WHEN Ben St Lawrence was studying communications at Bathurst’s Charles Sturt University, competing in the Commonwealth Games was not a thought he entertained, let alone competing at Delhi in 2010 and notching up two top 10 performances.
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On Monday night in hot, humid conditions in the Indian capital, talented runner St Lawrence ensured he did just that with a brave effort in the men’s 10,000 metres final.
It was an event he was not originally selected to compete in, but St Lawrence rewarded the faith of those who made the decision as he placed seventh. It added to his seventh placing in the 5,000 metres event two days earlier.
“I always wanted to [run the 10,000 meters] and I’m really glad I did. You never know, this might be my last chance to run at a Commonwealth Games so to get to do two races was great, I went better than the five kilometre, so I’m really glad I stepped up,” he said.
Back when St Lawrence was studying in Bathurst he put his professional running ambitions aside, yet he still showed his natural talent with three consecutive top 10 Edgell Jog placings between 2000-02.
It was three years ago he decided to really focus on competitive running and the decision has more than paid off.
He qualified for the Delhi Commonwealth Games men’s 5,000m event by taking out the national title for that distance in April. In August he took out the City2Surf and in doing so set a new personal best time for the 14 kilometre event – a 41 minutes, five seconds effort.
St Lawrence then headed overseas to continue his Commonwealth Games preparations and the good results continued to come.
A month before departing for Delhi he clocked the fifth fastest time over 3000m in Australian athletics history at the Notturna di Milano meet in Milan, Italy.
St Lawrence crossed the line in seven minutes, 42.94 seconds to leap from 29th to to number five on the national all-time list, trailing only Craig Mottram (7:32.19), Collis Birmingham (7:38.77), Shaun Creighton (7:41.60) and Lee Troop (7:41.78).
The effort shattered his previous personal best by almost seven seconds.
It was at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Stadium that St Lawrence made his Commonwealth Games debut as he lined up for the first of the medal events on the athletics program – the men’s 5,000m.
The honours went to Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro as he won a thrilling battle down the front straight to edge out Kenyan favourite Eliud Kipchoge 13:31.25 to 13:31.32, the slow times reflective of the stifling conditions.
St Lawrence (13:46.90) crossed the line in a respectable seventh.
On Monday night in Delhi St Lawrence backed up in the men’s 100,000m event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and once more it was Kipsiro who took line honours.
Holding on to the leaders until midway through the race, St Lawrence lost touch with the lead group as it lifted the pace in the race for home. Still, he clocked a handy 28:49.87. Kipsiro took line honours in 27:57.39.