Sally Pearson chasing season-best time at Queensland athletics championships

SALLY Pearson will chase a season-best time at the Queensland athletics championships in Brisbane on Sunday in her third 100m hurdles event of the season.

Sally Pearson acknowledges the spectators after competing in and winning the women's 100 metre hurdles during the Jandakot Airport Perth Track Classic at WA.

SALLY Pearson will chase a season-best time at the Queensland athletics championships in Brisbane on Sunday in her third 100m hurdles event of the season.

The typically forthright Pearson called her time in a 100m hurdles win in Canberra on Saturday “disappointing” but nothing she could not accept with the Gold Coast Games still more than two months away.

The Commonwealth Games champion and gold-medal favourite ran into a 1.2m/s headwind to clock 12.87 sec, comfortably seeing off runner-up Brianna Beahan (13.15) and Rio Olympian Michelle Jenneke (13.40).

Pearson has entered only the 100m hurdles at the three-day state titles, which start on Friday at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre.

The world champion has the national titles from February 15-18 at Carrara Stadium and the world indoor titles in Birmingham, England, from March 1-4 prominently on her schedule before the Gold Coast Games from April 4-15.

“I was pretty disappointed (12.87). It is not a setback, these things happen,’’ Pearson told reporters in Canberra.

Sally Pearson competes in the women's 100 metre hurdles during the Jandakot Airport Perth Track Classic at WA.

“It’s only January and I’ve got plenty of time before the Commonwealth Games.

“I’m going really well in training, obviously I don’t peak for these type of competitions, we peak for the majors. Hopefully the times will come down, which I know they will.”

Queensland Athletics has scheduled a heat of the women’s 100m hurdles on Sunday afternoon with a final later.

Two of Queensland’s prime young sprinters, Riley Day and Trae Williams, recorded 100m personal bests to strongly push their claims for Commonwealth Games 4x100m relay berths.

Williams’s time of 10.23 in running the closest of thirds in the 100m ACT championships final won by NSW’s Rohan Browning (also 10.23) was his second Commonwealth Games B-qualifier time of the meet.

Williams, Brisbane’s 20-year-old reigning national 100m champion, clocked 10.24 in winning his heat, better than his personal best of 10.27 from March, 2016.

Browning was revealed to have to stopped the clock at 10.225 in the final, with runner-up Jack Hale, of Tasmania, and Williams both measured at 10.228, with the time for all three sprinters rounded up to 10.23.

“Our 4x100m relay team for the Commonwealth Games is going to be unreal. If we can work on those changes and get that baton around, I think we will possibly get a medal,” Williams said.

Day, 17, lowered her personal best 100m time from 11.59 to 11.52 in her first final of the season.

Queensland triple jumper Shem Jones landed a whopping 53cm personal best of 16.42m to lodge a Games B-qualifier and win the competition from Sydney’s Emmanuel Fakiye (16.26m).

Australia has not had a triple jump representative at a Commonwealth Games since the 2006 Melbourne Games.

Originally published as Sally Pearson chasing season-best time at Queensland athletics championships