Runners On Track Despite Typhoon

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday August 8, 2008

Len Johnson in Hong Kong

TYPHOON Kammuri has come and gone, but the impact is still apparent on the tracks Benita Johnson, Victoria Mitchell and Mitch Kealey are following through the Aberdeen Country Park in Hong Kong.

Small branches and other debris litter the trails. Every depression in the rocky track has become a puddle. And all around them water cascades spectacularly down the gullies and water courses in a series of impromptu waterfalls.

Johnson, Mitchell and Kealey have just arrived in Hong Kong from their European training base in London. They ran on Wednesday morning on nearby Bowen Road as the typhoon warning "8" was hoisted and at Happy Valley Racecourse that evening as Kammuri was battering the airport on Lantau Island in its parting blast. In between times, Johnson went in to town to find a computer repair shop, only to find everything closed.

Hong Kong was back to normal yesterday, the mid-city hustle and bustle picking up again without missing a beat.

The hotels were emptying out the many passengers stranded overnight, the airlines working frantically to get them on rescheduled flights. Public apologies were issued for the delays, a touch of sincerity welcomed no doubt by those more accustomed to the more typically Australian, "we're sorry, but it's not our fault" approach.

One of Johnson's Olympic marathon teammates, Kate Smyth, has been here for some days. The other, Lisa Jane Weightman, put her trip back a day, as did late 1500 metres selection Jeff Riseley, after their Melbourne-Hong Kong flights were significantly delayed.

The tracks in Hong Kong vary from smooth, to rough and some are punctuated with long flights of stone steps. Not ideal for long periods of world-class distance running, but Johnson and her teammates are here to acclimatise and to put in their final preparation.

The slightly rougher terrain, she said, made you watch your step which, paradoxically, made the run go by more quickly. At Happy Valley, on the internal roadway, the hype of a pending big race would tend to make you gradually pick up the pace to self-destructive speeds.

After jogging around for a couple of days, Johnson will get into some faster training today, when she does some surges along Bowen Road.

Kealey, in the 1500m, and Mitchell, the 3000m steeplechase, both ran themselves into the Olympic team with performances overseas after the national championships.

As winner of the national title, Kealey and second-placed Brad Woods, were both given the opportunity to show improved form.

Kealey ran another B-standard in the 1500m in Doha in May, then went to Europe where he got the A-standard, clinching his spot at the Oslo Golden League meeting.

Since then he has trained with the Nic Bideau group at St Moritz, then ran a personal best for the mile at London's Crystal Palace two weeks ago.

Kealey is coming into the Olympics lightly raced and said yesterday he was relatively fresh and on the up. Coached by Roy Rankin in Queensland, Beijing will be his first major meeting in the Australian senior team. Mitchell had her best year in the 3000m steeplechase in 2006, when she finished fourth in the Commonwealth Games final and then fourth in the World Cup in Athens, having run her personal best in the steeple two months earlier in the season.

Mitchell qualified for the steeple in France this year, running nine minutes 43.21 seconds, but a flat 3000m 9:04.11 in Ireland last month suggests she is capable of going significantly quicker in Beijing.

The middle- and long-distance contingent here will reach its full strength with the arrival early next week of 5000m runners Craig Mottram and Collis Birmingham and marathoner Lee Troop. The following day, the first of them will start to head into Beijing.

Kealey and Riseley will be in action on the first day of the athletics competition in the 1500m heats, as will Mitchell and Donna MacFarlane in the steeple.

Tamsyn Lewis and Madeleine Pape will be in the 800m heats the same day.

The women's marathon is on next Sunday, although organisers have said some endurance events may be rescheduled if pollution levels are dangerously high in Beijing.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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