Thomas Beats Worlds Best in Sydney
01 Mar 2009
Tristan Thomas has achieved some record breaking performances this season, but last night he scored the biggest win of his career.
With the ink still drying on the state record he set last weekend in Canberra, Thomas went one better last night, beating the current world champion, Bershawn Jackson of the USA at the Sydney Track Classic.
For Thomas, his time of 48.86sec was his fourth consecutive personal best this year. He also becomes only the second Australian ever to run under 49sec, with Rohan Robinson the national record holder at 48.28sec. His performance is also a new state record and gives the 22 year old his second world championships ‘A’ qualifier.
The win was convincing by Thomas, as Jackson clocked 49.06 and the current Commonwealth Champion LJ VanZyl of South Africa who placed third in 50.42sec.
Thomas isn’t getting carried away with himself however, acknowledging that his international counterparts were in different phases of their training. “In the end, it probably worked out as well as it could have done for me.
Jackson is in winter training and he had a few errors on the backstraight, so I was happy that I held my nerve and could get someone of that calibre.”
Given the event is so technical, the TIS athlete is still looking for ways in which he can slice even more time off his efforts. “I’m making the same errors every week, but I’m just getting better at dealing with them,” insisted Thomas.
His next chance will be on Thursday when he lines up at the World Athletics Tour meeting in Melbourne.
