Paris 2024: Australia’s fastest man on the track, Rohan Browning, is in danger of missing the Olympic Games

Dubbed the next Matt Shirvington and Australia’s budding super star over the 100 metres, Rohan Browning now finds himself on the brink of missing the Olympic Games in Paris after a semi-final appearance in Tokyo, three years ago.

HE was ‘The Flying Mullet’ in Tokyo but Rohan Browning is in danger of not making the field for the Paris Olympics.

Australia’s fastest man has fallen so far down the world 100m rankings that unless there is a withdrawal through injury or another federation doesn’t take up an available spot, he won’t be on the start line.

Browning was placed 54th in the list of 56 spots available when the qualification period closed on June 30 but an overnight re-set of the rankings saw him fall to 57th following the latest update of the World Athletics Road to Paris table.

He won’t find out until the weekend whether his Olympic dream is still alive.

Browning became a household name at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago when he ran a stunning career best 10.01sec to win his heat.

Rohan Browning at the Tokyo Olympics. Picture: Yannick Verhoeven/BSR Agency/Getty Images

He then backed it up by holding his own against the world’s best sprinters, finishing fifth in the semi-final in 10.09sec.

With his flowing locks and engaging personality, Browning was dubbed the next Matt Shirvington as he set about breaking the magical sub-10 second barrier.

While he has never quite got there, the Sydney sprinter has come close on a number of occasions and ran 10.02sec at the Australian championships in Brisbane last year.

However, a niggling knee injury has impacted his preparation over the past six months with the 26-year-old’s struggles evidenced at the Olympic trials in April.

Browning was beaten into fourth place and then at last month’s Oceania Championships in Fiji he was again surprisingly upstaged by his Australian teammates, Josh Azzopardi and 18-year-old Sebastian Sultana, finishing third.

Browning at the recent Oceania Athletics Championships in Fiji. Picture: Michael Klein

The qualification time set for the 100m in Paris was 10.00sec but the quickest Browning ran during the qualification period was 10.10sec (-0.1 wind). He posted 10.06sec in January but was assisted by an illegal wind of 4.1 metres per second.

There is a potential fall-back plan for Browning as he could be named as a relay runner after Australia’s 4x100m team qualified for Paris at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas in May.

Browning didn’t take part in any of the qualifying with the team but Australia can name a team of five with one reserve.

The last time he represented the green and gold in a relay was at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games where he fell over before even receiving the baton.

Another casualty of the updated world rankings list was national 800m champion Luke Boyes.

Boyes looks in serious trouble after slipping to 46th, one spot outside the field allocation for the 800m in Paris.

This paves the way for Australian record holder Joseph Deng to make a late swoop for Australia’s final spot in the event.

Tokyo Olympic finalist Peter Bol has already been selected while teenager Peyton Craig is 23rd on the world rankings after a personal best 1min44.12sec in Austria last month got him under the automatic qualifying time.

Deng hasn’t been sighted this season before resurfacing as part of a training group in South Africa but he has the required standard (his Australian record 1min43.99sec) from back in the opening week of the qualification period in July last year.

He showed he was serious again about Paris when he finished fourth behind Craig in the Austria race which could be enough to snare a spot in the Olympic team.

Unfortunately for Boyes, who won his first national title in April defeating Bol with Craig finishing third, hasn’t been able to go under the Olympic qualifying time (1:44.70sec) this season.

Originally published as Paris 2024: Australia’s fastest man on the track, Rohan Browning, is in danger of missing the Olympic Games