Toowoomba’s Patrick Tiernan has sights set on 10,000m Oz title

Two years ago Toowoomba’s Patrick Tiernan defied the odds to finish the 10,000m Tokyo Olympics final after two brutal race falls. The long distance runner has gone from strength to strength since then and now has his sights set on a coveted race win.

Toowoomba’s Patrick Tiernan competes in the Men's 10,000m Final on day seven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium. Picture: Getty Images

Toowoomba’s own ‘Hero of Tokyo’ Patrick Tiernan has his sights set on a coveted race win this weekend.

In 2021 Tiernan captured the hearts of the global sports community when he defied two race falls to bravely finish the Men’s 10,000m final of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Television footage of the final showed Tiernan falling once in the final but a phone call with his parents painted a different picture.

“We spoke to him on Saturday and he’s looking a lot better compared to how he was after the race,” Patrick’s mum Karen Tiernan told this masthead in 2021.

“He told us he is feeling a lot better but still a bit dehydrated.

“It was heartbreaking seeing him like that.

“He told us he knew he had problems with about 350m to go in the race.

“We didn’t know what happened earlier until he told us about it.

“All we knew was he’d fallen off the pace before we saw that last fall.”

Patrick Tiernan fell twice during the 10,000m men’s final of the Tokyo Olympics and left the stadium in a wheelchair.

Tiernan’s focus has been on half marathons in recent years but he carries good form into the On Track Nights Zatopek: 10 meet in Melbourne.

The 29-year-old stands in the way of star runner Jack Rayner who is chasing a third straight national 10,000m win.

A win for Rayner would go a long way toward helping him secure a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“The Olympic year has come around a lot quicker than normal, given Tokyo was delayed by a year,” Rayner said to Athletics Australia.

“It feels like it wasn’t that long ago, even though we aren’t far away from Paris.

“I’m really keen to improve and lower my personal bests.

“Obviously I had a disappointing season over in Europe, but it has been nice to find form again on the Australian circuit.

“Hopefully I can keep the streak going against some good competition at Zatopek.”

The Zatopek serves as the opening round of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Season.