Ryan Gregson (AUS) (© Getty Images)
The Zatopek Classic meet has always provided a window onto Australia's distance running stocks and the 41st edition at Olympic Park on Thursday night, 13 December, should be just as enlightening.
Unfortunately the ranks of fully developed world class performers are thin in the featured men's and women's 10,000m this year, with no Craig Mottram or Benita Johnson lining up.
However, perhaps the men's 1500m has something special in store, in the form of schoolboy Ryan Gregson, 17, who recently ran 8:01.26 to break Mottram's Australian under-20 3000m which had stood at 8:02.77.
Gregson (who turns 18 on April 26, 2008) was fifth in the 1500m at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Ostrava in July this year but he has improved immensely since then.
Only two weeks ago Gregson, from the New South Wales coastal resort town of Bulli, set a national under-18 record of 3:43.84 and in late November also ran 14:14.35 for 5000m at a Sydney interclub meeting.
Last weekend Gregson retained his Australian All Schools 1500m and 3000m titles at Sydney Olympic Park, clocking comfortable 54sec bell laps, a turn of speed which suggests he has great potential for the future - and the potential to upset the senior men in tomorrow's Zatopek 1500m.
While Gregson's goal at the Zatopek meet is simply to clock the qualifying time of 3:47.50 again for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgozsz, Poland in July 2008, his coach Ian Hatfield would not be surprised if the youngster has his sights on the national under-20 record of 3:39.67 still held by Michael Hillardt, who ran seventh in the 1987 World Championships 1500m in Rome.
Jeremy Roff (from NSW) is the fastest in the 1500m field with his 3:38.20 from earlier this year.
Ron Clarke ran a World record 28:13.6 when the Zatopek 10,000 made its debut on the Australian calendar in 1963 and Kenya's Luke Kipkosgei holds the current race record with his 27:22.54 run in 1998. The women’s record was set by Susie Power at 31:26.34 in 2001, the same year she won a medal at the Brisbane Goodwill Games.
New Zealanders make up the international delegation in this year's men's 10,000 with Rees Buck, 12th last year, joined by Rowan Hooper and Luke Hurring.
Commonwealth Games steeplechaser and World Cross Country representative Martin Dent (ACT) is nominal favourite, but he can expect opposition from national cross-country champion Jeff Hunt (NSW), Victorian State 16km cross-country champion Mark Tucker, Barry Keem (NSW), Liam Evans, Shane Nakervis, Russell Dessaix-Chin, with 1500m notable Collis Birmingham making his debut at 10,000m on the track.
Lisa Jane Weightman, who placed 33rd in the World Road Running Championships in Udine, Italy, is favoured to win the women's 10,000m. Tara Palm, Billinda Schipp and Lauren Shelley appear to be the top challengers for the women's title. Shelley, from Western Australia, was eighth in the 2006 Commonwealth Games marathon and recently competed in the Tokyo Marathon.
Mike Hurst - The Daily Telegraph in Sydney - for the IAAF
