Melbourne: not quite as expected
May be the expectations were too high and also the weather was not good, it was cold and windy; the Melbourne Track Classic remained quite far behind last week's Sydney Track Classic in the Competition Rankings.
Jamaica's Asafa Powell and local hero Steve Hooker were the two biggest stars of the traditional international meeting in Australia.
Powell won the men's 100m in style with a time of 10.23 seconds that he ran into a -1.4 m/s headwind.
“The wind makes a lot of difference, I’m not feeling bad about that race because the wind was tough and the conditions were cold," said Powell.
World number one pole vaulter Steve Hooker, partly disturbed by the windy conditions, defeated the world number two, Yevgeniy Lukyanenko of Russia. The winning effort was at 5.80m.
“The tailwind helped me move through the poles in my set and the last pole I attempted was the biggest pole I’ve attempted all season,” Hooker said. “I felt it was there, but the fact that the wind was a little blustery just made it a little difficult to predict where to put the stands."
Australian long jumper Fabrice Lapierre profited from a maximum level of legal wind-help and marked a notable 8.18m. Good news for the Australians that 21 year-old Mitchell Watt improved his best yet again and finished on second with 8.11m
Another young Australian, Dani Samuels shined in the women's Discus throw. She won the event a week ago in Sydney and now she won in Melbourne with a world leading 62.69m. Aimin Song of China threw just over 61m for the second place.
Former World champion Betrice Faumuina and reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton were just fourth and sixth respectively.
New Zealand's World and Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams-Vili has yet another victory under her belt.
The sprints, the hurdles and all the other running events were affected negatively by the wind.
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