World’s fastest man Fred Kerley headed to Australia to race Rohan Browning

The world’s fastest man is heading Down Under and will tackle Australian sprint star Rohan Browning. Check out all the details.

The world’s fastest man, Fred Kerley, is coming to Melbourne to take on Australia’s best sprinter Rohan Browning.

In a fitting honour for the inaugural Maurie Plant Meet, the reigning 100m world champion and Tokyo Olympic silver medallist will compete in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m event on Thursday February 23.

Plant was responsible for bringing some of the world’s best athletes, including world record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha, to Australia to compete.

The fact the US sprint star will be on the start line in an event named in the former promoter’s honour is a wonderful tribute for the much-loved figure who passed away three years ago.

Kerley, who has a 100m personal best of 9.76sec, declared Australia the perfect destination to lay the foundations of a campaign which he hopes ends with him defending his world title in Budapest, Hungary, in August.

Fred Kerley won silver behind Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs in the men's 100m at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Picture: AFP

“I am excited to start my season in Australia and I will also use this as a training base for the upcoming season. I have competed in all the other continents, and I am excited to get the opportunity to compete in Australia,” Kerley said.

“Also, it is nice to open my season with the 200m because I got injured in the 200m semi-finals at the world championships. All in all, I am excited to come and show my talent to the Australian people.”

Browning hasn’t raced over 200m often in recent seasons but will step up in distance for next month’s event to go head-to-head with Kerley.

Rohan Browning will step up in distance to tackle Fred Kerley. Picture: Getty Images

He will be joined by two of Australia’s young stars, world under-20 championships medallist Calab Law and national 200m champion Aidan Murphy.

“Let’s just say that if I was a Melbourne-based sports fan, I wouldn’t be missing this. Hopefully the big match-ups will draw big crowds,” Browning said.

Law, 19, who progressed through to the 200m semi-finals of last year’s world championships in Oregon, is excited to run against the best sprinter in the world.

“It gives us more exposure to the rest of the world and he is the best in the world at the moment, so it’s going to be fun,“ Law said. ”We get to measure our speed against him and I will be doing everything I can to beat him.

“It‘s just such a great opportunity for athletes at my stage of development to get to run against the best sprinter in the world.”

Murphy clashed with Kerley in the 200m heats in Oregon and is eager to put into practice the lessons he learnt from that experience.

“To race a high-profile athlete such as Fred Kerley develops our international presence as emerging athletes. I am delighted that such an opportunity has come to Australia, and look forward to putting on a show,” Murphy said.