Track veteran Tamsyn Manou has leapt to the defence of outspoken 400m star John Steffensen, insisting he’s a supportive team-mate who is great for Australian athletics.

Controversial Steffensen drew a new wave of criticism following post-race comments after winning the 400m at last week’s Perth Track Classic, in which he taunted his rivals claiming he “murdered their little boys” in a “crime scene” after a narrow win over Steve Solomon.

Steffensen backed up his boasts with an impressive win in 45.61 seconds at the Sydney Track Classic on Saturday night, before declaring himself a champion for overcoming the backlash from his comments.

That backlash included criticism from world 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson, who questioned why Steffensen was “slagging off” his own team-mates.

But 800m runner Manou (nee Lewis) claimed Steffensen was a great contributor to the Australian team and was simply trying to entertain with his comments.

“I love listening to his interviews. I think they’re entertaining,” Manou, 33, said.

“He’s not being serious – it’s not how he is. He’s such a good team-mate and he’s great to all of us. He’s always been supportive to me.

“He is a great guy – lovely, friendly and he makes you guys write stories. That’s got to be good for the sport.”

Manou also impressed on Saturday night as she produced by far her most encouraging performance since suffering a calf injury in November.

She clocked 2:01.53 in winning the 800m but said the performance had given her a huge boost ahead of next month’s Olympic trials in Melbourne as she targets the Games qualifying standard of 1:59.90.

“It’s nice to know that I’m back in shape. Now I feel like I can attack the season with some real effort and attack that A standard where before I was like a fish out of water and chasing my own tail,” said Manou, who will retire after London.

“… It’s amazing what one race can do.”

Saturday’s meet also featured another impressive showing by Pearson, who clocked 12.66 seconds – her fastest time on Australian soil – to indicate her quest for gold in London is on track.

Pearson’s win came despite knocking down the final hurdle after also clipping one in her win in Perth.

“It’s the second race of the season. If you get it perfect now, you’ve got nothing to work on,” Pearson said.