Sally Pearson’s 2018 100m hurdles campaign got underway at the WA Athletics Stadium on Saturday night, with the dual world champion posting a time of 12.73 (1.4w) at the Jandakot Airport Track Classic in Perth.
The packed grandstand cheered Pearson to victory over West Australian Brianna Beehan and Elizabeth Clay (Qld).
Pearson admitted that the effort was a little ‘rusty’ but was happy to get her season rolling.
“Considering, I hit like about four hurdles in that race it was pretty good,” Pearson said.
“I was training, warming up really, really well so I was probably expecting a 12.5. But I smashed the first hurdle, smashed about the fifth hurdle and I don’t even know how I made it home so considering all that it was pretty good.”
“As I’ve said in the past, it doesn’t matter who l line up against, they’re always my competitors,” Pearson said. “I could actually see Brianna’s shadow in the next lane as she was running so I thought she was half a metre behind me, so I had to push … the shadow really pushed me along wherever she was.
“I’ve definitely got a lot of work to do.”
Pearson’s time was well within the A qualifying mark of 13.01, while Beehan was just .01 short.