#Zatopek – De Castella Men’s 3000m Preview

A deep field of the finest young distance men from every Australian state plus 3 of our cousins from across the ditch will take their place at the start line to determine the finest junior distance stud in the land.

I could be done with the predictions here extra quick and say that the winner will have a name that starts with the letter “J”

Honestly there are 4 Jacks and 3 Jacobs in the field. Has that ever happened before? Leave a comment below if you do know of something similar.

But on a serious note I feel that a winner will come from a man with initial “J” as Jacob Birtwhistle of Tasmania and Jack Stapleton of NSW boast the fastest PB’s for the distance 8:09 and 8:11 respectively in placing 3^rd and 4^th at this very race in 2012.

So the event and the venue holds fine memories for both men.

Best hope for the Victorians is Zak Patterson. Now on recent form Patterson was bested by Birtwhistle in the recent Victorian 5000m Championships 14:23 to 14:36.

But remember what I said above about the event and venue holding fine memories for Birtwhistle and Stapleton?

Well Patterson has a faster PB than both those men. Set where? You guessed it: – The U-20 3000m race in 2012 where he was 2^nd home in 8:08.

Possible smokies in the unlikely event all of the above 3 have a bad night are Morgan McDonald of NSW and Matthew Baxter of New Zealand both with 8:15 PB’s.

Final call:

It’s too close to call but expect a very close race down to the wire with a sprint finish down the final home straight to determine the winner.