Australia, you have a new track star!

Just when you thought the only thing worth
getting excited about in athletics at the Beijing Olympics would be Craig Mottram,
up steps John Steffensen in last night’s Commonwealth Games’ 400m.

Seriously, Steffensen’s gold medal run was
something special. A 44.73 second 400m is world class. Just ask the greatest
400m runner of all time, Michael Johnson, who was trackside
at the MCG last night and later gave Steffensen his seal of approval.

The best thing, though, is that with
Steffensen it looks as though he’s only going to get better. For starters, the
guy’s only 23, a mere baby in an event where most athletes reach their prime in
their late twenties, early thirties.

Just four years ago, his best time for the
400m was 47.14. Since then he has shown solid improvement each year, punctuated
by the silver medal he won as part of the 4 X 400m relay team at the 2004
Athens Olympics and his making the final of the individual 400m at last year’s
World Athletics Championships.

You’ve also got to remember that while
there’s no doubt Steffensen set himself for last night’s event, he is still
only a few races into the season, so you’d have to think that when he gets over
to Europe later in the year and races consistently in some of the big meets,
against the world’s best, then his 400m time is going to come down even further
again.

Then there’s the fact that he has only
really been training with legendary US coach
John Smith for a little over a year. Given the results Smith has achieved with
the likes of Maurice Greene and Marie-Jose Perec in the past, you’ve got to
think that he has big plans for Steffensen.

As a mere Commonwealth Games gold medallist
there’s no doubt he still has some way to go, but the signs are good that, with
time, Steffensen can take it up to the Yanks and the other big boys in Beijing,
if not, in London in 2012.

And that’s something to get excited about!