Sally Pearson will only race against seven other Commonwealth athletes in 60m hurdles at world indoor titles

A THIN entry of only seven other Commonwealth athletes have their names down alongside that of Sally Pearson in the 60m hurdles at the world indoor titles in Birmingham, England.

Sally Pearson will only race against seven other competitors in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Titles in Birmingham.

A THIN entry of only seven other Commonwealth athletes have their names down alongside that of Sally Pearson in the 60m hurdles at the world indoor titles in Birmingham, England.

Jamaicans Jeanine Williams and Rushelle Burton, Britons Marilyn Nwawulor and Megan Marrs, Canada’s Angela Whyte and Devynne Charlton, of the Bahamas, join Australians Pearson and Michelle Jenneke among the 41 women listed for the heats of the 60m hurdles

on Friday morning (Australian time).

Americans Sharika Nelvis (7.70 sec), Kendra Harrison (7.72) and Christina Manning (7.73) have the season’s best three times.

Pearson has a 7.73 personal best in the 60m indoors, which she has raced infrequently, although she won the 60m title at the 2012 world indoor championships and took silver two years later.

Sally Pearson will only race against seven other competitors in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Titles in Birmingham.

Pearson, Australia’s world 100m hurdles champion, had a glamorous night out when she was a finalist at the Laureus sports awards in Monte Carlo.

Pearson lost out in the world sport comeback of the year category to winner Roger Federer, with other nominees being football teams Barcelona and Chapecoense, MotorGP rider Valentino Rossi and world 100m champion Justin Gatlin. Federer was the sportsman of the year award, with the sportswoman award going to another tennis player, Serena Williams, despite playing only one tournament in 2017, the Australian Open which she won.

Australia has a team of seven at the world athletics indoors, rounded out by 60m hurdles exponent Nick Hough, Ryan Gregson (1500m), pole vaulters Nina Kennedy and Kurtis Marschall and Damien Birkinhead (shot put).

The final of the women’s 60m hurdles in Birmingham is 6.55am on Sunday (Queensland time).

It is not clear which Jamaican women will contest the 100m hurdles at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next month, but Whyte, an heptathlete, has indicated she wants to undertake multiple events at each of two meets in Brisbane, on March 22 and March 28, as part of her Games preparation.

Pearson expects to race only at the March 22 meet.

“That’s two weeks ahead of when I race at the Commonwealth Games,’’ she said.

“That does depend on how I do pull up from the world indoors and how my body is feeling. Everything is geared for the Commonwealth Games and being fit and ready for that.’’

Harrison is well known to Australian observers, having gone to last year’s world titles with four of the year’s six fastest times of 2017, only to clip hurdles in the final, placing fourth behind Pearson.

Originally published as Sally Pearson will only race against seven other Commonwealth athletes in 60m hurdles at world indoor titles