Olympic champion Sally Pearson has been dealt a massive wake up call after being compressively beaten in the 200m at the Sydney track classic.
Ella Nelson, the 200m national champion, clocked a personal best time of 23.24sec to take out the crown at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday night, ahead of Melissa Breen in second and Pearson in third.
However, things went according to plan for the meet's only other Olympic gold medallist, Kenya's 800m world record holder David Rudisha, who won his pet event in 1:45.01, a huge 2.37 seconds ahead of Victorian Alex Rowe.
Rudisha, who holds the world mark of 1:40.91 over 800m, says he hopes to better Saturday's result at the Melbourne leg of the circuit next Saturday.
"I'm really happy with this time today," he said.
"I'm expecting another good race in Melbourne, I'm hoping for a 1:44."
The 200m may not be Pearson's pet event but she was way off her best time of 22.97 she posted just last month in Canberra where she beat both Nelson and Breen.
Pearson, the London Olympic 100m hurdles gold medallist, admitted the defeat will spur her on ahead of the national titles in Brisbane commencing March 26.
"I always expect good things from me," Pearson said.
"I wanted to run under 23 but I was clearly well off the pace tonight.
"It just gives me a wake up call to take your finger out of your bum and keep going.
"Even though I'm not running the 200 anymore this season, I'll be back out fighting in the next few weeks before the nationals."
Nelson who shaved 0.02 off her previous best mark, is still 0.04 off the 23:20 qualifying mark for the world titles in Beijing in August.
But the 21-year-old says beating an Olympic champion in Pearson will motivate her to strive for Beijing come the national titles.
"Now that the qualifying mark is a little bit closer to my reach I'm definitely going to hit it hard at nationals and hopefully get it then," Nelson said
"Sally is an amazing athlete, so is Mel, and to even compete against those guys it's just awesome.
"I don't think it's really sunk in just yet, I just couldn't be happier."
Brandon Starc - brother of Australian cricketer Mitchell - took out the high jump with a personal best of 2.30m to qualify for the world titles, beating Canada's Olympic bronze medallist Derek Drouin.
Commonwealth champion Dani Samuels continued her strong start to the domestic season winning the discus with a 66.21m throw.
Panamanian Alonso Edward took out the men's 100m sprint with a time of 10.29 seconds.
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