Rising 800m star Joseph Deng to face two top English runners in a pre-game meet

THE next lesson of Queenslander Joseph Deng’s athletics education will be to race two top Englishmen in Brisbane before his Commonwealth Games debut.

THE next lesson of Queenslander Joseph Deng’s athletics education will be to race two top Englishmen in Brisbane before his Commonwealth Games debut.

Kyle Langford, who placed fourth in last year’s world championships 800m final, and Elliot Giles, who was fourth at the world indoor titles last week, have entered the March 28 meet at Nathan’s State Athletics Facility.

Deng, 19, was selected with an eye to the future as Australia’s discretionary third runner in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games.

Joseph Deng (left) has been selected as Australia’s discretionary third runner at the Commonwealth Games.

Deng and national 800m final runner-up Joshua Ralph are the pick of the Australian entries for the SAF meet, with 800m champion Luke Mathews electing to race in the 1500m instead.

“Joseph’s time (1min45.71sec at the national titles last month) rates him quite highly in terms of 19-year-olds,’’ Deng’s coach Justin Rinaldi said.

“Last year’s world championships finalists and the 2016 Olympic finalists, when they were 19, were running similar times, if not slower than Joseph is doing now. So he has plenty of upside.’’

Deng was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his mother left South Sudan to get away from a war.

Britain's Elliot Giles in action at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

He was aged six when his family moved to Australia, settling in Toowoomba.

Deng moved to Melbourne in January last year to be coached by Rinaldi and 2006 Commonwealth 400m champion John Steffensen was among the fans, quipping on Twitter that he had contracted “Deng fever’’.

Queensland’s national sprint double champion Riley Day has scrapped a plan to compete at this week’s national under-20 championships in Sydney, instead opting to race next at an open Sydney meet on Saturday.

It is also a meet on Sally Pearson’s pre-Games 100m hurdles race schedule, as well as the first of the two Brisbane international meets, on March 22.

“Riley is not competing in the Australian juniors as we want to get some really hard training sessions in over the next couple of weeks to be at her very best come Commonwealth Games time,’’ Day’s coach Donna Thomas said.

“She will have a run in the Sydney classic that weekend.’’

Originally published as Rising 800m star Joseph Deng to face two top English runners in a pre-game meet