Olympians Shine as Birtwhistle Steps-up
16 Jun 2013
Olympians Ben St Lawrence and Lisa Weightman were crowned Australian 10km Road Running Champions after winning yesterday’s B&E Launceston Ten. While 18 year old Launceston athlete, Jake Birtwhistle proved his hype, placing third overall ahead of his much more experienced and highly credentialed competitors.
The men and women's races couldn't have been more varied, with the top four women being separated at the finish by only 30m, while St Lawrence took victory by almost a minute, after going out at world record pace for the first 5km.
“I won by a long way, but I didn’t do it easy,” St Lawrence said.
“The conditions were great on the way out, with a nice tailwind, so I turned at 5k in a touch over 13:30, which is right on world record pace, but then I turned and hit the wind and got significantly slower on the way back.
“I wanted to make it a race where the fittest man won and there was no point dawdling on the way out, so I thought make it fast from the start and that seemed to work,” St Lawrence said after clocking 29minutes 8seconds.
With the wind hampering any chance of a course record, the Australian 10,000m record holder was still happy with his performance and will now head to Europe for his next campaign.
“This was my final hit out in Australia and I head to Europe in two weeks time for the world championships in Moscow in August,” the 31 year old said.
It was the first win in a Tasmanian fun run for the Sydneysider, with previous podium efforts at the B&E Hobart Run the Bridge and B&E Burnie Ten.
“I love supporting community events like this and every chance I get to come down to Tasmania and do events like I do. It’s really good to win, because I’m the current Australian 10,000m champion on the track also and it is really good to get a win on the streets as well.
Previous winner Liam Adams finished in second, with 18 year old Launceston local Jake Birtwhistle causing the biggest sensation of the day to place third overall.
“I stoked, really happy with how I went. It’s probably the, if not one of the highest quality 10km races in Australia, so this field is pretty big, so I’m stoked to come home third and first Tasmanian as well,” Birtwhistle said.
In the process he defeated Olympians Marty Dent and Lee Troop, to win his first state open title and claim the bronze medal in the Australian open 10km championships.
The women’s race proved to be the most competitive, with Weightman running 33:22, to defend her national crown ahead of race record holder Nikki Chapple, former winner Lara Tamsett and 2012 runner up Jess Trengove.
“It was actually a really good opportunity to do a good 5k hit out on the way out with the wind at our back. So I went through the halfway point feeling pretty good and then we hit the wind and we all had a bit of a mental and physical battle on the way back,” 34 year old Weightman said.
“Last year I pretty much ran on my own the whole way, with a bit of company from a few local boys, this year to have the opportunity to run against some of the best female distance runners in Australia was a nice opportunity to race each other.
“This year I lead out to about 5km and then we all sat in with a couple of the boys on the way back. We were all together at about 6-7km, then I latched onto one of the boys in the final kilometer and raced him to the line which got me away from the girls,” Weightman added.
Chapple, Tamsett and Trengove will now finalise their preparations for August, where they will compete for Australia at the World Championships in Moscow.
2002 participants were involved in the B&E Launceston Ten and Launceston Sport and Surf 2k, in what was the seventh edition of the event.