Matt Shirvington adamant Rohan Browning has the motor to be our fastest ever 100m sprinter
Sprint legend Matt Shirvington has anointed Sydney sprinter Rohan Browning as the next big thing in Australian athletics and the man most likely to be Australia’s fastest runner of all time.
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Sprint legend Matt Shirvington believes Sydney sprinter Rohan Browning has the capability to become Austalia’s fastest man.
Browning rocketed to third on Australia’s 100m all-time list after clocking 10.08sec last month in Brisbane, which puts him just behind Shirvington and national record-holder Patrick Johnson.
Shirvington, who ran 10.03sec at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, is confident the 21-year-old university student has all the tools to dominant the blue riband event.
“I see Rohan developing into someone that is going to truly go past me and potentially go past Patrick Johnson (9.93sec) as well because I think he really does have the progression and trajectory laid out for him,” Shirvington said.
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The men’s 100m looms as the event of the national championships, which are taking place this weekend at Homebush Stadium.
There were no issues in the 100m heats for the favoured runners with Browning doing it easily.
Browning won the opening heat in 10.49sec, but he wasn’t the fastest for the evening with Canberra’s Edward Nketia clocking 10.39sec.
Defending national champion Trae Williams clocked 10.44sec to finish a whisker behind Jake Doran.
Tasmania’s Jack Hale won the second heat in 10.69sec, while 16-year-old rising star Sasha Zhoya progressed through to the semi-finals despite finishing third in his heat in 10.65sec
Browning will face serious challenges from Hale, who improved his personal best to 10.19sec in the same Brisbane race which Browning elevated himself in two weeks ago.
Reigning national champion Williams, who clocked 10.10sec in the lead-up to last year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, is also in the mix despite an injury-interrupted preparation.
Shrivington has followed Browning’s development closely given he’s coached by one of his former teammates, Olympic triple-jumper Andrew Murphy.
“Rohan missed the Commonwealth Games final by 1/100th of a second which was such a margin that it could have really defined him,” Shirvington told Fox Sports News.
“But that for me showed his tenacity and determination because he hasn’t had it all his own way.
“When Jack Hale burst onto the scene and ran 10.13sec (wind-assisted) as a 15-year-old, Rohan Browning was behind him running 10.18sec and had to sit in his shadow for a little bit.
“At his first national championships he didn’t win, he came third, Trae Williams was in front of him that year and he’d broken the Australian junior record.
“So Rohan has had to wait and bide his time and I think that is going to serve him well into the future.”
The resurgence of the 100m has Athletics Australia excited about the country’s relay prospects looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
Japan showed at the 2016 Rio Games when they won the silver medal that the relay isn’t always as simple as having the four fastest runners, it’s as much about execution and process.
With the retirement of Usain Bolt, Shirvington believes there is an opening for a well-drilled relay team to have an impact in future major championships.
“Athletics is changing now, the landscape is changing now with Jamaica starting to drop off a little bit with Usain and Yohan (Blake) finishing off their careers,” Shirvington said.
“There is an opportunity for other nations like Australia to come good in the sprint ranks.”
SASHA SENSATIONAL BUT WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Australia has unearthed its next track and field star but the rise of 16-year-old Sasha Zhoya comes with a catch … we’re no guarantee to keep him.
Zhoya has turned Homebush Stadium on its head at this week’s national championships seemingly breaking records at will in a number of different events.
The problem is the Perth junior star is also eligible to represent France because his mother is a former elite French snow skier.
And the French are aware of his freakish talents with Zhoya indicating he will make a decision on which country he represents by the end of the year.
Athletics Australia needs to move heaven and earth to keep him given the evidence he’s thrown down so far this week and there’s more to come over the next two days.
On Friday Zhoya won his third gold medal in the under-18 110m hurdles, clocking an Australian record time of 13.05sec — breaking his own mark of 13.24sec which he set in 2017.
The time is also the world age best for a 16-year-old with the previous record 13.13sec.
Zhoya broke the under-18 pole vault world record on day one of the championships when he cleared 5.56m.
He is set to compete another five times including in the men’s 100m and the open men’s pole vault on Sunday.
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