Oceania Championships: Aussie teen racing sensation Torrie Lewis continues to dominate as finals near
It may not be as glamorous the last time Torrie Lewis raced in a Diamond League event in China, but the Aussie teen sensation is still the star of the show as she eased her way into the final race in Fiji.
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Talk about coming back to earth.
The last time Torrie Lewis raced was infront of a packed stadium at a prestigious Diamond League event in China where she defeated the reigning world 100m champion.
On Thursday there were a few hundred spectators on hand at Suva’s HFC Bank Stadium to watch Australia’s next big thing stroll around in the heats of the 200m at the Oceania Championships.
Lewis was certainly the star attraction, posing for photos with fans and other competitors afterwards. She will return on Friday for the final where she will look to add another senior title to her growing resume.
This year the 19-year-old has collected the Australian 100m record - she ran 11.10sec in Canberra in January - the national 200m title and then that career breakthrough performance in Xiamen where she defeated US superstar Sha’Carri Richardson.
Her training partner, Calab Law, is also putting together an impressive season that will see him line-up in the 4x100m relay at the Paris Olympics and potentially the 200m.
Winning the Oceania title will help his world ranking for the Olympics and like Lewis, he cruised in the heats.
The men’s 800m final is also set to be one of the main attractions with Peyton Craig (1min52.36sec) and Luke Boyes (1:52.96sec) both winning their respective heats comfortably.
In the 400m finals Ellie Beer further enhanced her prospects of lining up in Paris with a dominant performance.
The 21-year-old, who went to the Tokyo Olympics in the 4x400m relay, currently sits just inside the quota for Paris qualifications via world ranking but will get valuable points for her efforts in Fiji.
Beer, who ran a personal best 51.59sec at the national championships in April, captured her first Oceania title in a time of 51.91sec.
In the men’s 400m Luke Van Ratingen (45.89se) led home an Australian trifecta defeating Cooper Sherman (45.97sec) and Alex Beck (46.41sec).
The men’s javelin throw was taken out by former junior star Nash Lewis in a throw of 79.67m, upsetting national champion Cameron McEntyre (76.52m).
Medal-winning decathlete secures Paris berth despite shocking three years
Ash Moloney didn’t expect to have to trek all the way to Fiji to ensure he got a chance to replicate his Tokyo Olympic heroics in Paris.
The decathlon champion said he had made a “dog’s breakfast” of the three years since he shot to prominence by winning the Olympic bronze medal as a wide-eyed 21-year-old.
This meant his Olympic campaign was on the line at the Oceania Championships and fortunately for Moloney he took the title, and enough points, to guarantee a spot in the 24-man field in Paris.
“I should have qualified a long time ago,” Moloney said. “I made a dog’s breakfast out of it.
“I can’t believe I had to go to Fiji to do it but I’m there now.”
Moloney figured he was “bullet proof” following Tokyo but the reality was the opposite
After never pulling out of a decathlon in his career, the Queenslander at one time withdrew midway through five consecutive competitions.
“Being young and naive I thought I was bullet proof,’’ he said. “Now I have a much more stable training environment and procedures that I go through every single day.
“Before it was just go harder, harder, harder, keep going until something breaks and then just pick yourself up and do the same thing.
“After Tokyo I was busted. I couldn’t walk properly as it was an all-or-nothing sort of effort.
“Then I got to the world indoors (in 2022) and competed well but I really hurt myself in the high jump.
“The knee which I had hurt in Tokyo, I did it worse and gave myself a little tear in the patella.
“After that it was kind of the same thing over and over. That was when I had five consecutive competitions in a row where I had to pull out because of my knee.”
Moloney entered the Olympic year dealing with the reality that there was a big chance he might not get to Paris unless something changed dramatically.
Finally his knee started to come good and when he completed an indoor event in France in January, something clicked in him.
Then out of nowhere he burst back to life last month in a competition in Gotzis, Austria, where he registered the fourth-best result of his career (8367 points).
“We reset for Gotzis and I just blew it out of the park, I was stoked,” he said.
“I just got there and said, ‘Right, your body is sound, just get it home’. And that’s what I did, executed a good decathlon.”
At the Oceania Championships he won with 8162 points.
His efforts included a discus PB of 46.80m as well as season bests in the shot put (14.40m), 400m (47.22), 110m hurdles (14.12) and pole vault (5.00m).
