Published - Tuesday 1 May 2007
After 5 years of trying to set a new personal best, Fiona didn't try she just let fly and the result was a personal best time of 13.08s (wind +1.4) at the Mikio Oda Memorial Meet in Hiroshima on Sunday 29 April 2007. This performance is also a 2007 World Championships and 2008 Olympic Games B qualifying time!
The day could not have been more perfect. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and hot although the wind had a bit of a chill in it. The organisation of the meet was acceptional. They even had young aspiring local Japanese athletes putting out and adjusting the hurdles for the senior athlete at the warm up track
Fiona ran 13.46 (wind -0.2) in the heat against Polish athete Aurelia who ran 13.09s. The final was schedule for 1:30pm so there was about an hour between the races. Fiona was grateful to get the chance to run two races as she always tends to run better after the first hit out.
Fiona was drawn in lane 3 next to Aurelia in lane 4 and the athelte from Japan in lane 5. The numebr 3 is considered lucky in the Japanese culture so perhaps that was another good omen for the race. Fiona got a great start and stayed with Aurelia for the first 5 hurdles, but the seasoned polish athlete began to pull away at the 5th hurdles and the Japanese athlete went with her. But Fiona maintained her rhythm and just missed out on second place by a very small margin.
After the race was about 5 or 10 minutes before Fiona found out the results of the race and she had to be told by Aurelia that she had run 13.08, a new personal best time.
"I was instantly overwhelmed with happiness and disbelief. Finally, the race I have known was there all season has come out. Now I know what I need to do to produce the big performances." an extatice Cullen gushed upon hearing the result.
"I want to thank you all for your support, love, positive energy, and belief. This is only the beginning of a very exciting 16 month journey towards Beijing. WOOOOOOHHHHHHHHOOOOOOO!!!!!!! "
Cullen will team up with McLellan, Crystal Attenborough and Melanie Kleeberg in Saturday's meeting in Osaka (5 May) to try to qualify for both the Worlds and next year's Olympic Games in the 4x100 metres relay.