Paris 2024: Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning has bombed out of the Olympics

Rohan Browning’s horror year has continued with Australia’s fastest man failing to get out of the 100m heats in Paris on Saturday night.

Browning’s horror year has continued with Australia’s fastest man failing to get out of the 100m heats.

The Tokyo Olympics semi-finalist has been hampered by a knee injury and took a punt with his preparation, deciding to go in fresh for Paris with no lead-up runs over the past six weeks.

It back-fired horribly with him looking rusty and nowhere near his best as he struggled to finish sixth in 10.29sec behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine (10.03sec).

A philosophical Browning said afterwards he wouldn’t be “scapegoating” the year because of the injury.

“I came into this healthy for the past two months and actually I was really confident in where I was at,” Browning said. “I saw glimmers that I was in the shape I was in Tokyo but I didn’t put it together.

“I was just off the pace today so I think I’ve got a mountain to climb to just get back into that top class.

Brought to you by

“I definitely had more confidence in myself coming into this than what the results suggested. This is one of the hardest events in sports and the quality is so high at the moment.

“I think, maybe with hindsight I would have benefited from some racing. But I made a strategic call that I needed to train to find that shape and also to rehab the knee.

“The good news to me is I feel 100 per cent healthy but it’s not like I pushed my body that hard today. I feel like there’s a lot more in me this season.”

Browning, 26, said he didn’t think he needed to do anything “revolutionary” to get back to the heights of three years ago when he won the opening heat of the Tokyo Olympics in 10.01sec.

“I don’t think I need to do anything revolutionary, I just need to continue to evolve to make things like in this sport where the margins are so slim,” he said.

“You know, you don’t need to go and do something drastic. I feel like I have a great team around me. I feel like we’ve got a model that I know has been working, even though the results haven’t been there.

“As unconvincing as that might sound. I have full faith in that system. So I think it’s a matter of patience, sticking with it and just continuing to have to evolve.”

Rohan Browning didn’t make it through the heat stages. Picture: Getty Images

Fellow Aussie Josh Azzopardi also didn’t progress, finishing fourth in the second heat of the morning in 10.20sec.

Gold medal favourite Noah Lyles played up to the capacity crowd in Stade de France, revving them up before his heat and shadow-boxing for the camera during his introduction.

That was the best part of his appearance though given how sluggish he looked, having his colours lowered by Great Britain’s Louie Hinchliffe.

The reigning 100m world champion struggled to gain momentum early and had to keep pushing to the line to finish second in 10.04sec with Hinchliffe clocking 9.98sec.

Defending Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs didn’t look much better with the Italian also beaten into second in his heat, clocking 10.05sec behind Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajaki (10.02sec).

There was drama in the opening heat with Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu false-starting and being kicked out of the competition despite protesting his innocence for several minutes.

It didn’t worry the fastest man in the world this season, Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, who was in complete control to win easing down in 10.00sec.

Brought to you by

Originally published as Paris 2024: Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning has bombed out of the Olympics