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Global Meet=2006 Early StartJanuary 23, 2006
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Australia will host the 2006 British Commonwealth Games at Melbourne; the track and field athletics portion is March 19-25. Heats for women's 3000-meter steeplechase are at mid-day on Sunday, March 19; the final is on Wednesday evening, March 22.
Australia's team roster for the Games will be settled in early February at the national championships where women's steeple is scheduled for 1905 Sunday, Feb. 5. Meanwhile, preliminary meets down under have displayed some 2005 leaders, new stars, and the return of a young AUS steeple pioneer.
Victoria Mitchell became an AUS favorite with 9:47.54 for second place at the World University Games in Turkey last August. Then qualifying marks under 10 minutes were achieved in early winter meets by Tasmania's Donna Macfarlane, Sydney's Madeline Heiner -- a 17-year-old student, plus neighboring New Zealand's Fiona Crombie and Rebecca Furlong.
As fans looked toward to a match of these Games candidates at the Sydney Track Classic on Jan 19, an earlier but lesser-noticed "handicap" flat race at 1600 meters matched Mitchell and Macfarlane -- plus an encore by Melissa Rollison, Australia's original world-class female steepler who began in the 1990s..
On 25 Feb 2000, two months before age 17, Rollison lowered the world junior record for 3000m steeple to 10:10.73. Observers said she would have run even faster had she not fallen in the water when she was surprised to find a fallen runner there. (The incident helped other steeplers later by reducing usage of a vision-blocking "seal" between the water jump uprights, an extra-cost device not in IAAF rules.)
Rollison ran a few more 3km steeples, including 2001 Goodwill Games victory in 9:30.70 with a short 3.06m / 10 feet water jump, and a personal best of 9:56.92 with standard 3.66m /12 feet water jump to win the 2002 AUS Championship. But reports in recent years showed her in only some flat races. Then last weekend she became the 2006 world leader.
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