“My day two in Fiji was better than it was in Gotzis, believe it or not,” Moloney said.
“If I added all my best results from Gotzis and Fiji I would have scored 8500.
“That is a very good way to look at it and proves I am in 8500 shape right now if I get things right.”
So what can he do in Paris?
“I am now in the running for a top-eight position but as we know with decathlons, anything can happen,” he said.
“What I am capable of and what I have done don’t quite match up yet.
“I could find myself in a top-three position like I did at the last Olympics or I could still get a PB and be in the top eight. You just never know.”
His partner in crime from Tokyo, Cedric Dubler, won’t be alongside him this time after he tore his hamstring in Fiji.
However, fellow Australian Daniel Golutovic has a chance after finishing second (8002 points).
Moloney has moved up to 18th in the world standings but Golutovic is not safe yet.
He is 22nd and likely to compete in Germany this month in an attempt to nail down an Olympic spot.
Shock loss leaves Browning searching for answers
He made his name at the Tokyo Olympics but with Paris just under two months away, Rohan Browning is searching for answers after a shock loss at the Oceania Championships.
Australia’s fastest man had his colours lowered again with Sydney’s Josh Azzopardi taking the 100m title, just ahead of 18-year-old Sebastian Sultana with Browning relegated to third.
It was a significant breakthrough for the 24-year-old who has been living in Browning’s shadow.
“This is why we do the sport for these types of races, it was tight and tough,” Azzopardi said. “Australian sprinting is just nuts at the moment which is what we like to see.”
The soft track and windy conditions aren’t conducive to fast times with Azzopardi clocking 10.33sec, Sultana 10.35sec and a disappointed Browning 10.40sec.
Azzopardi ran the final leg in the men’s 4x100m relay team which qualified for the Paris Olympics at last month’s World Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
He had finished second to Sultana at the national championships in April where Browning, who’d had a hampered preparation with injury, finished fourth.
“He (Sultana) got me at nationals so I really wanted to come out and win tonight,” Azzopardi said. “So I put in the hard yards for a couple of weeks and got the win.
“These boys are world-class so to be able to compete against them is amazing.
“Going to the Olympics for the relay and now hopefully maybe the 100m . . .all eyes are on Paris now.”
Browning captured the attention of the nation as ‘The Flying Mullet’ when he ran 10.01sec to win his heat at the Tokyo Olympics. He then clocked 10.09sec to finish fifth in the semi-final.
Last year he ran 10.02sec at the national championships in Brisbane but has struggled with injury over the past six months.
He has been forced to have cortisone injections in his knee recently but despite the disappointing result in Fiji, the 26-year-old is confident he can still make the field in the 100m for Paris.
Browning will have to rely on getting in via his world ranking and leaves for Europe next week to chase valuable points to boost that before the June 30 cut-off.
In the women’s 100m, Ella Connolly was the stand-out to win her first Oceania title, clocking 11.41sec to defeat her Australian teammate Ebony Lane (11.53sec).
Connolly and Lane are both part of the women’s 4x100m relay team who also booked a spot in Paris at the World Relay Championships.
Bronze medal at 75? The Fijian Prime Minister is raising the bar
Step up Albo, the Fijian Prime Minister has just raised the bar.
While Anthony Albanese likes to convey himself as a sports fanatic with rugby league, cricket and tennis close to his heart the Aussie PM has a fair way to go to match the deeds of Sitiveni Rabuka.
At the age of 75 the Fijian PM won the bronze medal in the Masters shot put as part of the Oceania Athletics Championships which are being held in the country’s capital city of Suva.
The popular Rabuka has athletics in his blood, having represented Fiji in the decathlon at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand.
He had already competed at the championships, finishing fourth in the discus on Monday.
Rabuka, who had a brace on his right knee, took the competition - he was in the 75-79 age division - seriously, deliberately fouling a throw he wasn’t happy with before producing a best of 7.09m.
“It is great to be out with the more experienced athletes, not older, more experienced and great to see so many of us still out there not just competing but participating with other athletes from around the region,” Rabuka said.
“It’s a great morale booster for the people and the population and we hope we inspire young people to continue.
“It’s not right for people to retire as I had done, and then come back to competition, it is better to just keep it going, do a bit and develop a habit.
“At this age you still have it.”
With the Oceania Championships potentially being held in Darwin in 2026, 61-year-old Albanese has a couple of years to pick his event.
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