Aussie hurdlers’ huge wrap for Sally’s legacy

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 MICHELLE Jenneke has paid tribute to the legacy left by Sally Pearson for the next generation of Australian 100m hurdlers.

Having reluctantly announced her retirement two months ago after a long battle with injury, Pearson’s only official role in Doha has been as a part-time commentator with the BBC.

But she still casts a giant shadow over the sport of track and field, particularly the 100m hurdles, the event in which she won Olympic gold in 2012 and two world titles.

As the 2017 world champion, Pearson had a guaranteed wildcard for Doha 2019, had she chosen to take it up.

But in her absence it was left to Jenneke, Brianna Beahan and Celeste Mucci to fly the Australian flag.

Jenneke clocked 12.98 seconds in the heats yesterday — the first time she had broken the 13-second barrier this year — and advanced to the semis along with Beahan.

“Sally is a great loss,” the 26-year-old Jenneke said.

“She is an amazing competitor and she was an amazing athlete and I loved racing her every single second, she pushed me to fast times.

“You see the cohort of girls we have got racing now, we have got three girls at the world championships which is absolutely amazing and Sally has to take a lot of credit for that. The way she has pushed us along, we have probably got one of our best eras of hurdling at the moment.

“It is a huge loss not being able to race against her.”

Beahan, 27, is far less known in wider Australian sporting circles than Jenneke. But she has also benefited from competing in the same event as the sport’s long-time Australian standard-bearer.

“It’s so nice having Sal there with us and it’s disappointing seeing her go injury-wise,” Beahan said.

“It would have been nice for her to be able to finish on her terms. Sal is a friend, she’s someone who comes out and helps us athletes now that she has the time to be able to do it.”