Australia’s fastest woman accepts that this time there are no excuses. It is time to run quickly not talk fast.
Melissa Breen enters the Commonwealth Games unlike any other major competition she has been to. There was no late scramble to qualify, no sapping illness, instead she has a new national record, solid form in Europe and an ideal preparation.
If there is a lingering query by her sporting masters over her ability to perform at championship level as they did when they weighed up her right to funding then now, she accepts, is time to answer them.
“It is time to do that (perform on the big stage),” she said ahead of the Commonwealth Games. “There are no excuses …. it has been an awesome prep.”
She feels ready, and consequently not intimidated by the calibre of runner in the other lanes or over-awed by the moment.
“I am not scared any more, I am excited to see what I can do, I am in great shape. It is up to me now to go and execute and put it together on the day,” she said.
Controversially Breen was not funded by Athletics Australia when she set a new national record, which prompted philanthropist Susan Alberti to step forward with a cheque. When AA funding was later reviewed and Breen received less than expected again Alberti stumped up the cash.
Athlete funding is based in part on a matrix that guesses at the likelihood of an athlete making a final or winning a medal at a major championship.
Being the fastest ever Australian does not necessarily equate to being one of the fastest in the world: Breen’s 11.11 second record would have placed her eighth in the final at last year’s world championships.
“Ideally the end result (in Glasgow) would be to make that final, that is the goal,” Breen said.
“I hope I can produce an 11.1 or quicker and make that final. I guess when you come to majors times are a little bit irrelevant it is about beating people so if it takes an 11.1 or an 11.0 or an 11.6 in horrendous conditions then that is the time it is going to be but I want to put myself in that mix and get to that final and be top eight in the Commonwealth.”
When Breen set the new national record early this year the surprise was that it was Breen who did it. Not because she lacks talent but because it was assumed Sally Pearson would be the woman to set the new mark. Pearson had routinely beaten Breen, and has beaten her since, but it is Breen who has the record,
In Glasgow, Pearson is now set to be one fewer rivals for that place in the finals, the Australian champion hurdler almost certain not to attempt the sprint-hurdle double.
Pearson had also been like Breen hopeful of just making a final given the quality of the field. Unlike other Commonwealth Games sports, the women's sprint field is almost as strong as any Olympic or world championship field. Essentially, only the Americans who are missing.
Dual Olympic gold medallist and reigning world champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce will be there along with Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye who is unbeaten this year and has the quickest time of any Commonwealth athlete for the season with a season’s best 10.85s.
In Monaco last week Fraser-Price had her best run since returning from a leg injury, finishing sixth in a season’s best 11.01s. She was beaten by multiple world and Olympic gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown, who will run the sprint double in Glasgow, who ran 10.96s. Campbell-Brown has four times this year run under 11 seconds.
“In Glasgow at the Diamond league I almost got one of the Jamaicans and it was not my best run so it gives me confidence if I can execute a good race then I can take one of them down,” Breen said.
“Obviously we have an awesome field – Jamaica, Trinidad, Bahamas – but they can’t take up all the lanes. So hopefully there will be the little Australian there and that is the goal going in.”
The difference for Breen now is that she is in her best shape – peaking for a championship – and has not had to scramble about before the games trying to find fitness, or get qualified and arriving at the meet tired and not ready. Consequently she had felt undeserving around the serious runners in the field. This time it is different.
“Other years I have wanted it to be over,” she said. “I was really nervous about it and put a lot of pressure on myself and the last six months since breaking the record I have learnt a lot of perspective.
“It is a completely different build up this year, it could not be any different to last year or London for that matter. Last year I was quite sick and we were chasing our tail trying to do extra sessions rather than tapering and getting a bit lighter towards comp.
“In London I was running everywhere, I think I ran fifty races trying to get that qualifier so I was tipping over the edge, so this is the first year we have been able to stick to a plan and really do the right thing.
“And it is different, it is a different feeling. At the beginning I was actually feeling a bit nervous about it because I had never actually completed a proper prep for a major it was always a bit crazy so this is the first year it has felt like this.”
