Back in the day when ‘Deek’ – sometimes known as Robert de Castella – was king of Australian distance running, Canberra’s Stromlo Forest was his domain. The mobs of kangaroos living in the pine forests knew as much about his training as anyone else.
You didn’t see the kangaroos so often then, just like some don’t see the wood for the proverbial trees, but you couldn’t miss them as the nation’s best distance runners contested the selection trials for the world cross-country championships on the warm evening that was 28 November.
At the end of the night’s racing, a few things were clear. Seth O’Donnell and Morgan McDonald won their way into the men’s team as the first two finishers who want to run the individual race at the championships now just over a month away in Tallahassee, Florida next year. Cameron Myers won the men’s race, but his preference – as expressed on the Australian Athletics website report – is the mixed 4x2km relay at the championships.
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Like Myers, Leanne Pompeani is from Canberra and she made it a local double with a dominant win in the women’s race ahead of Holly Campbell.
So, that’s four spots out of a potential 16 open-age reps in Florida – two six-member teams and four relay competitors – decided, which is not exactly a high degree of certainty from a trial. There were one or two absentees – world champs 5000 metres fourth placegetter Ky Robinson and 10,000 ninth placegetter Lauren Ryan are believed to be available for selection.
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For the most part, too, the selectors will probably follow trials finishing order but if you’re seeking greater clarity now, you might consider asking a kangaroo. There was a pleasing number of spectators on the Stromlo Park course; as many, if not more, kangaroos. Among other reasons your correspondent knows this is that a mob hopped through the car park as we were leaving the venue.
Again, back in the day we used to say that things said in the forest, stayed in the forest. Only the trees were to hear. Now the trees are gone, burnt out in the 2003 bushfires and replaced with the purpose-built cross-country and cycling courses. The kangaroos hear everything the trees once did.
The open men’s race always loomed as the best of the trials and it did not disappoint. A large pack of almost 20 were together through most of the first of the four 2.5km laps. O’Donnell was always either at the front or on the shoulder of whoever else was. McDonald, too, was ever prominent. Myers was more circumspect, tucked into a pack along with Ed Marks, Isaac Heyne and Ed Trippas, among others. He looked ominously comfortable. Turns out, he was.
To no-one’s surprise, it was O’Donnell who now took the race up forging to the lead. At this stage it was no more than 10 metres and McDonald, Marks, Heyne and Myers were among those to respond immediately. He surged again – harder this time – at the bell and led by around 40 metres on the lowest part of the lap with just under 400 to go.
Now Myers moved to the front of the chasers. “He could get second,” a nearby non-kangaroo spectator observed, followed a moment later with the further observation: “He could even win it.”
O’Donnell, though, is very loathe to give up a race without a fight. He showed it in winning his second national cross-country title in Launceston last year. He showed it again in beating Myers and Robinson over the final lap of the national 5000 in Perth in April.
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Myers got to the lead in the final straight. O’Donnell and he fought fiercely for the next 50 metres before Myers got a narrow but clear break just before the line. He won, 29:43 to 29:44. McDonald, Marks and Heyne all followed within seconds of each other and Thomas Do Canto rounded out the top six (David McNeill was seventh: can he really be becoming vets-eligible next year?).
Pompeani was a more emphatic winner of the women’s race. She finished 46 seconds ahead of Campbell and a good part of that was established on the first lap. Selection for Campbell could be a matter of redemption: she made the team for Bathurst23 but was a last-minute withdrawal due to injury. National champion Bronte Oates was third and Caitlin Adams fourth.
Kayden Elliott won the men’s U20 race with just 12 seconds separating the first five finishers. Five was the number in the women’s U20, too, this time the first five finishers – led by Libby Mantay – all Queenslanders.
Most of the post-race whispers were about the prospect of a relay team. Jess Hull is known to be keen, now Myers has expressed his preference. There’s plenty more middle-distance talent around – Olli Hoare, Linden Hall, Abbey Caldwell, Adam Spencer to name a few – to make up a highly competitive team.
All will become clearer – or not – in the next couple of weeks. And the result of the selection deliberations will be known in Tallahassee, Florida on 10 January 2026.
In the meantime, asking a kangaroo might be the best thing you could do.