Tamsyn Manou’s ‘final’ race could be the start of another, unexpected Olympic adventure

WHAT was supposed to be Tamsyn Manou’s farewell tour this summer, could end up being one of the great comeback stories in Australian sport.

Scott Gullan Sydney

3 min read

April 2, 2016 - 5:22PM

AT around 3.35pm on Sunday Tamsyn Manou could have a big decision to make.

There’s every chance the 37-year-old would have just won her 19th Australian title in the women’s 800m final.

Should the clock at the side of the finish line at Sydney Olympic Park read anything under 2min 01.50 sec then life gets a whole lot more interesting for Manou and the Australian athletics hierarchy.

Should the former world indoor champion go under that time, she will be selected for the Olympic Games in Rio.

What was supposed to be her farewell tour this summer, could end up being one of the great comeback stories in Australian sport.

Adding to the dilemma is the fact Manou has been pencilled in for a commentary gig with Channel Seven in Rio.

“I’m not thinking about teams, my daughter comes first but if I ran 2:01.50 I would have to have a serious conversation with my husband,” Manou said after comfortably winning Friday night’s second heat in 2:06.23 sec.

“My daughter comes first. For me in my head this is my last race and I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Manou effectively retired after not being selected for the London 2012 Olympics and then had her first child, Izabella, in August 2014.

Manou cruised through the heats at the Australian Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park.

But her love of running never dimmed so she started training again at her local club where her brother, Justin, coaches a group of promising juniors.

“Like most new mums I wanted to drop some of the weight and look like I used to before I had her,” Manou explains.

“I was so fortunate that my brother coaches such a good bunch of girls, I went down there and it was so much fun.”

There has always been a sense of unfinished business for Manou who was devastated at the treatment she received from the Athletics Australia hierarchy, including chief selector Dion Russell and head coach Eric Hollingsworth, over her non-selection for London.

“It would be pretty funny (if I ran the time) because then the head selector who left me out with (a time of) two minutes flat would have to look at the email he wrote me in 2012 and pick me,” she said.

“That would be quite funny because that email was really mean and it hurt me a lot.

“After 2012 I was going to retire, I was so disappointed that I didn’t get picked.

“The only way I knew to get over that is to go to the training track the next day so I never stopped, I just chose to run for those who supported me and that was my club.

“I’m torn because I love it and I’m torn because I still feel I can do it.”

Adding to her anger is the fact the Olympic qualifying time in 2012 was 1:59.90 sec whereas it’s now out to 2:01.50 sec — a byproduct of the changing of the landscape in the event which has been decimated by a large number of drug suspensions, mainly out of Russia.

“That hurts because I ran 2:00 flat at nationals in 2011 and won by three seconds, I won the trial in 2012 by two seconds so it hurts because it was ex-athletes leaving me off,” Manou, whose personal best is 1:59.21 sec from January 2000, said.

Tamsyn Manou is an ex-Olympic runner, but could qualify for Rio on Sunday.

“And obviously the head coach and I didn’t get along.

“But there is nothing you can do about it, if you look back and focus on that then you’re bitter.

“Because I spend a lot of time with a lot of athletes at club level I know how lucky I am. I’ve had a really great career, I went to three Olympics and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved.”

Her one regret is that she doesn’t equally hold the Australian record which has belonged to Charlene Rendina with a hand-timed 1:59.00 from 1976.

“The Australian record is hand-timed, of the top 15 times I hold 14 of them and they’re all electronic,” she said.

“I’ve run 1:58 high hand-timed but because there was electronic timing there also it doesn’t count.

“I would love for them to one day say you hold it equally with Charlene and then for one of these juniors, like a Sarah Billings, to come out and smash it.”

TAMSYN MANOU

Age: 37

Personal best: 1:59.21 sec (January 2000)

Achievements:

2010 World 800m Indoor Champion