Samuels starts in style E-mail
ATHLETICS OSAKA
AAP
May 9, 2010

AUSTRALIA'S world discus champion Dani Samuels has kicked off her 2010 international campaign in dominant form, setting a meet record to take victory at the Osaka Grand Prix.
Building on her reputation as a class performer under pressure, 21-year-old Samuels came from behind to post the winning throw in the final round of competition and etch her name into the record books with a heave of 63.75 metres.
Samuels was joined on the winners' list by in-form ACT athlete Lauren Boden, who posted her second personal-best time inside a week to take out the women's 400-metre hurdles.
Just days after lowering her PB to 55.49 seconds at the Shizuoka International meet on Monday, the national 400-metre hurdles champion clocked 55.25 to claim her second international crown of the 2010 season.
In the men's event, Australian 400-metre hurdles champion Brendan Cole placed fifth with his first sub-50 (49.85) run of the year.
In other track results, Australian sprint queen Melissa Breen finished third in the women's 100 metres in a time of 11.47 seconds.
Olympic, world and world indoor champion Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica took out the race, clocking 11.02 in her first 100-metre outing of the season to record the third-fastest time this year.
In the field, Queenslander Chris Noffke leapt 7.92 metres to place second in the men's long jump, finishing behind China's Su Xiongfeng (8.11 metres) and one place ahead of Berlin world championships finalist Brian Johnson of the US (7.84).
Samuels, Boden, Cole, Breen and Noffke have all been nominated for the Commonwealth Games team bound for New Delhi in October.
In other highlights, 19-year-old James Kaan clocked a personal best time of 3:40.80 to place second in the men's 1500 metres, and James Gurr clocked 1:48.65 for second in the men's 800 metres.
Fellow Commonwealth Games-nominated athletes Amanda Bisk and Alana Boyd finished outside the podium places in the women's pole vault event, where American Melinda Owen equalled the meet record height of 4.45 metres set by Australian Emma George in 1998.