Jeff Riseley races to victory at last Thursday night’s Melbourne World Athletics Tour meeting at Olympic Park. 28057 Picture: Stewart ChambersBy Marc McGowan
OLYMPIAN Jeff Riseley maintained his unbeaten record since Beijing with victory at last Thursday night’s Melbourne World Athletics Tour meeting at Olympic Park.
The 22-year-old former Narre Warren little athlete beat an impressive 1500m field of Australians and internationals.
Riseley’s time of 3:40.29 saw him finish more than half-a-second clear of New South Welshman Jeremy Roff, who he expects to be his major rival at this month’s Australian Athletics Championships.
“I’ve won seven in a row now, so it’s always good to keep that going,” he said.
“We thought it’d be a bit faster than what it was, but the pace wasn’t quite what we expected.
“Obviously, 3:36.2 is the world championship A-qualifier, so anything under that would have been nice.
“But we’re not putting any emphasis on that. I think I can go a lot faster than that when we go to Europe and get in a fast race.”
Riseley will compete over a mile at the International Track Meet in New Zealand tomorrow (Friday) before attempting to claim his maiden senior national title in Queensland next week.
The World Athletics Championships is in Berlin, Germany, from 15 to 23 August, but Riseley has plenty of work ahead before then.
The Knox athlete has battled a hernia over the last four months and will have surgery to fix the problem after the national championships.
He does not expect there to be an extended recovery period after the operation and is aiming to head to the United States or Europe at the end of May or in early June.
