Riseley’s hard, long yards

By Marc McGowan
HARKAWAY middle-distance runner Jeff Riseley won his first national title in a career-defining performance at the Australian Athletics Championships on Saturday night.
Riseley, 22, entered last week’s Brisbane-based competition with the pressure of two previous failed national championship campaigns.
But he dominated his 1500m rivals on the weekend, recording a personal best of 3:35.71 to finish almost two seconds ahead of New South Welshman Jeremy Roff.
Riseley’s time was a world championships A-standard qualifier and a meet record, and he became the second fastest Australian on home soil.
“It was a good way to finish off the season,” he said.
“It takes all the pressure off now. If I hadn’t have run the time at nationals then we probably wouldn’t have cared about world champs.
“Now we can basically just race the races we want and get ready for the world champs.”
Riseley joins 38 other athletes in the Australian squad for the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany, from 15 to 23 August.
Roff, who Riseley also defeated at the Melbourne World Athletics Tour meeting at Olympic Park this month, is also in the team.
Riseley was particularly pleased to have booked a spot on his own terms after requiring discretionary selection at the Olympic Games and last world championships.
“I’ve always been a very late call-up and I had to really fight for my Olympic one, so it’s good to have been selected by what I’ve done on the track,” he said.
“It’s good to not have to find out really late and be chasing it and have to fight for it and to know what you’ve done during the season got you selected.”
Riseley was confident about his chances after taking an eight-race winning streak into the national championships.
“I knew training was going really well and I just hadn’t had the race to get it (the A-standard qualifier) done,” he said.
“Another good thing about winning the national title was I’d never performed well at a major championships.
“Last year I was injured, so I had an excuse, but the year before I’d run fast in Melbourne, had won Melbourne, then went to nationals a week later and sort of couldn’t get it done.
“I could have beaten Roffy all year, but if he’d beaten me at nationals he’s the national champion and I couldn’t say I was the better runner for the season.”
Riseley is training twice daily in Broadbeach, Queensland, ahead of hernia surgery in Melbourne on Friday.
He is expecting around a two-week recovery period from the surgery before turning his attention to a European assault in mid-June.
“(Manager) Nic (Bideau) has a strong belief in me and we believe I have a lot more in me than 3:35.7,” Riseley said.
“They were pretty blustery conditions (on Saturday night) and weren’t that great, but you just have to put your head down and get on with it.
“I ran the last 500m on my own, so I definitely think I can go a lot faster. I just need to keep training hard and it will come.”