Maurie Plant Meet: Claudia Hollingsworth blitzes rivals in 800m
Middle-distance legend Craig Mottram has revealed the day he first spotted Claudia Hollingsworth, the teenager who put the Paris Olympics on notice with a stunning 800m win in Melbourne.
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It was at a house athletics carnival where Craig Mottram first spotted Claudia Hollingsworth.
His health and wellbeing company was implementing a sports program at Mentone Grammar when one of Australia’s greatest ever distance runners saw something which blew his mind.
“I think it was a 400 or a 4x400m relay and she just put 100m into them at a jog and she was just mucking around with her friends,” Mottram recalls.
“I said to Peter O’Gorman who was the school’s director of sport, ‘Who is that girl?”. He said Claudia Hollingsworth, she is a twin but her older sister is probably the better sports one, she is into trampolining.
“I was like, ‘Wow, she can run’. That was Year 7 or 8, then I got to know her through cross-country at school and athletics. We’ve been working together since, for around six years now.”
That little girl in the house carnival is now the most exciting young athlete in the country after she announced herself with a jaw-dropping 800m victory at Thursday night’s Maurie Plant Meet.
With her studies finished last year, the 18-year-old now has her sights set on the Paris Olympics but her coach is urging for caution even though he knows he has a special talent on his hands.
“We are keeping a lid on it,” Mottram said.
“Yes, she is amazing, we know that. Yes, she can run faster, we know that but she is 18.
“She has a long journey in our sport ahead of her and an exciting one. We’re just sticking to the plan and picking off every race as it presents. She is a racer, she loves the competition and she will race whoever is in it in whatever the scenario.
“That is what we are doing, giving her the chance to go and run.”
Hollingsworth ran a huge personal best of 1min59.81sec leaving some quality in her wake including world championships semi-finalist Abbey Caldwell, Australian record holder Catriona Bisset and Olympic 1500m finalist Linden Hall.
Mottram, a four-time Olympian and world 5000m bronze medallist, knew she had a performance like that in her but there was one particular aspect in the race which has him excited about what is ahead for the teenager.
“The maturity she shows is unique, her physical ability is unquestioned, we know she can run that and more but the composure she shows is fantastic,” he said. “She is very composed, exceptionally determined and is a competitor, a real competitor.”
Last year Mottram set up the On Athletics Club Oceania chapter, a globally backed running club designed to nurture the next generation of Australian middle-distance talent with Hollingsworth his poster girl.
With Year 12 studies the priority last year her races were limited but now the world is her oyster although the pair are still trying to figure out one important fact – which distance she is best suited.
She set a new 1500m U/20 record in Adelaide last Saturday before her heroics over 800m – another U/20 record — on Thursday night.
“I was hoping to get clarity from Adelaide to Melbourne in terms of where we focus our time but I’m none the wiser and probably less clearer,” Mottram said.
“I honestly think she can do both, not at the Olympics, but in the short term she can run well at both and I don’t think that’s a bad option for her development.”
Hollingsworth is yet to run an Olympic A-standard qualifying time in either event – she was just 0.51sec off the 800m – but that shouldn’t be a problem in the coming months although Mottram warned they wouldn’t be chasing times to get to Paris.
Also figuring in the equation are the world U/20 championships in Peru which are three weeks after the Olympic Games.
“Claudia will be the first person to tell you that she wants to go to Paris, everyone does, why wouldn’t you? In reality it’s an early step in her career,” Mottram said.
“If the Olympics come and she qualifies, and she wants to go, then absolutely she will go but it is not the absolute priority for us at the moment.
“The priority is to keep learning and to keep developing her for the long term because she has got so much more to offer.”
A STAR IS BORN: TEEN PHENOM PUTS PARIS ON NOTICE
The word has been out for a couple of years that Craig Mottram had unearthed a special athlete and that hype became a reality for Claudia Hollingsworth last night.
