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Lachie Kennedy became the second-fastest Australian over 100m with a time of 10 seconds flat in the open’s heats at the national championships in Perth on Friday.
His performance followed two times of 9.99s by 17-year-old Gout Gout the previous day that went unrecorded due to tailwinds amid a series of searing 100m runs at this meet, underlining Australia’s depth in talent in both men’s and women’s sprinting.
Rohan Browning, who was bumped down to third place in the all-time list by Kennedy’s run, also appeared close to his best with a 10.07, albeit with an illegal tailwind of 2.1m/s.
In the women’s event, 17-year-old sensation Leah O’Brien looks set to threaten established stars Torrie Lewis and Bree Rizzo in Saturday’s final with the third-fastest time in the heats.
Kennedy’s run, with a legal tailwind of 0.9m/s, made him officially the second-fastest Australian behind Patrick Johnson, who set the national record of 9.93s in Japan in 2003. Kennedy said the run felt “pretty good”, but he was already focused on the semi-finals and final. “Hopefully I can be the quickest ever by the end of the week, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Teenager Gout is not racing the opens category in the 100m in Perth – preferring to run only the 200m against adults – giving Kennedy a chance to one-up his fellow Queenslander over the shorter distance. “The race for a legal nine [sub-10 second run] is so on,” Kennedy said.
The world 60m indoor silver medallist also plans to feature in the 200m on Sunday, meaning Australia’s two emerging men’s sprint stars will meet again after their memorable race in Melbourne two weeks ago. “Sunday’s going to be incredible, if the body’s up for it of course, but I’m definitely going be gunning for that too,” Kennedy said.
Browning, still just 27 but already the elder statesman next to his emerging rivals, said watching Kennedy’s heat before his own race gave him extra motivation: “It made me want to try to have an answer, made me want to try to respond.”
He joked he couldn’t get Gout out of his social media feed yesterday following the events of Thursday, when the 10-second barrier was broken twice but both times were kept out of the record books by excessive tailwinds. “The depth coming through is really strong,” Browning said. “To be honest it’s even inspiring to me as someone who’s older than these guys.”
WA teenager O’Brien is the latest sprinter to enter the national consciousness after her heroics on Tuesday, when she beat Raelene Boyle’s 57-year-old junior record and became the equal fourth-fastest Australian woman over the distance with a time of 11.14.
She backed up in the open category on Friday, running 11.31, and said while her legs are getting “a bit tired”, her goal is now just to have fun. “I’ve already proved what I can do, so [running in] the opens is just to gain experience, and I’m just really grateful to be here,” she said. She also described Lewis – just three years her senior – as an inspiration.
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O’Brien’s coach Braiden Clarke said the year 12 student could get “a little bit star-struck” but was able to disassociate that and focus on her performance. “She’s got a great head on her shoulders, I think that really helps her with all this [attention] and she’s taken everything in her stride in the last 48 hours.”
Lewis – whose national record stands at 11.10, set last year – started slowly in her heat but finished strongly to record the evening’s equal-best time of 11.25 alongside Rizzo. Australia’s fastest woman is now training with Femke Bol’s coach Laurent Meuwly in the Netherlands, and has spent much of the year to date running 60m races to help improve her start.
However, the 20-year-old said seeing the likes of O’Brien, and 14-year-old Emilia Reed – who ran 11.45 last week – is making her “feel old”, and giving her extra motivation. “That’s probably part of what the move was for, just to get a good foundation and play more of a long game,” she said, “so I can really reach my peak when I want to, and not just be ‘kind of good’ now,.
The 100m semi-finals for both men and women commence on Saturday at 5pm local time (7pm in Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane), with the finals 90 minutes later.
