Samuels ready to be chased

World discus champion Dani Samuels says she is comfortable with being the hunted and not the hunter ahead of the inaugural staging of the Diamond League.

Samuels upstaged an experienced field that included the reigning Olympic gold medallist, American Stephanie Brown Trafton, to claim the world title in Berlin last August, throwing what was a then-personal best of 65.44m.

She has since been in outstanding touch during the Australian Athletics Tour, winning in Brisbane in February with 63.70m before setting a new best mark of 65.84m to take victory in Sydney last Saturday night.

The 21-year-old then collected her third victory of the domestic season with a 62.97m at the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic at Olympic Park on Thursday night.

Samuels does admit that following her win in Berlin she felt as though she had a target on her back during the remainder of the 2009 season.

However, she says she is now unfazed by the prospect that her scalp will be highly sought after during the Diamond League, the IAAF's 14-competition tour that kicks off in Doha in May.

"Now back in the Australian season I just see myself as the same as I was this time last year," she said.

"I know having had that title to my name now people will be looking out for me and not writing me off when it comes to being under pressure.

"I was chasing the Olympic champion all last year, so I expect that to happen to me this year as well."

Samuels was satisfied with her performance in Melbourne, noting that she is consistently landing the discus close to or beyond the 63-metre mark.

She was less than 100 per cent healthy at the IAAF World Challenge meeting and did struggle for some motivation following her personal best effort in Sydney.

"I was a little bit flat, I started to get a little bit sick yesterday," she said.

"I had to make a bit more of an effort to try to psych myself up and sort of get excited to compete tonight."Offereins again

While Samuels has been a multiple victor on the Australian Athletics Tour, Ben Offereins has been doing likewise in the men's 400m.

The Western Australian went under the revered 45-second barrier with a new personal best of 44.86 to win in Sydney and he backed that triumph up in Melbourne with a time of 45.73.

Sean Wroe, who along with Offereins was a member of the third-placed Australian 4x400m relay team in Berlin, was second in 46.18 and Beijing bronze medallist David Neville of the US rounded out the minor placings with a 46.37.

Offereins, who ran 45.32 to win at the Tour's opening meet in Canberra in January, shared Samuels' lament that it was challenging to back up so soon after Sydney.

"Five days after Sydney, the body has got to get used to that sort of stuff," he said.

"You just can't flog it and then expect it to get back up again."

In other events, world championships bronze medallist Mitchell Watt suffered his first defeat of the Australian Athletics Tour after going down to fellow Queenslander Chris Noffke in the men's long jump.

Watt jumped 7.89m on his first effort and later passed on his last four attempts because of a groin injury, allowing Noffke, the 2005 world youth champion, to steal the victory with his sixth and final leap via an A qualifier of 7.96m.

American Trevell Quinley was third with 7.72m and world championships finalist Fabrice Lapierre was fourth with 7.65m.

Liam Zamel-Paez firmed for Commonwealth Games selection with another A qualifying performance of 2.25m to win the men's high jump, while Jarrod Bannister continued his comeback from elbow and ankle surgery with a solid throw of 81.32m in the javelin.

Bannister, who was sixth in the final at the Beijing Olympics prior to missing the entire 2009 season through injury, finished third in Melbourne behind Finland's former world champion Tero Pitkamaki (83.32m) and New Zealand's Stuart Farquhar (83.26m).