In one of the more breathtaking performances seen at Lakeside Stadium for some time the 18-year-old destroyed a high-quality 800m field to put her name up in lights for the Paris Olympics.
Mottram, one of Australia’s greatest middle-distance runners, found Hollingsworth when he was coaching athletics at Mentone Grammar and has been quietly guiding her through the junior ranks.
But the goalposts have now changed dramatically after what his protege did, breaking two minutes for the first time and leaving Australia’s best in her wake.
The women’s 800m was the race of the Maurie Plant Meet given its quality with Hollingsworth winning in 1min59.81sec from world championships semi-finalist Abbey Caldwell (2:00.54sec) and Australian record holder Catriona Bisset (2:01.41sec). Olympic 1500m finalist Linden Hall was fourth (2:02.30sec).
“It was really amazing, I seriously went into the race with no expectations. I just wanted to get in there as it was the first 800 of the season so I didn’t know where I was sitting with fitness,” Hollingsworth said.
“It’s crazy, so happy for my first PB since I was 16. It has been a while since I could crack that 2:01 so to go under two minutes is just crazy and I’m super happy so early in the season.
“It was probably a national final basically, it was just crazy the depth in the Aussie runners at the moment and to be up against those girls, it was insane to think about.
“I was on the start line thinking about how it was a great opportunity to try and run fast with these girls.”
Hollingsworth was a talented footballer at school and briefly entertained an AFLW career. Instead she is now set to represent Australia at an Olympic Games in five months time.
“I talked to a few footy people but I’m definitely happy with my choice,” she said. “I might go back there when I get too old for this, we’ll see.
“I still kick the footy with my sister, who is still playing, on Thursday nights so I’m still getting the ball around but definitely happy I choose running.”
Hollingsworth won the 1500m in Adelaide on Saturday night and remains undecided what event she will focus on.
“I have no idea, I might now do more speed work on the track, it’s all up to Craig, I trust him so much to just follow what he says basically,” she said.
Australia’s other rising teenage star, Torrie Lewis, had her colours lowered by experienced New Zealand Olympian Zoe Hobbs.
Hobbs, who has a sub-11sec personal best, took the victory in 11.34sec with Lewis second in 11.40m.
The 19-year-old, who set a new Australian record of 11.10sec last month, said it was a valuable lesson to come up against a seasoned sprinter like Hobbs.
“It was amazing, I’m trying not to look at her but you can’t help but notice someone a couple of metres in front of you by 10m (mark), just having somebody to chase and somebody who is at the level I want to be is just great,” Lewis said.
“I would like to emulate her.”
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Queensland’s Liz Clay continued her love affair with the Lakeside Stadium track.
Four years ago Clay had a career breakthrough performance in Melbourne and after a horror 18 months with injury she was hoping her favourite place would signal a change of fortune.
It certainly provided that with Clay taking down some big scalps, winning in 13.02sec to defeat Michelle Jenneke (13.12sec) with American Queen Claye third (13.16sec).
MCSWEYN’S EMOTION-CHARGED VICTORY
This one meant more than most for Stewart McSweyn.
His best win for three years came in front of 6000 fans on his home track in a meet honouring his former mentor. And he took down a world champion in the process.
McSweyn held tough at the end of a gruelling John Landy Mile, winning in 3min52.00sec ahead of 2022 world champion Britain’s Jake Wightman (3:52.11sec) and 17-year-old Canberra schoolboy Cameron Myers (personal best 3:52.44sec).
When he crossed the line, McSweyn pointed to the sky in a gesture to celebrate Maurie Plant, his former agent and friend, who the Melbourne meet is now named after.
“He was the guy who got me my first Diamond League start when I probably didn’t deserve a start,” McSweyn said.
“He found a way to get me in there in 2018 and I owe a lot to him so to run the meet that means so much to his family and friends … I know he’ll be watching on and loving it, getting big crowds in Australia.”
After a couple of years where he has struggled with injury and form, the 28-year-old said getting the scalp of Wightman was a massive confidence boost ahead of the Paris Olympics.
