Middle-distance runner Jeff Riseley is back in Australia after competing at the world championships for the first time last month.By Marc McGowan
DISTRICT athletics star Jeff Riseley has eyes only for the Beijing Olympic Games after representing Australia at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, last month.
The 20-year-old middle-distance runner finished sixth in his opening-round heat in the 800m at the championships before heading to Europe for further experience.
But Riseley’s overseas trip came to a sudden close when he finally relented to the pain that had been plaguing him in his ankle.
After returning to home soil, the former Narre Warren Little Athlete went for tests and was diagnosed as having a stress fracture in the navicular bone, on the inside of his foot.
“After the world championships, my legs just weren’t going – they were terrible and I was tired, and I had a sore ankle, but I didn’t think too much of it,” Riseley said.
“Then I went to this country town in Italy called Rieti and everyone is really fast there and I was hoping to get an A-qualifier (for the Olympic Games), but my ankle pulled up sore.
“I told (mentor) Nic (Bideau) and just said it was time to go home.”
But it did not dampen Riseley’s excitement at competing in his first world championships.
“It was a bit different than what I expected because it was announced late (that I had made the team), so I didn’t get a chance for it to sink in,” the Harkaway resident said.
“I had a good preparation, but it was not the best I could have had.
“They introduce you to the crowd and then the camera guy comes up and sticks the camera in your face and you think, ‘do I wave or smile?’
“It’s pretty full-on, but once you’re in the race everything happens so quick and it’s hard to think about anything.”
Riseley is now well and truly immersed in the athletics world, and his life has turned upside down in the past 12 months as he has gone from relative obscurity to being Australia’s number one 800m runner.
His stress fracture will restrict him for another few weeks yet, but he is doing everything he can to maintain his fitness, including cross training and core stability work.
The busy schedule that comes with being an elite sportsman has had an affect on other aspects of Riseley’s life, and in particular his degree at Deakin University, which he has been forced to defer.
“Uni is pretty close behind my running, but running is still number one, although it might take 10 years to do my course!” he said.
“When you run all the time, you have to have a release and something else to use your energy on and uni is really good for that.
“You have to plan for a career after athletics because it’s not around forever.”
After spending a considerable amount of time training with Craig Mottram in recent months, Riseley has received great insight into what it takes to reach the top.
“I know what it takes to be the best now because I’ve run against the best and trained with Craig, so that’s really good,” he said.
“I’m number one in Australia now, so the guys respect you a little bit more, but you don’t get that respect in Europe and they don’t let you do what you want.
“You have to sacrifice a lot in athletics to be good.
“I know I can be good and can make a career out of it, but it’s really hard and you have to train really hard to have the lifestyle.”
