Here’s a sentence this observer never thought he would write. Australia is dominating the men’s 60 metres sprint. No, really.
We’re up there in the women’s 60, too. That’s right, in the blue riband indoor distance to be contested at the world indoor championships in Nanjing next month, we have athletes in (potential) medal-winning positions.
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Now this writer has never set himself up as an expert in the sprints. Hopefully readers won’t get to the end of this offering (or at whichever point they stop reading) and say: “And we can see why.” But when I consulted the world lists on the World Athletics website this week, Lachlan Kennedy sat – if that’s even the right word for people who cover more than 10 metres per second at top speed – atop the men’s lists, one of half-a-dozen Australians in the top 20 of the men’s and women’s fastest over 60 metres.
In fact, it’s an Anzac domination. Throw in a couple of Kiwis in Zoe Hobbs and Tiaan Whelpton and Down Under sprinters account for an eye-catching number of the world’s top 20s. Matt Shirvington reached the 60 final in two world indoor championships. And I’ve been around long enough to recall the year Paul Narracott went up to an indoor meeting in Osaka and handed Carl Lewis a shock defeat in the 60. Earlier still there were times when Australian female sprinters dominated the world lists both early and late in the year – when Marjorie Jackson, Shirley Strickland, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Mathews and Raelene Boyle did their stuff.
But, in the current era, in men’s sprinting, this is a rare moment indeed. Now there’s plenty of the indoor season to go, it must be acknowledged. In fact, it is just getting going as the major European and US indoor meetings kick off. We won’t hold this lofty position in the world rankings by the time the season’s done. In fact, we may not even hold it by the time the next week is done. Let’s enjoy the bright side of the road while we can.
Absorbing so much of the sunlight that you’d hope he’s slapped on plenty of the 50+ is Lachlan Kennedy. The 21-year-old Queenslander, a former national rugby union representative, leads the world with an Australian record 6.43 seconds that slashed almost a full tenth of Shirvington’s previous national mark. He made that stunning break-through in Canberra last month with NZ’s Whelpton second in 6.50, followed by two more Aussies, Josh Azzopardi (6.52) and Jacob Despard (6.55).
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A couple of weeks later, Kennedy still leads the world list by 0.05 seconds from Paris 2024 100 silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
Not to be outdone, Torrie Lewis ran 7.14 in her first indoor competition in Belgrade last week. Three men – Kennedy, Azzopardi and Despard and one woman, Lewis, have achieved the automatic qualifying standards for the world championships at which only two per nation are allowed to compete. Ella Connolly and Taylah Cruttenden are just outside the women’s auto mark but, for the moment, inside the quota.
So, why is all this happening so quickly. One thing you’d say is that the policy of using relays as a development tool for individual sprinter is paying dividends (most, if not all, this group are or have been in the relay squads).
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There are other factors, too. Besides the little matter of the rest of the world scarcely having got going, there is the change in definition of indoors from competition that takes place under a roof to competition that takes place in a short track environment. That word ‘environment’ is a key one because Australia, having no indoor facilities, was given dispensation to hold its recent short track championships outdoors. Guess which way the wind blew (spoiler: it wasn’t in the opposite direction to the direction of running).
The Canberra race had 1.6 metres per second tailwind, close to the maximum allowance of 2mps. When Connolly ran 7.16 at the nationals, the tailwind was 1.3. The wind can blow the other way, of course – Thompson’s 6.48 in Jamaica last month, also outdoors, was run into a 2.1.
Olympic 100 metres champion Noah Lyles kicked off his season with a 6.52 in Boston last weekend. At 60 metres in the Olympic final Thompson led in 6.41 seconds with Lyles third in 6.44. At the line, Lyles had centimetres to spare over Thompson, both being timed at 9.79. If Kennedy can convert his 6.43 to anything like that outdoors this year we will all be very happy indeed.
Canberra also sits at just over 600 metres above sea level, providing some altitude assistance. That, and a warm outdoor track, is conducive to fast sprinting. You would imagine that indoor tracks, on which the sprinters run flat out into padded bags, must also be a little more inhibiting than their open-air counterparts.
All caveats aside, however, there is much to enthuse about in Australian sprinting. All these same reservations have applied previously but we haven’t had sprinters up near the top of world lists either early in the year, or late.
Let’s enjoy it while we can – and see how far it takes us.
