‘We’re going to the Olympics’: record-breaking performance clinches Paris berth
Thanks to a record-breaking performance led by 19-year-old Torrie Lewis, Australia will field a 4x100m women’s relay team for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games.
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FOR the first time since the Sydney 2000 Games, Australia will field a 4x100m women’s relay team at the Olympics.
A record-breaking performance in the opening round of the World Athletics Relay Championships in the Bahamas has secured Australia’s best female sprinters a slot in Paris.
Led by rising superstar Torrie Lewis the team which included Bree Masters, Ella Connolly and Ebony Lane finished second in their heat in a Commonwealth record time of 42.83sec.
The top two teams from each heat directly advanced to the final and given the top 14 teams at the end of the championship lock in their spot for Paris, the Aussies were able to celebrate after Lewis managed to get the bob in on the line to secure second spot ahead of Cote D’Ivoire’s world championships medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith.
Germany won the heat but there was an anxious wait to see who had secured second spot before the judge deemed the photo-finish had the green and gold team just ahead.
“I saw three people leave at the same time, and I was like ‘oh my god, we have to run!’,” Lewis said. “Then I saw Ta Lou-Smith go past, but then we were fine and now we’re going to the Olympics,” Lewis said.
Masters, who ran the second leg, said: “I’m so speechless. I had full faith that we could do it, but we actually did it and it’s just wild. To have that automatic Olympic qualification is so, so exciting.
Connolly, who passed the baton to Lewis on the final exchange, said months of dedication had paid off for the team.
“I think we all had a lot of trust in each other, so we said, you know what, let’s just relax. We’ve done the work and we’ve done this a million times. Let’s just go do this and qualify for the Olympics together,” she said.
The Australian team will go into Sunday’s final as the fifth fastest.
All isn’t lost for the men’s 4x100m team who will have a chance to press their claims for Paris through the repechage round after finishing a close third in their heat.
The team of Sebastian Sultana, Jacob Despard, Calab Law and Joshua Azzopardi finished behind Canada and Jamaica in a time of 38.50sec.
“Jamaica have always been such a powerhouse team, so to even be in the same conversation with them is kind of surreal,” Azzopardi said. “If we run roughly the same time tomorrow, then we should be going to Paris but we will need to execute and run to our full potential.”
Australia’s men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams will attempt to improve their Olympic qualifying status in the repechage rounds after both finished fourth in their heats.
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