Home edge tipped to be good as gold

PAUL MALONE AND JIM TUCKER

But the moment the crazy finally started to make sense came when, after she’d done a year of 800m and with the Commonwealth Games rapidly approaching, Rubie switched back.

Suddenly, it felt like half the work.

“I was so incredibly fit – the fittest I have ever been,” Rubie said.

“Normally the 400 lactic training is really hard, but I was able to deal with it better than I ever had before.

“The 800 training was so mentally tough. The 400 stuff is hard in its own way and is incredibly challenging, but it was something I knew. I felt really comfortable and because I was fit, I was smashing all the sessions that used to be hard.”

Rubie took that 800mhoned fitness and, without having lost any top-end speed, won the 400m trial at the Aus- tralian Athletics Championships in February.

She will run the individual event next month and be a key component of the darkhorse Aussie women’s 4x400m relay team.

Rubie had actually run qualifying times for the Commonwealth Games in an impressive three events: the 200m, the 400m and the 800m. She won some events in the 800m in the United States, confirming that potential others had always pointed to.

But the tight schedule at the Australian trials meant trying to win spots in all three events could have derailed her chances of getting on the team for one, so she focused on the 400m. And, with souped-up strength, she came from behind on the final straight to win.

Podium visits now aren’t out of the question for Rubie, which again justifies the crazy. tralia won only one individual track gold at the 2014 Glasgow Games, by Sally Pearson. But even at the 2006 Melbourne Games there were two individual track golds – to John Steffensen (400m) and Jana Pittman (400m hurdles).

On top of Pearson’s bid for a third 100m hurdles crown, Hilliard mentioned field eventers Kathryn Mitchell, Dani Stevens, Kurtis Marschall and Nina Kennedy and walking gold medal chances, one of whom is Queenslander Dane Bird-Smith.

“There is always someone who comes into a Commonwealth Games not so highly ranked and it’s an opportunity to improve,” Hilliard said.