Western Australian sprinter Leah O’Brien saved the best performance of the Australian Junior Athletics Championships for the fifth and final day of competition, racing to history and passing the baton to her Under 20 and Open counterparts for four more days of athletics action in the wild west.
Running in the Under 18 Girls 100m Final, the Perth product delivered a performance of 11.14 (+1.7) that will go down in the history books, eclipsing Boyle’s record of 11.20 set at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico – a mark that has stood for 57 years.
“I honestly thought my race in the heats [11.46] was a really good time, I expected to maybe go 11.3 in the final but I’m so happy because I have been working really hard for that,” O’Brien said.
“It’s around the time that the Open girls run which is crazy to be running that still in high school.”
Having already won the Under 18 Girls 200m title on Saturday in 23.37 (-1.1), O’Brien now has the sprint double for 2025 in her age group, defeating World Under 20 Championships representative Thewbelle Philp (QLD, 11.35) and Amaya Mearns (11.45) with the trio standing in the same order on the podium as they did on Saturday. More about the performance can be found HERE.
In the Under 18 Boys 100m, it was South Australian Kelechi Ekwomadu who stormed his way to the finish line in 10.40 (+2.8), with Gout Gout’s training partner Jonathan Kasiano (QLD) claiming silver in 10.54 with Oliver Facer (NSW) rounding out the podium in 10.58.
Australia’s Para sprinting stocks joined the party with a pair of Australian records tumbling at the hands of Thomas McGough (VIC) and Alex Mijailovic (NSW) over 200m.
After racing in the able-bodied ranks in the 100m heats, Mijailovic returned to the Under 15 Para 200m to obliterate the national record in 22.66 (+1.6). McGough rounded out a busy weekend of racing by lowering Cooper Robb-Jackson’s Under 17 Australian record in the T38 class, clocking 24.46 (+1.9).
An emphatic victory from Bart Leeton kick-started the final day of junior athletics action, with the Victorian celebrating in style after claiming gold in the Under 18 Boys 3000m in a time of 8:31.42. Leeton defeated race favourite Oscar Gray (QLD) who stumbled over the finish line in a photo finish with Matthew McLachlan (NSW), with Gray ultimately taking silver in 8:32.14 (.135) to McLachlan’s 8:32.14 (.139).
Tate Van Camp (QLD) added to the middle-distance action with a new championship record of 1:53.22 in the Under 16 Boys 800m, while Maiya Hewitt (NSW) added a championship record of her own in the Under 17 Girls 400m Hurdles – clocking 59.28 to shatter the 60-second barrier for the first time.
Adding to the championship records, rising race walker Ela Uzun (NSW) crushed her older competitors in the combined Under 15 & 16 Girls 3000m Race Walk, carving almost 30-seconds off the former mark to win the Under 15 Australian title in 13:21.24.
Amalia Bond (NSW) edged ever closer to the six-metre barrier in the Under 16 Girls Long Jump when leaping to 5.87m (+0.7) to set a new personal best en route to gold, while Tallara Joseph-Riogi (NSW) threw 50.25m to take out the Under 17 Girls Javelin Throw and Cadel Holmes (NSW) went up and over 2.02m to take the Under 18 Boys High Jump crown.
The junior (U13-U18) component of the Australian Athletics Championships have now concluded, with the Open and Under-20 events commencing on Thursday at 8.30am AWST.
The Championships are the finale of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series, with the meet also supported by the Western Australian Government through Tourism WA, as well as Venues West and Athletics West.By Sasha Ryner and Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
Posted 8/4/2025
By Sasha Ryner and Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
Posted 8/4/2025
