From Lachlan Kennedy’s sub-10 performance to Jaryd Clifford’s world record and a wheelchair racing resurgence led by Rheed McCracken, the weekend’s athletics action had it all from Africa to Europe and the United States, and even back at home in Launceston.
The breakthrough season of Kennedy (Andrew Iselin) is showing no signs of slowing down, with the 21-year-old taking the biggest win of his career when toppling Ferdinand Omanyala (KEN) and Bayanda Walaza (RSA) at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya – becoming the second Australian man in history to shatter the 10-second barrier.
His time of 9.98 (-0.7) secured both the victory and a slice of history:
“I was there to win today and bring it home, and I am super stoked to get the win and the time,” Kennedy said.
“It’s so good. I can finally say I run 9! I haven’t wanted to rush it or put the pressure on myself, I take every race as it comes and I knew it would come eventually.
Just hours later it was Paralympic star Clifford (Philo Saunders) who broke his own 1500m T12 world record in a time of 3:40.39, with the vision-impaired athlete delivering the performance in Nice, France off the back of an altitude training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“For four years, I’ve really struggled. There was a time when I couldn’t string together more than 12 weeks of running in a row,” he said.
“Now I’m injury-free and it’s such a relief to be healthy and I’m so proud that I hung in there when times were tough. After how disappointing Paris was, this is just the first step of many towards the LA Paralympics.”
Rheed McCracken (Louise Sauvage) joined the record-breaking party at the Swiss Wheelchair Racing Nationals with six national records in just over seven days, entering new territory for Australia in the T34 class in the 100m, 400m and 800m events.
Clocking the third fastest 100m T34 time in global history with his 14.63 to round out proceedings, the Paralympic medallist added to his smoking 48.09-second performance in the 400m and 1:38.19 showing over 800m.
While McCracken stole the headlines, Sam Carter (Fred Periac) also indulged in the fast racing with a new 400m T54 national record of 46.72-seconds, making it a double when becoming the fastest Australian ever over 800m in the T54 class with his 1:31.33 performance.
On the roads of Tasmania for the Launceston Running Festival, Stewart McSweyn (Nic Bideau) celebrated his 30th birthday with his return to racing when clocking a casual 27:58 over 10km, while Jessica Stenson (Adam Didyk) took out the Half Marathon in 1:09:51 and Isaac Heyne (Adam Didyk) was the first Australian man across the line in 1:01:13.
“My mum said ‘Do you realise you were born in Launceston Hospital at 9.58?’ which was when I was warming up today. I’m not a superstitious guy but it was a nice omen when I worked it out,” McSweyn said.
“It’s amazing to be back in Launceston and I thoroughly enjoyed it. First time back for a while but what better place to start than in Launceston where I was actually born. To come back here on my birthday was a bit of an omen and hopefully holds me in good stead for the year.”
Back on international soil, Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Denny (Dale Stevenson) continued his winning ways with a throw of 67.97m in Dresden, while a series of strong middle-distance results in Bydgoszcz saw Cara Feain-Ryan (Ben Norton) clock a career-best 9:22.01 in the 3000m steeplechase, Jye Edwards (Dick Telford) return to form over 1500m in 3:35.92 and Linden Hall (Ned Brophy-Willaims) stop the clock in 4:02.11 for 1500m.
At Grand Slam Track in Philadelphia, Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull (Simon Hull) pushed the pace in the 1500m to clinch second place in 3:58.36 ahead of Abbey Caldwell (Gavin Burren) in 4:01.24, with the pair doubling back for the 800m in times of 1:59.63 and 2:00.57 respectively. Ky Robinson (Dathan Ritzenhein) finished in third place over 3000m in 8:01.92.
Rounding out the weekend’s action in Japan, Ebony Lane (Chris Dale) made her return to racing with a slick 11.31 (+2.6) performance over 100m, while 110m hurdlers Jacob McCorry (Alex Stewart) and Mitchell Lightfoot (Alex Stewart) posted times of 13.58 (+1.2) and 13.64 (+1.5) respectively.
A total of 14 Australian athletes advanced to the NCAA Division 1 Nationals, led by Olympians Adam Spencer (Wisconsin), Stephanie Ratcliffe (Georgia) and Aleksandra Stoilova (Clemson).
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
Posted 2/6/2025
