Aussie runners' beautiful act of sportsmanship
Three Australian runners have produced an incredible act of sportsmanship for a badly beaten opponent.
Aussie girls Celia Sullohern, Madeline Hills and Eloise Wellings took part in the 10,000m final at the Commonwealth Games on Monday night, finishing sixth, eighth and 16th respectively.
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But despite the disappointment of missing out on the medals, the Australians showed their class with a beautiful act of sportsmanship.
Sullohern, Hills and Wellings all remained at the finish line after completing the race, waiting for their rivals to also finish.
They stood and waited patiently as last-placed Lineo Chaka from Lesotho finally finished five minutes after the gold medallist - Stella Chesang from Uganda.
The Aussie girls clapped and cheered as Cheka ran down the final straight, embracing her as she crossed the finish line after nearly 37 minutes of running.
The brilliant moment perfectly summed up the spirit of the Commonwealth Games, and further emphasised the class and respect of the Aussie team.
Months after winning high-level triathlon and marathon events, the multi-talented Sullohern delivered the middle-distance performance of her life.
The 25-year-old from Yamba knocked more than 30 seconds off her personal best on Monday night, clocking 31 minutes 50.75 seconds to finish sixth.
Sullohern dug in and kept pace with gold medallist Chesang and her fellow Ugandan and Kenyan pacesetters before surging into third with four laps to go.
Every move she made evoked an almighty roar from the Carrara Stadium crowd and, even with half a lap remaining, she was still fourth and chasing down the bronze before finally being overtaken.
"Absolutely thrilling to be out there racing in front of the Aussie crowd, I really feel like it lifted me," Sullohern said.
"I wanted to do it in the last lap, I didn't quite have it but it's so exciting.
"I'm really excited to come and have another dig in the 5000m on Saturday."
Earlier, Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith booked women's 1500m final berths.
Griffith turned it on with a fast-finishing personal best of four minutes 6.41 seconds to qualify second overall behind reigning 800m Olympic and world champion Caster Semenya, who was in cruise control with 4:05.86 in the first heat.
"It was pretty intimidating going up against the 800m world champ, it definitely made it a lot more real," Griffith said.
Drama affected the second heat as Zoe Buckman got caught in a fall on the final straight and bowed out, though Hall came home strong to place second in 4:08.64 and qualify eighth overall.
with AAP
