I was checking through the Sydney Track Classic results this morning and noted some pretty good performances out there. Here's a quick peek of the meet and what I noticed running down through the results. 

LINK TO FULL RESULTS

1. Men's Pole Vault: Olympic Champ Steve Hooker is still not competing in the pole vault after saying his head has not been into athletics. Hooker has competed in this event in past years.

2. Women's 1500: Oregon alum Zoe Buckman is continuing to have great showings in her post-collegiate career as she won the women's 1500 in 4:09, a three second victory. FSU alum and NCAA champ Susan Kuijken made her return to the track finishing in a time of 4:21 for seventh place. Kuijken blogged on Flotrack before her race. Another former NCAA champ and Florida alum Charlotte Browning finish last (12th) in the race running 4:36, a time that is slower than her indoor mile time she race at Florida.

Event 21  1500 Metres Open Women
=======================================================================
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
Finals                                                                 
  1 Buckman, Zoe              24 VIC                    4:09.89        
  2 Delaney, Bridey              NSW                    4:12.92        
  3 Duncan, Melissa           22 VIC                    4:14.13        
  4 Paulin, Amanda            22 VIC                    4:16.18        
  5 Blundell, Jenny           18 NSW                    4:18.31        
  5 Brichacek, Emily          22 ACT                    4:18.31        
  7 Kuijken, Susan            26 NED                    4:21.64        
  8 Newbould, Hannah          21 NZL                    4:23.35        
  9 O'Donnell, Lydia          22 NZL                    4:25.08        
 10 Clarke, Milly             23 NSW                    4:25.68        
 11 Regan, Abigail            22 NSW                    4:25.86        
 12 Browning, Charlotte       25 GBR                    4:36.65        
 -- Martin, Belinda           38 NSW                        DNF        
 -- Brown, Amy                24 NSW                        DNF  

3. Women's Discus: Olympic Champ and US star Stephanie Brown-Trafton won the event with a mark of 63.23 meters, a mark that is less than 1 meter off her 2011 best (but just under 3 meters off her PR). She won the event by over 2.5 meters.

4. Women's 100m Hurdles: Aussie Sally Pearson, the 2011 World Champ, is starting the season right where she left off running the world leading mark for the second time this season (yes I know, not many people have run 100H) with her 12.66. The time is only .02 off her time that earned her the silver medal at the past Olympics. Pearson came back for the 200 meters later in the meet to win unchallenged in 23.06.

5. Men's 1500: Asbel Kiprop made an appearance on the track in the 800 meters. Not seeing the race, it appears that he won the event without much challenge as he was over half a second in front of Australian mid-distance star Jeff Riseley. Nick Symmonds finished 7th in the race, about 1.5 seconds off Kiprop.

Event 31  800 Metres Open Men
=======================================================================
    Name                     Age Team                    Finals  Points
=======================================================================
Finals                                                                 
  1 Kiprop, Asbel             23 KEN                    1:45.91        
  2 Riseley, Jeff             26 VIC                    1:46.55        
  3 Renshaw, Lachlan          25 NSWIS                  1:46.98        
  4 Gurr, James               29 NSW                    1:47.11        
  5 Kaan, James               22 NSWIS                  1:47.13        
  6 Symmonds, Nick            29 USA                    1:47.44        
  7 Williamz, Jordan          20 VIC                    1:47.94        
  8 Rowe, Alexander           20 VIS                    1:48.51        
  9 Sutton, Darcy             21 VIC                    1:49.50        
 10 Rayner, Johnny               VIC                    1:49.59        
 -- Tangui, Sammy             28 KEN                        DNF        

6. Women's Shot Put: Valerie Adams of New Zealand, winner of the last four major outdoor championship titles (Worlds & Olympics), won the event with a mark of 20.67 meters which is .12 meters further than this time last year. Adams, who improved her mark event round of this year's competition, has only had three seasons where she threw better than 20.67m in her ten years as a professional (they were the past three years).

7. Men's 400: David Rudisha opened up 2012 dropping down in distance where he found himself with an unfamiliar second place finish running 45.82. The time was .21 seconds behind winner John Steffensen, who was a 400 meter finalist in the 2005 World Championships. Rudisha opened up with a 400 at this event in 2010 and ran 45.50 for the win. He went on to have the best season of his career and broke the world record for 800 meters twice (1:41.01).

Event 37  400 Metres Open Mens
=======================================================================
    Name                     Age Team                     Final  Points
=======================================================================
Final                                                                  
  1 Steffensen, John          30 NSWIS                    45.61        
  2 Rudisha, David            24 KEN                      45.82        
  3 Offereins, Ben            26 WAIS                     46.09        
  4 Moore, Kevin              22 NSW                      46.25        
  5 Wroe, Sean                27 VIC                      46.40        
  6 Nixon, Greg               31 USA                      46.48        
  7 Solomon, Steven           19 NSWIS                    46.67        
  8 Burke, David              23 VIC                      46.96        
  9 Carew, Alexander          23 VIC                      47.23       

8. Men's 1500: David Torrence starts off with a bang! Torrence won the event in a world leading 3:35.66 in the first "major" outdoor 1500 meter race in 2012 and now starts the year faster than any of his 2011 races. Torrence had a close battle with Aussie Collis Birmingham who finished second in 3:35.74 (just .24 off his PR). For Torrence, its his fastest mark since his PR of 3:34.25 which he ran back in 2010. Other recognizable names in this race were Will Leer, Craig Mottram and Penn State grad Ryan Foster who all finished within .45 of one another.

Event 38  1500 Metres Open Mens
=======================================================================
    Name                     Age Team                     Final  Points
=======================================================================
Final                                                                  
  1 Torrence, David           27 USA                    3:35.66        
  2 Birmingham, Collis        28 VIC                    3:35.74        
  3 Rowe, Brenton             25 VIC                    3:38.68        
  4 Robinson, Brett           21 ACT                    3:38.94        
  5 Leer, Will                27 USA                    3:39.94        
  6 Mottram, Craig            32 VIC                    3:40.04        
  7 Foster, Ryan              24 TIS                    3:40.39        
  8 Robinson, Paul            21 IRL                    3:40.50        
  9 McCormick, Nick           31 GBR                    3:40.97        
 10 Wright, Joshua            21 NSW                    3:41.68        
 11 Carson, Hamish            24 NZL                    3:43.41        
 12 See, Marc                 23 WA                     3:43.75        
 13 Saunders, Philo           36 ACT                    3:44.05        
 14 Toohey, Nicholas          24 QLD                    3:46.81        
 -- Rotich, Andrew            25 KEN                        DNF