Queensland decathlete Cedric Dubler makes Rio Olympics after win at Australian Athletics Championships

AUSTRALIA’S track and field team has its first Rio bolter with decathlete Cedric Dubler a surprise qualifier on Friday night.

SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES - APRIL 01: Cedric Dubler of Queensland celebrates after qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games during the Australian Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park on April 1, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Zak Kaczmarek/Getty Images)

AUSTRALIA’S track and field team has its first Rio bolter with decathlete Cedric Dubler a surprise qualifier on Friday night.

The 21-year-old Queenslander will be the first Australian to compete in the event at an Olympics since Scott Ferrier at the Sydney 2000 Games.

Dubler was a silver medallist at the 2014 world juniors but was sidelined with injuries all last year.

His final score of 8114 points at the Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney - which was just 14 points over the required Olympic standard - moved him to No.3 on Australia’s all-time list.

“It’s a dream come true, it’s been a goal since I started athletics to make an Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the world,” Dubler said.

His Olympic dream was realised on the back of six personal bests out of the 10 events - 100m, high-jump, 400m, 110m hurdles, discus and the pole vault.

But he cut it fine in the final event where he needed to run under 4min58sec for the 1500m to get the required amount of points.

After some anxious moments on the final lap because of stomach cramps, Dubler crossed the line with just two seconds to spare.

“I saw the clock and thought I was cutting it a bit close but down the home straight I knew I was going to do it,” he said.

Dubler started dreaming of this moment six years ago when he started with his Brisbane-based coach Eric Brown, who trained 2006 Commonwealth Games decathlon bronze medallist Jason Dudley.

I've been waiting to say this for a long time... I'VE JUST QUALIFIED FOR THE 2016 RIO OLYMPIC GAMES!

— Cedric Dubler (@CedricDubler) 1 April 2016

“At the start of my athletics career I mingled with a few different events, I started with the 800m, the long-jump and then went to the sprints,” he said.

“I never really knew where I stood and that’s when I joined Eric to train my pole vault and he said, ‘Look, we’ve got a decathlete here’.”

Dubler finished fourth at the 2012 world juniors championships and then after his silver medal in 2014 the focus became Rio.

“The goal was set after the last world juniors when I scored 8094 points, we set our sights to this year’s Olympics,” he said.

“It was a bit tricky last year with the back injury, it threw out most of the year of training but we restructured the plan and we got there.”

In other events on Friday night there were no issues for Australia’s two long-jump stars with Fabrice Lapierre and Brooke Stratton requiring just one leap in qualifying to book spots in their respective finals.

In the 100m Alex Hartmann equalled his personal best of 10.29sec to be the fastest qualifier through the heats from Victorian Aaron Stubbs (10.31sec) and Tasmanian schoolboy Jack Hale (10.38sec).

Australia’s fastest woman Melissa Breen led the way in the women’s 100m heats clocking 11.51sec and will chase the Olympic A-standard of 11.32sec in Saturday night’s final.

Originally published as Queensland decathlete Cedric Dubler makes Rio Olympics after win at Australian Athletics Championships