Solomon mines rich vein of form

YOUNG speedster Steven Solomon recorded his second consecutive national 400-metre title, taking out the event in a personal best time at the 2012 Australian Athletics Championships in Melbourne.

Solomon crossed the line in his fastest-ever time of 45.54 seconds, almost three-quarters of a second quicker than the runner-up.

“Yeah, I’m very happy,” Solomon, 18, told The AJN.

“To run a personal best [PB] in the final is very pleasing, [because] we didn’t taper for this event.

“It was more of a last-minute decision to run it to see how the block of training I’ve been in is working, and obviously this brings great confidence to me and my coach.”

Solomon qualified second fastest with a time of 46.58 in the semifinal.

“I felt pretty good, [because] I was pretty flat at the start of the week,” Solomon said. “It’s been a massive month of training and to still come out and run a PB is very pleasing.”

The young gun is about to head off to the United States to compete in the Penn Relays event with the Australian 4 x 400m relay team. The group must get a solid result in order to qualify for the relay event at the London Olympics later this year.

“The relay is huge,” Solomon said. “We are outside the top 16 in the world, so it’s an absolute priority to get back inside the top 16 and make sure we qualify for the relay.”

Solomon is also eyeing the 2012 International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championships in Barcelona in July, an event he has already qualified for with his previous runs from the Sydney and Melbourne Track Classics.

Meanwhile, Victorian Linda Allen came second in the women’s long jump event, falling just short of first place with a leap of 13.24m. Allen also took part in the women’s triple jump, but could only manage ninth place.

Jason Kozica put in a solid performance in the 5000m walk, placing fifth in the event won by Australian champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jared Tallent.

ASHLEY SHENKER

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