Athletics 2021: All the latest news in countdown to Tokyo Olympics

Mentally spent, veteran 800m runner Jeff Riseley thought he was definitely done in 2018, with surgery required to just run pain free, but after a decade best time he’s off to his fourth Olympics.

The forgotten man of Australian athletics has risen again with Jeff Riseley qualifying for his fourth Olympics.

Riseley, 34, produced his fastest time for nine years running 1min44.85sec over 800m at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet in Poland which importantly took him under the Olympic qualifying standard of 1:45.20sec.

At the same meet, fellow Victorian Catriona Bisset broke her own Australian 800m record to rocket into medal calculations for Tokyo.

Bisset, 26, finished second behind Ethiopia‘s Freweyni Hailu in 1:58.09sec, moving her to fourth spot on the 2021 world rankings.

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Jeff Riseley will join Peter Bol in Tokyo after he also recently better the Olympic 800m standard.

Riseley will now join Peter Bol in Tokyo after he also recently better the Olympic 800m standard with their selections to be confirmed by next month‘s cut-off date.

It is a great story of perseverance for Riseley who made his Olympic debut in the 1500m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He contested the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games while he was fifth in both the 800m and 1500m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Aussie Jeff Riseley has qualified for his fourth Olympics after producing his fastest time in nine years.

“It’s been a challenging five years since Rio Olympics,” Riseley said. “In that time I’ve had some struggles with mental health, achilles surgery and then just the self doubt that comes with a long period of time between top performances.”

He admitted he almost retired in 2018 and had even got his parents to travel to Tokyo for what he thought was his final race.

“It was going to be my last race before retiring,” Riseley said. “I was battling a chronic achilles injury that I ended up having surgery on with the goal of just being able to run pain free and enjoy running again.

“ But I just couldn’t give it up and the journey really started there with the hope of one day experiencing the feeling you get after a result like last night.

“It’s pretty incredible to be heading to a fourth Olympics … personally it’s just been something I’ve wanted really badly to prove to myself the persistence and resilience I’ve shown throughout my career.”

Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Eleanor Patterson also produced a good result at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meet winning the women‘s high-jump with a best clearance of 1.96m.

Back at home her teammate Nicola McDermott, who set a new Australian record of 2.00m at the national championships in April, cleared 1.98m in Townsville.

Originally published as Athletics 2021: All the latest news in countdown to Tokyo Olympics