Sydney grand prix: Sprint star Riley Day gets early taste of the Commonwealth Games

Teen sprint sensation Riley Day has raced English medal contender Dina Asher-Smith at the Sydney athletics grand prix.

Riley Day of Queensland, Anneliese Rubie of New South Wales and Rumeshika Rathnayake of Sri Lanka compete in the Womens 200m during the Australian Athletics Sydney Grand Prix at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre.

Teen sprint sensation Riley Day got an early taste of Commonwealth Games competition racing English medal contender Dina Asher-Smith for the first time at the Sydney grand prix.

Asher-Smith began her campaign on Australian soil with a win in the 100m in 11.24 sec, ahead of the 17-year-old Day, who set a personal best of 11.50 sec.

Asher-Smith finished fourth in the 200m at last year’s world championships in London off six weeks of training after she recovered from a broken foot. She will be one of the leading medal contenders in that event on the Gold Coast.

Day confessed that she lost her concentration momentarily at the start racing an athlete of Asher-Smith’s calibre for the first time.

“I did not expect (a PB) at all,’’ Day said.

“I knew Dina would come out really fast and I lost my composure a little bit at the start seeing her get out so fast. But I regained myself and I’ll learn from that. I need to concentrate on myself at the start.

“It’s all good learned experience so I’m glad I did that and I have learned from it and now I can move on and get faster.

“I’m very grateful that she ran tonight, as well as the Sri Lankan. They gave me good competition. I love it. I don’t want to go out there and have an easy race. I want that tough competition always.’’

Day backed up to run the 200m as well, winning that race in 23.39 sec from Sri Lanka’s Rumeshika Rathnayake (23.62sec).

Riley Day in action.

In the men’s 200m, national champion Alex Hartmann made a great start and found some impressive speed to win in 20.65 sec, just a tenth of a second slower than his time in last month’s national final.

Another future star, 17-year-old Bendere Oboya warmed up for her Commonwealth Games debut by winning her first national 400m race from dual national champion Morgan Mitchell.

Ethiopian-born Oboya went into the race vowing to “run my heart out’’ and put in confident and calculated performance. She kept Mitchell in her sights for the first 200m then kicked on the bottom bend and led into the straight to win in 52.33 sec.

“I think my pacing, I’m learning on the way and I think I’m doing all right, (learning) the place I need to kick and where I need to take over the race,’’ she said.

“I think I executed that one pretty good.’’

Olympic champion Matt Centrowitz made a guest appearance in the 1500m, one of three races the American will do in Australia during his current training camp, and immediately showed winning form.

Triple Olympian Jeff Riseley tried to steal the race from him, taking the lead with 200m to go, but Centrowitz kicked in the straight to win in 3:37.96.

Behind them, blind teenager Jaryd Clifford set a personal best of 3:45.18 in ninth, qualifying to compete at the world under 20 championships this year.

National 1500m champion Linden Hall stepped up to 3000m and played a lone hand, clearing out on the field to win by the length of the straight in a huge personal best time of 8:53.27.

Hall has been in excellent form all season and declared her ambition to compete for a medal at the Commonwealth Games.

“There was nothing on the line tonight, the team is picked, nationals is done, there’s no prize money,’’ she said.

“If I blew up, it was my loss, so I didn’t want to waste the opportunity of being up here, fast track, great weather. I wanted to make the most of it.’’

World championships silver medallist Dani Stevens confirmed that her Commonwealth Games title defence remained on track by launching the discus 66.09m, her best performance so far this year.

She was almost seven metres clear of the woman regarded as one of her closest competitors for the Games medals, Englishwoman Jade Lally (59.11m).

Stevens

“It didn’t feel great and it bowled over, so for something to go that far and not feel awesome, that’s a good sign,’’ Stevens said.

But fellow thrower Kathryn Mitchell, who has been in sensational form this year, withdrew midway through the javelin contest as a precaution after feeling some foot pain.

Mitchell, who recorded the biggest throw in the world for almost four years earlier this month, still won the competition with a best throw of 64.84m.

National long jump record-holder Brooke Stratton made an encouraging return to form after injury, recording her biggest leap of the year, 6.74m.