Dmitri Markov wins the Pole Vault at the 2004 Australian Championships (© Getty Images)
Recently Australia’s World 400m Hurdles champion Jana Pittman, after becoming engaged to England’s Commonwealth champion Christopher Rawlinson, decided to move her training base to Britain. However, many of Pittman’s southern hemisphere colleagues, with no World Indoor Championships to focus on at the start of this year, will be staying "down under" to concentrate on their early preparations for the main 2005 outdoor season.
Next weekend sees the start of the highlight of the Australian season, the annual Telstra A-series. The meeting in Perth on Saturday 22 January, is the first of four individual fixtures which lead up to the national championships in Sydney’s Olympic Park from 4 - 6 March.
Though the domestic season will be bereft of Pittman’s talent, many of Australia’s other finest track and field athletes will be competing in the Telstra A-series, including Paul Burgess who set an early outdoor Pole vault world lead of 5.91m last Saturday (15 Jan) in Perth.
Also lining up for action will be Olympic race walking bronze medallists Nathan Deakes and Jane Saville, rising 400m star Clinton Hill, world class distance running exponents Craig Mottram and Benita Johnson, and field event stars such as pole vaulters Tatiana Grigorieva and Dmitri Markov.
The highlight of the four individual meets is of course Melbourne on Thursday 17 February which as usual plays host to the opening meeting of the annual IAAF Grand Prix series.
The hub of the South African season commences a little later, with elite domestic competition centred around the annual ABSA series of meetings which begin in Potchefstroom on 4 February 2005. Another five one day meetings follow with the last in Pretoria on 6 March. Just over a week after the conclusion of the series, the National Championships take place in eThekwini, 15 – 16 April.
In 2004 the ABSA series and nationals were treated to some fine 400m hurdling from some of the world’s finest, especially Ockert Cilliers and Alwyn Myburgh. In fact, such was the quality of Cilliers 48.02 run at altitude at the one day meeting in Pretoria on 20 February that it remained the fastest time in the world until double World gold medallist, later to be crowned Olympic champion, Felix Sanchez ran 47.86 in Lausanne on 6 July.
Other stars of the South African domestic season in 2004 were shot putter Janus Robberts, his release of 20.73m being the news of the Cape Town meeting on 19 March. Two other throwers in fine form domestically were Frantz Kruger (64.16 Discus Throw) in the Port Elizabeth meeting and Chris Harmse (79.86m Hammer Throw) in Potchefstroom.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
2005 schedule
Australia
Telstra A-series
22 January 2005 - Perth
5 February 2005 - Canberra
17 February 2005 - Melbourne (IAAF GPII)
19 February 2005 - Adelaide
4 – 6 March 2005 National Championships - Sydney
South Africa
ABSA Series
4 February 2005 - Potchefstroom
11 February 2005 - Bloemfontein
18 February 2005 - Durban
5 March 2005 - Oudtshoorn
11 March 2005 - Stellenbosch
18 March 2005 – Pretoria
15 – 16 April 2005 National Championships - Durban
