Commonwealth Games: Sally Pearson ditches plan to race in Sydney as part of preparation

SALLY Pearson has altered her Commonwealth Games lead-up plans and intends to race twice in Brisbane this month.

SALLY Pearson has altered her Commonwealth Games lead-up plans and intends to race twice in Brisbane this month.

Pearson ditched her plan to race in Sydney tomorrow night in assessing her preparation after she returned from the world indoor titles in England two weeks ago.

The two-time Commonwealth 100m hurdles champion’s tentative schedule is to race at Nathan’s State Athletics Facility on Thursday night and at the same venue again on March 28, her manager Robert Joske said.

Canadian Angela Whyte is among the early 100m hurdles entries for the March 28 meet, which will have a strong international flavour.

Athletes will be prone to cancel entries or in other cases request competition depending on how they feel their Games preparations are going.

Hurdles queen Sally Pearson will race twice in Brisbane this month.

Pearson, who will go to the Games as one of Australia’s few favourites for a track gold medal, has her scheduled final of the 100m hurdles at Carrara Stadium on April 13.

England’s sole Games 100m hurdles selection is Tiffany Porter, a former European champion in the event.

The Sydney Grand Prix meet on Saturday will be notable for a 100m women’s race in which Queensland’s national sprint double champion Riley Day goes up against England’s 200m world championships finalist Dina Asher-Smith.

Asher-Smith was fourth in last year’s world titles final in the 200m, a distance she has entered for the Brisbane meet on March 28.

The English sprinter has a 22.07 sec personal best in the 200m, in which she also made the 2016 Rio Olympics final.

Sally Pearson is a strong favourite for Commonwealth Games gold.

Day’s coach Donna Thomas withdrew her from this week’s Australian under-20 titles, which required running in rounds, to prioritise training in the time since the open nationals last month.

Day, 17, will be keen to see if she can trim her personal best of 22.97 in the 200m, which she says is her preferred event, over the next month.

“Every time she goes out there she wants to win and she hates not to run a PB,’’ Thomas said.

“She’s always wanting to do more. She has that enthusiasm which pays off in the end.’’

The women’s 200m on March 28 will be one of the meet’s strong events, with Canada’s 2017 world titles finalist Crystal Emmanuel, England’s 2014 Commonwealth Games 200m bronze medallist Bianca Williams and England’s reigning European under-23 200m champion Finette Agyapong also entered.

Originally published as Commonwealth Games: Sally Pearson ditches plan to race in Sydney as part of preparation