonymously call a support service. The more we normalise these conversations and people like me can be publicly vulnerable then hopefully more people can also be privately vulnerable too.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Steve Landells for World Athletics</strong></p>

Catriona Bisset wants to set the record straight.

Winning her battles off the track, Bisset’s rise continues on the track

<p>Rellie Kaputin, in the horizontal jumps, completed a rare double for Papua New Guinea and Jacko Gill won the shot put for New Zealand &ndash; but this pair stood against an Australian wave swamping day three (27) of the Oceania Championships in Townsville.</p>
<p>Kaputin upset Brooke Stratton and Naa Anang in the long jump on the first day of competition and defeated two other Australians &ndash; Ellen Pettit and Aliyah Johnson &ndash; to win the triple jump. The quality of opposition may not have been as high, but Kaputin&rsquo;s best effort of 13.04m saw her finish 10 centimetres clear of Pettit who, in turn, had seven centimetres to spare over Johnson.</p>
<p>Kaputin will compete in the high jump on the final day of competition where she will possibly not be favourite, but if momentum counts for anything could yet be a threat.</p>
<p>Gill bettered his own championship record in taking the shot put gold medal with a distance of 20.75m, just 26 centimetres shy of his personal best of 21.01m, set in January 2017.</p>
<h3>Australian wave finally breaks</h3>
<p>Kaputin, Gill and a handful of minor medals notwithstanding, day three belonged to the hosts. The Australian wave that had been predicted to wash over the championships finally broke, sweeping aside pretty well everything in its path.</p>
<p>Of the 27 individual track medals contested on the day, Australia took 23 and won both 4x100m relays. It was closer in the remaining four events &ndash; the heptathlon and three field events &ndash; but even there the hosts won two of the four and six medals out of 11 overall to five for the rest (gold medallist Kiara Reddingius of Australia and Christina Ryan of New Zealand were the only two to complete the heptathlon).</p>
<p>One of Australia&rsquo;s winners was Catriona Bisset in the women&rsquo;s 800m and, like Gill, she finds success as she nears her mid-20s. Gill, 25 later in the year, is coming back from injury and attempting to regain the form which took him, successively, to world U20, U18 and U20 titles and then to eighth place at the 2015 World Championships in the first phase of his career.</p>
<p>By contrast, 25-year-old Bisset is finding success for the first time. A talented youngster, she has related this year how anxiety and other problems, stalled her development. She is making up for it in a hurry now, winning her national championship and then becoming the first Australian woman since Tamsyn Manou in 2008 (and many other years) to break two minutes for the 800m.</p>
<p>Gill faced a potentially tough opponent in Damien Birkinhead, but his 20.75m gave him over a metre to spare over the Australian&rsquo;s best of 19.55m. Another Kiwi, Ryan Ballantyne, took the bronze with 19.05m.</p>
<p>Bisset won the 800m in 2:02.16, not an overly impressive time, but what stood out was the way she controlled the race. She has front-run to most of her victories this season, but this time she went out a little more slowly. It didn&rsquo;t matter.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think everyone expected me to lead,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;so they basically pushed me to the front.&rdquo; After going through in 1:01.65, she ran a negative split to come home in 2:02.16, well clear of New Zealand&rsquo;s Angela Petty and Morgan Mitchell.</p>
<p>Bisset is coached by Peter Fortune, coach of Cathy Freeman. Her primary goal at the start of this season was the World University Games, but her horizons have expanded. She is already selected for the World Championships.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had a couple of good performances and my coach said, &lsquo;I think we should have some bigger goals&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Of her rapid progress, Bisset said, &ldquo;Sometimes it feels like a shock, but looking back, there has been a lot of signs, some sessions and races which felt easy.</p>
<p>&ldquo;But it has still been a big change,&rdquo; she added.</p>
<p>Joshua Ralph made it an Australian double, taking the men&rsquo;s title in 1:49.34 from teammate Mason Cohen and New Zealand&rsquo;s Brad Mathas, who is Melbourne-based and trains with Joseph Deng and Peter Bol.</p>
<p>There were further home doubles in the 400m hurdles &ndash; Sarah Klein in 56.07 and Ian Dewhurst, 50.79, and the 3000m steeplechase &ndash; Paige Campbell narrowly from Georgia Whincup, 9:46.40 to 9:46.51, and Ben Buckingham in 8:41.15. Marathoner Sinead Diver ran a credible 32:25.86 in the warm daylight conditions to win the women&rsquo;s 10,000m.</p>
<p>Australia dominated the flat 400m, too, with Steve Solomon taking the men&rsquo;s race in 46.12 and 19-year-old Bendere Oboya the women&rsquo;s in 52.76. Solomon, an Olympic finalist in 2012 as a junior, is rebuilding his career after a frustrating run of injuries.</p>
<p>The championships conclude tomorrow (28 June) with 11 gold medals to be contested in senior events.</p>
<p><strong>Len Johnson for the IAAF</strong></p>

Rellie Kaputin, in the horizontal jumps, completed a rare double for Papua New Guinea and Jacko Gill won the shot put for New Zealand – but this pair stood against an Australian wave swamping day three (27) of the Oceania Championships in Townsville.