Athletics Victoria is please to announce that the top three place getters in the 54th edition of Zatopek:10 will share in $18,000 prize money across the men’s and women’s 10,000m events on Thursday 11 December, 2014 at Lakeside Stadium.
The national 10,000m championships which doubles as the 2015 IAAF World Championships selection trial is an iconic event on the Australian athletics calendar and the rise in prize money reflects the importance of the event and its ability to attract runners from overseas including last years US based winner Sam Chelanga who mixed it with some of Australia elites including Ballarat’s Collis Birmingham.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to provide the athletes with a strong prize pool that will attract Australia’s best runners over 10,000m and provide athletics fans with a great night of competition,” Athletics Victoria CEO Glenn Turnor said.
First place in both the men and women Zatopek:10 10,000m races will receive $5,000, second place $2,500 and third place receiving $1,500.
Along with the featured events that allows spectators to support the athletes on the track bends for the men’s 10,000m, there is considerable excitement around the return of the 4 x 400m Victorian Relays Championship events to the Zatopek:10 2014 schedule.
“Last years 4 x 400m was special, it offered a bit of everything and really showed off what it means to run for your club, Tamsyn Lewis Manou’s final leg for Sandringham (while pregnant), which she puts down as one of her greatest race wins was one of the nights highlights,” Turnor said.
With a mix of events supported by our friends at Little Athletics Victoria, including the renaming of the boys and girls under 1500m events in honour of longstanding coaches Mike Hillardt and Sarah Jamieson and the Victorian Athletics League 300m mixed events, the night will be a real celebration of athletics and chance showcase the diversity of athletes from our club stars to international regulars.
The precursor for the Zatopek:10 10,000m event will be the popular Ondieki Womens under 20 3000m and De Castella Mens under 20 3000m event which showcases the next up and coming talent from around Australia, such as Box Hill Athletics Courtney Powell who finished third in the women’s event in 2013 and went on the represent Australia at the 2014 IAAF World Juniors Championships in Oregon, USA and earlier this month won the 2014 Oceania Cross Country Championships in Guam.
This years event will see the return of the Malinowski Mens 3000m Steeplechase, kicking off the nights racing at 5.45pm. A new inclusion to the event timetable will be men’s and women’s pole vault competition.
Over the next week Athletics Victoria will release event time information including early bird ticket offers.
