No rest for Australian athletics’ ironman Lachlan Kennedy in pursuit of breaking that magical 10-second barrier
Just days after competing at the Stawell Gift, Lachlan Kennedy is jetting off to the next meet in pursuit of a sub-10 second 100 metres.
Olympics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Olympics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australia’s fastest man at present Lachlan Kennedy will continue his relentless pursuit of a sub-10 second 100m in China this weekend.
The Queenslander has become the ironman of Australian athletics given his gruelling schedule, crisscrossing the globe and racing 12 times in the past month.
In a huge opportunity for the 21-year-old he will take on a world class field over 100m at the opening meet of the Diamond League series in Xiamen.
Kennedy competed in China at the world indoor championships in Nanjing on March 23 where he won Australia’s first silver medal in the men’s 60m. He then flew back to Melbourne for the Maurie Plant Meet where he won the 100m and 200m.
Two weeks ago he raced four times at the Australian championships in Perth which included a career-best 10.00sec in the 100m heats.
He then came back to Victoria where he competed against the pro-runners in the famous Stawell Gift over the Easter weekend, making the semi-finals of the 120m event and then backing up for another spin around on the grass in the backmarkers’ invitational.
Kennedy returned from Stawell on Tuesday and then flew to China for the biggest opportunity of his career.
“I’m just having fun and while the body is good, I’m going to keep trying to get better,” Kennedy said about his schedule after a narrow loss in the Stawell Gift semi-finals.
Everyone else in the 10-man field Diamond League field has broken 10 seconds with the line-up including Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, former world champion Christian Coleman and South African speedster Akani Simbine.
Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu is also in the field, he defeated Kennedy by a whisker in the 60m final at the world indoors.
After becoming the second-fastest man in Australian history with his 10.00sec performance, Kennedy was upstaged in the national 100m final by Tokyo Olympic semi-finalist Rohan Browning with the pair both clocking 10.01sec only for the judge to separate them by a few thousands of a second.
Patrick Johnson remains the only Australian to go sub-10sec, clocking 9.93sec in Japan in 2003.
Kennedy was this week named, along with his rival Gout Gout, in Australia’s team to compete at the world championships in Tokyo in September.
There will be 14 Aussies in action in Xiamen with Olympic high-jump medallists Nicola Olyslagers and Eleantor Patterson renewing their rivalry with Ukraine’s world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
Olyslagers won the gold medal at last month’s world indoor championships ahead of her teammate and then again had the better of Patterson at the national championships. She is tied for the world lead at 2.01m with Mahuchikh.
Pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall takes on world record holder Armand Duplantis while world indoor bronze medallist Liam Adcock competes in the long-jump and the now US-based Liz Clay in the 100m hurdles.
There are plenty of Australia’s middle-distance women in action with Rose Davies leading the charge in the 5000m alongwith Georgia Griffith and Maudie Skyring in an event headlined by world record holder Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay.
In the 1000m there are four Aussies led by new Australian 800m champion Abbey Caldwell, Sarah Billings, Bendere Oboya and Carley Thomas.
More Coverage
Originally published as No rest for Australian athletics’ ironman Lachlan Kennedy in pursuit of breaking that magical 10-second barrier
Djokovic spits the dummy: ‘F*** tennis’
Novak Djokovic is back on court. But based on this vision from a recent training session, it doesn’t appear to be going that smoothly.
Olympic champion to make major change leading up to LA
Kaylee McKeown has made the decision to switch coaches ending her short stint with the famed British coach who helped champion breaststroker Adam Peaty to glory.