Australia hails 'Golden Girl' Pearson

Australia's media on Sunday hailed Sally Pearson's "blistering" 100m hurdles win in Daegu, declaring her a "golden girl" who had now cemented her place as an athletics superstar. Pearson, 24, bagged Australia's first, and likely only, gold medal at the world championships in South Korea late Saturday in a new championship record of 12.28 seconds -- the fourth-fastest time ever run in the event. Describing her as "Sensational Sally", the Sunday Telegraph said Pearson "lit up the world championships" in a display that, for a moment, outshone global sprinting sensation Usain Bolt. "Pearson was astonishing, blowing away a world-class field by two metres," the Telegraph said, dubbing it one of Australia's "greatest performances on the track in years". "Senior international commentators were calling it the performance of the championships. And, at 24, she will only get better," it added. "Australia now has a true star to hitch their wagon to on the road to London." The Sydney Morning Herald said Pearson had "cleared the hurdle between champion and stardom" with her "phenomenal" time, just 0.07 seconds off the world record. Her commanding performance made "the world's best hurdlers look pedestrian", said The Australian. The Courier-Mail, the local newspaper in Pearson's home state of Queensland, said she "didn't just win the gold medal, she obliterated her opposition." "The victory caps off a rags to riches story for the 24-year-old from the Gold Coast and her single mother, Anne, who for years worked several jobs to give her daughter a shot at her dreams," the Courier-Mail said. Pearson "won the hearts of a nation when she surprised many by winning the Olympic silver medal in Beijing," and the gold showed she had put her disappointing fifth in Berlin two years ago due to injury firmly in the past. She was the "queen of Australian athletics", the Queensland newspaper said.