Why Australia’s two fastest women might not make the Olympic team

The women’s 800m at this week’s Australian athletics championships might be the most keenly fought race in this country outside an Olympics or Commonwealth Games.

That would be remarkable enough – but the same could also be said of the men’s 800m, and the women’s and men’s 1500m.

Claudia Hollingsworth wins the 800m final at the recent Maurie Plant event in Melbourne.Credit: Eddie Jim

Australia’s renaissance in middle-distance running will deliver a national athletics championships like no other.

Qualifying times alone are not sufficient to make the Olympic team, as more runners are eclipsing the qualifying times than there are places in the team (each country can only have three runners per event at an Olympic Games).

Catriona Bisset.Credit: Getty Images

A national title at the championships in Adelaide this week will be crucial to claiming a place on the team.

Australia’s two fastest women, ever, in the 800m and 1500m races – Catriona Bisset and Linden Hall – may not even make the team, such is the pressure for places.

Five women have run under two minutes in the 800m, but there is room for only three.

First, there is veteran Bisset, who is edging closer to her best times. Olympic 400m runner Bendere Oboya has stepped up to run the 800m and broken two minutes. Likewise, US college runner Carley Thomas who is a precocious talent but a source not authorised to speak publicly said she was carrying an injury and could withdraw.

Then there is Claudia Hollingsworth, the rising star of the track who celebrates a birthday this weekend. She will run the heat as an 18 year old, and the final as a 19 year old – if she makes it.

She began the year with her eyes on the world under-20 championships in August but could now seize her moment in Paris instead.

Athlete Bendere Oboya.Credit: Hamish Blair

Abbey Caldwell will almost certainly make the Australian team in one event – it is just not certain which event that will be. She could win the 800m and the 1500m, but she can’t do both at the nationals and has yet to declare which event she will race.

Her choice will likely dictate who makes the Olympic cut in the 800m and 1500m events.

“I don’t think there has been this much pressure on at trials, at least since 2000,” Australia’s middle -distance coach Nic Bideau said.

“The young kid Claudia is as good as anyone and the same with [1500m teen sensation] Cam Myers, he could be anything. But [Adam] Spencer could turn out the best of all of them at some point [in the men’s 1500m]. He has an incredible kick and we have seen it in the Diamond League but we haven’t really seen him here because he’s been in college in the US. He has the best kick in the race.

“From what I have seen in the women’s 800m, it’s Abbey or Claudia [to win], Bendere is capable and Bisset has a proven capability.

“Abbey could win either race or qualify for both. [Athletics Australia] has said they want athletes to choose – it’s too hard to do both with the schedule, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Craig Mottram, a former champion runner turned coach, said the depth in the team was unlike anything he had seen.

“The women’s 800, 1500 and men’s 1500 are as deep as we have ever had in the sport. Ever. And in particular, on the women’s side, there is a lot of depth in the 800 all the way down to eighth place in the final.”

Winning the national title and having an Olympic qualifying time was once considered sufficient to make the Australian team. No longer. It will certainly help, but it will not guarantee a place on the team.

For instance, men’s 1500m star Ollie Hoare has battled early in the season but a couple of strong races before the team is selected in June would make him an irresistible choice.

Likewise, Stewart McSweyn’s run in the mile in Melbourne has shown he has hit form after injury-affected recent years.

“All the talk ahead of the [men’s] 800m is about [Peyton] Craig and [Peter] Bol but there is Luke Boyes and Jack Lunn and two or three others [who could all be in the top three],” Bideau said.

The pressure for places reflects a golden era in Australian track running.

In 2004, 11 middle and long-distance runners were amongst the Australian team in Athens. Fast forward to Tokyo in 2021 and there were 30 middle and long-distance runners, with five runners making finals in 1500m and 800m events. Bol came fourth in his 800m final.

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