Aidan Murphy

In the summer of 2021/22 Aidan Murphy burst onto the athletics scene with a series of dazzling sprint performances. In February he broke the Australian junior 200m record. His impressive 100m and 400m times stamp him as one of the best junior all-round sprinters in Australian history.

Selected for the 200m and 4x100m relay for the World U20 Championships, he also gathered sufficient World Athletics ranking points to start in the 200m at the World Championships. At the World Juniors he missed the 200m final by 0.01 seconds and one place.

Transitioning to the seniors over the next couple of years, it would not be until later 2024, now under coach Nik Hagicostas in Adelaide that his junior potential would start to be fulfilled. The highlight of his 2024/25 season was a 20.40w (2.2m/s) 200m at Nationals.

After steady progress his first five months of 2026, were so astonishing Aiden became Australia’s best all-round sprinter in history over the 100m, 200m and 400m. He clocked summer times: 100m – 10.23; 200m – 19.88, 20.05; 400m 45.12 then 44.44.

His 19.88 200m time was in the incredible Nationals race behind Gout Gout. A few of the times came over a stunning three days in May at the Oceania Championships in Darwin: Day 1 – 400m heat 46.21, Day 2 – 400m final 44.44, Day 3 – 200m heat 20.28 and final 20.05. He is now #2 Australian all-time in the 200m and 400m and just 0.06 seconds outside Darren Clark’s long standing Australian record.

In early May he travelled to Botswana for the World Relays and ran on the men’s 4x400m heat and final. The heat was run over a short distance, but not Aiden’s fourth leg where he split 43.85. In the final, Australian won bronze in the stunning time of 3:55.20 – four seconds under the 41-year-old Australian record. Aiden anchored the team with a 43.79 seconds split.

In June he was named in the 200m for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

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It was obvious from a young age Aidan Murphy had speed. “When I played football (soccer) during lunch times as a primary school kid, I found that I could out-run most, if not all of my classmates. My mum recognised my ability at the time.”

However his mother, Tania Van Heer-Murphy, a Commonwealth Games medallists in the 100m, delayed any introduction to athletics until much later. She encouraged Aidan to try other sports like surf lifesaving, BMX, tennis, football, and water polo.

After a stint training with Tania, when he was 12 (in 2015) Aidan started training properly for athletics. “I trained with a squad belonging to Saint Peter’s College.” He would later attend the college on scholarship, where the coach in charge at the college was Tony Keynes, the current President of Athletics SA.

After a few years of hamstring injuries, before his 16th birthday (in 2019), he was already showing promise with times of 10.96 (100m) and 21.80 (200m). Before the 2019/20 summer season was shut down due to COVID, he also clocked an impressive 48.68 over 400m.

In early 2021, now aged 17, his progress was solid, with sprint times of 10.86/21.30/47.79. His 200m time was the most impressive and was achieved when placing second in the National U20 200m Championship. He missed the World U20 standard by just 0.02 seconds and selection in the Australian team which didn’t travel to the World u20 Championships.

The results to-date showed little of what was to come over the summer of 2021/22 as he demolished his PBs and set records galore. Aidan said that his progress was the product of 10-months of unhindered training under the guidance of Victorian-based coach and Olympian Peter Fitzgerald.

Before the Christmas of 2021, Aidan had already run significant PBs of 10.64/20.64/46.31. Early in 2022 he ran 10.35 in the 100m and 20.41 in the 200m – the later breaking the Australian U20 record and becoming the seventh fastest open Australian.  He was now one of the best all-round Australian junior sprinters of all-time. In the 100m he was top-10 Australian junior all-time and in the 400m top-15 Australian junior all-time. He won the open Australian 200m title in April and Oceania title in June in the hope to earn sufficient World Athletics ranking points to qualify for the World Championships. In Eugene he was sixth in his 200m heat. It was a bonus competing at the world championships as the focus was two weeks later at the World U20 Championships where he progressed to the 200m semi-final and missed the final by one place and 0.01 seconds. During the year he also ran on two Australian record under-20 4x100m relays.

A senior athlete in 2023, he ran a 100m PB (10.33) and was close to his bests in the 200m (20.54) and 400m (46.33). In August he competed at his second world championships, held in Budapest. He placed 6th in his heat clocking 20.90.

His 2024 campaign was mixed with 3rd at Nationals in the 200m and 2nd at the Oceania Championships, with him ultimately missing Olympic qualification. In a sign of things to come, he was running more 400s.

Now under coach Nik Hagicostas in Adelaide, his 2024/25 campaign saw Aidan back to his best. After equalling his 400m PB, he ran a lifetime best of 46.24. Over 200m he was terrific clocking 20.52 in his heat at Nationals, then placing 2nd behind Gout in the final clocking 20.40w (2.2m/s wind).

Selected for the World Relays in May he ran a stunning 44.65 4x400m relay split (equal to 45.4 out of blocks). He helped the Australian men’s 4x400m team to world championships qualification as they clocked the fastest 4x400m relay time for 41 years, missing the national record by 0.03 seconds.

Also in 2025 Aiden was 5th in the 200m at the World University Games and ran in the 200m heats at the Tokyo world championships.  Also in Tokyo, he ran on the 4x400m relay that ran under the Australian record with a time of 2:58.00, however they would be disqualified.

Over the first five months of 2026, Aiden Murphy progressed so much, he became Australia’s best all-round sprinter in history over the 100m, 200m and 400m. He clocked summer times: 100m – 10.23; 200m – 19.88, 20.05; 400m 45.12, 44.44.

His 19.88 200m time was in the incredible Nationals race behind Gout Gout. A few of the times came over a stunning three days in May at the Oceania Championships in Darwin: Day 1 – 400m heat 46.21, Day 2 – 400m final 44.44, Day 3 – 200m heat 20.28 and final 20.05. He is now #2 Australian all-time in the 200m and 400m and just 0.06 seconds outside Darren Clark’s long standing Australian record.

In early May he travelled to Botswana for the World Relays and ran on the men’s 4x400m heat and final. The heat was run over a short distance, but not Aiden’s fourth leg where he split 43.85. In the final, Australian won bronze in the stunning time of 3:55.20 – four seconds under the 41-year-old Australian record. Aiden anchored the team with a 43.79 seconds split.

Hero Erriyon Knighton and Usain Bolt. “Both Erriyon and Bolt have overcome extreme mental and physical barriers at an incredibly young age. This resonates with me as I have always been the youngest in anything I do. For example, halfway through year 1 in primary school I was pushed up a year and forced to develop faster than an average child would be expected to. Ever since then, I have always surrounded myself with people that are older and/or more knowledgeable than me in order to mature faster.” Hobbies: I am a gamer (online shooters and such)…Sporting ambition: To be the fastest man to ever come out of Australia, and to be taken seriously on an international level. Many people think that this title belongs to the person whom holds the record for the quickest 100m dash, but I am not someone that believes that… Education Details: Bachelor of Economics at Adelaide Uni (2021-2026) Academic focus includes macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistical analysis, and financial modelling…Occupation: Gym & Group Fitness Instructor… Biggest challenge  faced: Overcoming pre-comp anxiety… Interesting facts: 1.94m tall, his mother Tania Van Here-Murphy was a great all-round Australian sprinter in the ‘90s. She won two relay gold and a 100m bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, a silver medal at the World Indoors, made a World Championships semi-final and competed at three World Cups…Enjoyment of competing: Personally, I enjoy battling my body’s natural tendencies when dealing with high speed (i.e. instability and the production of lactic acid).

@ 7 July 2026 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au