Talented local middle-distance runner Jeff Riseley will represent the senior Australian team for the first time after being selected for the world championships in Osaka, Japan, this month.GIFTED former Narre Warren little athlete Jeff Riseley will head to Osaka, Japan, this month after being named in the Australian team for the world championships on Tuesday.
The selection caps a superb 2007 for the middle-distance runner, who has burst onto the scene after not even competing at last year’s Commonwealth Games Selection Trials.
Riseley’s breakthrough came at Melbourne’s Telstra A Series event in March, when he ran 1:46.88 over 800 metres to become the fastest Australian over that distance this year.
The 20-year-old has not stopped there, and clocked B-standard world championship qualifiers and new personal bests in the 1500m at the Sheffield Grand Prix in July (3:38.56) and the 800m at the Stockholm Super Grand Prix last week (1:46.35).
Despite finishing runner-up to Nick Bromley in the 800m at the national championships in March, Riseley’s promise did not go unnoticed by selectors and they added him to the Australian team with an eye to next year’s Beijing Olympic Games.
He endured a rough introduction to top-level international competition at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand, this week.
Riseley qualified for the semi-finals, but came up against a field of experienced competitors who ran him ragged.
The talented local ultimately wound up fourth in a time of 1:48.33 to miss the final, and he was philosophical after the race.
“This was a great learning experience for me – eight blokes all going for it and tactically I struggled to match them,” he said.
“I had a lot of trouble and just couldn’t match them coming down the straight.”
The experience will no doubt help Riseley cope with the pressure-cooker environment of the World Championships, which start on 25 August, where he will contest the 800m.
The heats of his race are run on 30 August.
