Olympic-awaited Rohan Browning could get a taste of a more seismic break after a storm to third place on the Australian men’s 100m sprint stages at the Queensland Track Classic.
The best domestic ensemble gathered for a meeting outside of national competitions in over a decade with the crowd expecting something special and the 23-year-old delivered with a sizzling 10.05 seconds meet the final round.
Only Patrick Johnson (9.93) and Matt Shirvington (10.03) are ahead of Browning and it looks like it is only a matter of time before he legally grabs the 10-second barrier after running 9.96 with wind support in January.
A Sydney University law student is now arguably the first male to represent Australia in the 100m individual at the 2004 Olympics since Josh Ross.
Running 10.08 for auto-Olympic certification, sprinter Andrew Murphy delivered and can start planning for the Tokyo Games.
“This is the time I’ve been running all year,” Browning said after stopping Edward Osei-Nketia (10.12) of New Zealand and Jack Hale (10.33) of Tasmania.
“I had a taste of under-10s this year but by doing that today I am confident I can do it legally. ”
The Browning feat started a series of great performances along the way.
Minutes later Victorians Catherine Bisset (1: 59.12) and Linden Hall (1: 59.22) broke the two-minute hurdle in the women’s 800m, the first time two Australians have done so in the same race.
This was Bissett’s second Olympic qualification and for her training partner Hall the best personal time gave her another feather of the captains to join her 1500m qualification.
“She’s one of my close friends,” Bisset said of Hall.
“She will break that four-minute mark in the 1500s, or at least I hope she does that until she stays out of the 800s.”
Fifteen-year-old Claudia Hollingsworth exploded exciting levels around Australia’s central distance racing when she finished third in 2: 01.60.
Hana Basic is breathing away from qualifying at the women’s 100m individual standout in Tokyo after running under 11.20sec twice – just shy of the 11.15 pick – for the best overnight.
Her 11.19 dash in the final with almost a puff of wind was as impressive as her 11.18 heat time with a +2m tail / second.
As a sign of growing expectations, Liz Clay shook her head after posting her fifth under-13sec (12.98) performance of the season in winning the 100m races in range. strong.
Brooke Stratton was a comfortable winner in the women’s long jump but left some disdain after her best jump of 6.63m fell short of a 6.82m Olympic qualification.