“I’m confident I will get back to my best this year and that's a good start,” he said. “In this sport you have to have a clear run, the standard is too good.
“For me I’m the healthiest I’ve been at this time of year. I know I can improve a lot from here but I know he (Wightman) is going to be right in the mix of the medals later in the year.
“If I’m able to compete with him at this time of year it shows I’m at a good level. I know he’s going to get better, I need to get better, the world is going to get better so this is just the start and I’ve got to improve from here.”
Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning completed the 100m/200m double but conditions weren’t friendly for fast times.
Despite looking more impressive in the 200m – he won in 20.80sec – Browning said he would be focusing back on the 100m for the rest of the season. He earlier took out the 100m in 10.34sec.
“That was tough,” Browning said. “I was disappointed with the times, they were pedestrian today but I’m just excited to be back racing and doing the 200 doubles up as a good training day.”
In the men’s discus Queensland’s Matt Denny (65.09m) was beaten for the second time in a week by New Zealand’s Connor Bell (65.18m) while Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers set a meet record in the high-jump with a clearance of 1.99m.
RIVAL’S HOPE FOR BOL AFTER DRUG SCANDAL
Former world 1500m champion Jake Wightman hopes the stigma from Peter Bol’s drug scandal doesn’t haunt the Australian for the rest of his career.
The British runner is in Melbourne to compete at the Maurie Plant Meet, where he was set to take on Bol over a mile.
Unfortunately, the local hero has withdrawn from the race on Thursday because of a hamstring injury.
Wightman said he could only imagine the “helpless” feeling his rival would have experienced after being falsely accused of taking steroids before being cleared of any wrongdoing six months later.
“It would have ruined a big period of his training and racing where he wasn’t able to focus,” Wightman said.
“The thing is, you never get those moments back. It’s a lot more than just one month or a few months, it’s a big deal.
“You judge people by characters. You hope that good people – Pete has always been like that and been a really nice guy every time I have spent time with him – you hope that character assessment forms your judgment on whether you think it was true or not at the time.
“I was always pretty sure Pete wouldn’t have done anything and you hope that the right outcome comes at some point, which it has.”
Wightman pointed to a similar case in the UK in which 800m runner Oliver Dustin was falsely accused of taking cocaine on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics.
He was quickly cleared to compete after it was revealed his sample was contaminated at a French testing laboratory.
While the 20-year-old made it to the Games, the toll of the scandal weighed heavily and he was run out in the heats.
Bol suffered a similar fate last year when he managed to qualify for the world championships in Budapest – which took place a month after a Sports Integrity Australia investigation was closed – but struggled badly and also did not get out of the 800m heats.
Wightman said the problem Dustin and Bol faced was that many would only remember them for the drugs scandal.
“I would just hate the fact that it is still there in history,” he said. “It would be like if you Googled your name, it still pops up and you wouldn’t want that.
“You would want it to be about what you have done on the track and the performances, not about something that was unfair in the first place.”
Bol, who finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympic 800m final, was scheduled to make his return to the track in Adelaide on the weekend but had to postpone it because of a hamstring tendon issue.
In his absence, the local flag in the John Landy Mile on Thursday night will be flown by Olympic finalist Stewart McSweyn, Canberra schoolboy Cameron Myers, fellow teenager Peyton Craig and Australia’s fourth-fastest miler in history, Jye Edwards.
Wightman, who shocked Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the world title in Eugene in 2022, is on the comeback trial after missing all of last year with injury.
Ingebrigtsen was again surprisingly defeated in the 1500m in Budapest last year – again by a Brit in Josh Kerr.
Wightman is excited about how the landscape looks for the 1500m in Paris.
“It’s seriously not just about him (Ingebrigtsen) anymore,” Wightman said.
“A lot of athletes are starting to run so well, you can’t look at one or two people.
“At these championships, there are a lot of people putting their hat in the ring.”
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