“No stone left unturned”: Olympic hopeful gears up for Adelaide Invitational

South Australia’s Matt Clarke says there will be “no stone left unturned” in his preparation for the 3000m steeplechase at the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Adelaide Invitational.

The Adelaide-based steeplechaser had an inconsistent 2023: he ran a season best 8:26.47 at Yokohama, but struggled in the heats at the World Championships in Budapest with an 8:40.92.

“It’s important for us to understand what went wrong in Budapest. We have to reassess how we do things and make sure we are doing the right things to put our best foot forward: there is no stone left unturned in our preparation,” Clarke said.

As such, Clarke, who also represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, is not taking the Adelaide Invitational for granted.

“It’s one of the most underrated track meets in the whole country. The psychological edge and confidence you get from a good result to start the season lets others know how serious you are for the season ahead,” Clarke said.

And with the 2024 Paris Olympics later this year, Clarke has been working closely with his coach Adam Didyk to ensure that he can translate fitness into form.

“Training’s been going really well. We’ve been trialling some new things in terms of testing measures, and from a lab perspective I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been,” Clarke said.

“But getting fit is the easy part. Being able to take that fitness and convert it into a good result on race day is hard,” he said.

“It’s something I haven’t been able to do very well recently, so the Invitational is a chance for me to execute my plans and start to build some form.”

Clarke’s personal best, an 8:22.13 on the Gold Coast in 2021, was agonisingly short of the Olympic standard, but did prove to be enough for qualification to the Tokyo games after another athlete withdrew.

However, the qualifying time for the 2024 Paris Olympics has been cut further from an 8:22 to an 8:15.

Despite this, Clarke is eyeing a second Olympic appearance.

“I’m going to try to push for the 8:15. I’ve set an 8:22.62 at Townsville on a real nothing of a track, and that was without a huge lot of prep work,” Clarke said.

“The Adelaide track in comparison is very fast – we’ve seen that with the times set over the last few years – and with my current fitness and form it will be a good starting point,” he said.

“As long as I keep improving on my times in the near future I think I can get there. At the end of the day, it’s only 7 seconds I need to find.”

Clarke is one of the many elite athletes confirmed for the Adelaide Invitational, which will take place on February 10.

Tickets for the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Adelaide Invitational can be purchased HERE.