Cam Myers and Jess Hull have both delivered superb performances on the track to give Australia an impressive final day of the inaugural Ultimate Athletics Championship in Budapest.
Myers ran what he felt was a “perfect” race as he again finished runner-up to Commonwealth Games mile champion Josh Kerr in the 1,500 metres, while Hull was second in the 5,000m as they both picked up $US75,000 ($105,000) for their efforts.
“Sometimes you run a perfect race and it’s still not enough,” Myers wrote on Instagram.
Ultimately, the Australian challenge ended without a victory in the sport’s new, lucrative three-day global event.
There was a disappointing start to the night when 21-year-old Torrie Lewis withdrew from the 200m with injury, a day after the country’s fastest man, Lachlan Kennedy, failed to make the men’s 100m final by 0.05 of a second.
Hull, as she does so often, immediately lifted the mood, though.
After fading to ninth in Saturday’s 1,500m final, she was an outsider in the longer event with her best time among the slowest in the field, but with the race run at a steady pace, both she and Commonwealth champ Rose Davies settled into the pack.
Runaway winner Likina Amebaw injected some serious speed to open a 30m lead with two laps to go, but Hull turned on her afterburners to find a way through on the inside and snatch a brilliant second behind the Ethiopian star in a massive lifetime best of 14 minutes and 32.39 seconds.
“That’s much more reflective of the athlete I am,” Hull said.
“I don’t have an answer for the 1,500m last night. I was just quick to say, ‘Forget about it and move on.’ I’ve been able to do that a few times in a 5K now — bounce back — so I’m really proud of that. I’ve had a great year.”
The men’s 1,500m was one of the deepest fields of the competition — even without Norwegian great Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who withdrew after winning the 5,000m — as mile world record holder Kerr, Olympic champion Cole Hocker and last year’s surprise world champion Isaac Nader all lined up.
Cameron Myers (left) had to settle for second behind Josh Kerr (right) again. (Getty Images: Martin Rickett/PA Images)
But 20-year-old Myers was more than qualified to operate in such company after winning the Diamond League final in Brussels a week ago.
Annoyed at how he raced when losing to Kerr over the mile in the Commonwealth Games, he ran a much smarter race in Hungary, extricating himself from the inside at the bell to move second and give himself clear track to try to reel in Kerr.
The Briton did not falter, clocking 3:29.35 and leaving Myers to settle for second in 3:29.68.
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“It’s bittersweet,” Myers said.
“I thought at 200m to go that I was going to give it a proper crack. I felt like I wasn’t working too hard.
“At 100m I thought I still had a good chance and then I came to 50 to go and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s what a world record holder looks like.’
“So, he was just too strong today, but I think I ran a perfect race.”
Myers said he had an “awesome season” and made a real step up after years of collecting age-group records and titles.
“This is me becoming the athlete I wanted to be,” he said.
The event closed in front of another capacity 20,000 crowd with two excellent 200m finals where American duo Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden — whose 21.47-second run made her the third-fastest ever over the distance — completed 100/200m doubles to earn $US300,000 ($419,000) each.
AAP
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