Five Victorian Institute of Sport athletes have been selected to represent Asia Pacific at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava on 8-9 September.
All boasting Australian records, the star studded line-up includes: Damien Birkinhead (Shot Put), Ryan Gregson (1500m), Linden Hall (1500m), Genevieve LaCaze (3000m) and Brooke Stratton (Long Jump).
The Asia Pacific team will feature athletes from 17 nations with the Australian contingent the largest, with the next five biggest representations coming from China (15), Bahrain (9), India (7), Japan (7) and Qatar (4).
In other athletics news, it was a clutch final round leap of 6.71m that saw Brooke Stratton rocked into the lead and win the ISTAF meeting in Berlin on Sunday. Earlier in the week, Stratton finished 5th at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels. Also competing in Berlin, Ryan Gregson ran strongly over 1500m, placing fifth in 3:34.89. Whilst Genevieve LaCaze made an impressive return to the 3000m steeplechase, placing third in 9:23.69.
At the Meeting Citta di Padova meeting in Italy, Jordan Williamsz produced a personal best (3:36.30) over 1500m to place second. Linden Hall crossed the line in second in a time of 4:26.62 over the metric mile.