Jeff Riseley, shown relaxing at his Harkaway home with Buster, narrowly missed out on reaching the 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin yesterday morning. 12310 By Marc McGowan
HARKAWAY Olympian Jeff Riseley’s coach believes he is a Commonwealth Games medal contender after reaching the 1500m semi-finals at the World Athletics Championships this week.
Renowned Knox Athletics Club distance mentor Richard Huggins co-coaches 22-year-old Riseley with UK-based Nic Bideau.
Riseley, who won his first national title in March, finished 10th in his semi-final in Berlin yesterday morning in 3:38.00 – just over eight-tenths of a second behind Mauritius’ Abdalaati Iguider, who scored the last final place.
He is now the fastest Australian in a world championships, overtaking Simon Doyle’s 1991 effort in Stuttgart.
“I felt like I put myself in the right positions and it was definitely an improvement on the heat,” Riseley told Fox Sports after the race.
“But I just couldn’t find that extra gear I was able to two days ago and it’s disappointing.
“I felt like I was a shot at making the final if I could put it together and I just couldn’t quite do it tonight.”
Riseley clocked a personal-best time of 3:32.93 – only Doyle has run faster out of Australian athletes – at the Golden League meeting in Rome last month to instil confidence of a breakthrough performance at this level.
He made his debut for Australia at the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka before also representing his country at the Beijing Olympics last year.
Riseley failed to make it out of the heats on both occasions, but timed his final sprint perfectly in his heat on Sunday to nab the fourth automatic qualifying spot.
He had to survive an interference protest, but Australian officials successfully defended him – clearing the way for him to take his place in the semi-finals.
Riseley couldn’t quite replicate his heat heroics in his tough semi-final, which featured Kenyan 1500m favourite Asbel Kiprop.
But his grandmother Joan, who watched the race from the family’s Harkaway home in the early hours of yesterday morning, was still immensely proud of his display.
“He must be so pleased with the run and he’s worked really, really hard to get as far as he’s got and he’s done really well overseas this year,” she said.
“The very first time he went to Tasmania, probably two years ago, his mum and dad (Wendy and Steve) couldn’t go and we went with him and we’ve followed him all around Australia and we went to Osaka.
“I reckon he’s come on great since he started – couldn’t be better. It makes you very proud.”
Riseley is setting himself for a top result at next year’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, believing he will be “bigger, stronger and ready to match it” with the world’s elite. Huggins is similarly confident his runner can make a major impact at the international competition.
“I think Jeff could medal,” he said.
“He’s come a long way. He would be disappointed (with his semi-final performance), but he’ll get over it.
“The good thing with Jeff is he hasn’t had a major injury – he’s had niggles – for nearly two years and that’s probably been one of the really good things about his progression.
“If he can maintain that, he will get better and stronger and quicker.
“Everybody who’s worked with him and everyone who knows him are very proud of him, including myself.
“He’s a great kid – he’s not a big head – he’s got a good personality and he’s just a normal kid.”
