Matt Shirvington reacts after Rohan Browning goes past him

Matt Shirvington remembers the moment he knew Rohan Browning was destined for stardom and says he’s got a major advantage in Tokyo.

Rohan Browning stunned the world on Saturday night but Matt Shirvington wasn’t surprised.

The former Australian sprinter tipped Browning to make the final before the Olympics kicked off and the 23-year-old backed up Shirvington’s confidence by winning his 100m heat in a rapid 10.01 seconds to qualify easily for the semi-finals.

Former world champion Yohan Blake’s reaction to being beaten by the Aussie young gun was “priceless”, and means Browning will no longer be able to fly under the radar.

Having raced and trained in Australia for the past 18 months, international competitors would not have seen much of Browning before Tokyo, and Shirvington believes coming in as an unknown quantity was a major “weapon” he can use to his advantage.

“I think he’s well poised to do something pretty special. He looked really comfortable, really confident and the field’s wide open,” Shirvington, who is presenting part of Channel 7’s coverage of the Games, told news.com.au.

“I felt he was ready for that. I’ve been watching him run for the last six months and he’s really been piecing his race together and I was just so impressed.

“It was just a confident, professional first-round performance that he can build on and I think we’ve got more to come from him. That was the thing that probably resonated most with me, was that he did it and did it comfortably and he’ll be able to replicate it. It wasn’t a one-off. I think his consistency is there.

Browning is making his mark in Tokyo. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“It’s such a great position to be in and a really fruitful position to be in, the person who is unknown, the person that has little expectation, little reputation and someone that can go on and surprise them (his rivals) is such a great weapon and something that I think Rohan’s loving, being the underdog.

“He said that last night, ‘I’m loving the underdog spirit, getting out there and fighting’.

“It won’t take them long, last night they (other runners) would have stood up and gone, ‘Hang on, who’s this guy?’ He’s qualified, he’s now in lane four, he’ll be in the middle of the field tonight, he’ll get introduced properly and they’ll know that they need to be wary of him.”

Browning wasn’t always the hotshot coming through though. Australian under-age star Jack Hale stole the headlines as they rose through the ranks together, but now Browning is making his mark after running the quickest time of any Australian Olympian in history.

Shirvington has followed Browning’s career closely and can remember the moment he knew Australia’s wonderboy had the hunger to achieve greatness at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, even when the result didn’t fall his way.

Then there was the 10.09s he ran in tough conditions at Olympic qualifiers.

Browning’s blistering run in the heats in Tokyo saw him surpass the 10.03s Shirvington clocked at the 1998 Commonwealth Games – and he’s thrilled to see a new breed lead the charge for Australian sprinting.

“I think I actually ran a 10.03s the time he was born so it’s probably an appropriate time for him to go past me,” Shirvington said.

“He was always going to go past me. The first time I saw something in Rohan was the 2018 Commonwealth Games and his heartbreak at not making the final. You could just see it in him, that he was going to be something special.

“His 10.09s to win the trials on a cold evening in Sydney with a headwind just proved that he was ready to go past that time, definitely.

“The truth is, for him to run 10 (seconds) flat is what’s required and he did that so I think in turn going past me and becoming the fastest Olympian ever is what he needed to do and he did it beautifully.”

Browning’s 100m semi-final is scheduled to be run at 8.23pm AEST before the final takes place at 10.50pm.

Browning (far right) ran beautifully on Saturday. (Photo by Antonin Thuillier / AFP).