All Aboard | Frayne Train running hot, distance frenzy awaits on Day 2

A blockbuster day two looms at the World Athletics Championships as Henry Frayne sets his eyes on a global medal and an Australia's middle-distance prowess goes on show for the world to see.

Seasoned campaigner Henry Frayne is returning to the finals of a major championships after safely navigating the qualifying round of the Men’s Long Jump with a leap of 7.99m (0.0) to finish in sixth place of Group A.

The 32-year-old produced his second longest jump of the season to capitalise on his World Championships opportunity, but the Australian will be eager to close in on his 8.10m seasons best in the final – no stranger to delivering the occasional surprise.

“Throughout my career I haven’t been able to get to a final, except for the Commonwealth Games in 2018 but I started training after Tokyo in January. When I got to Europe, I was still gaining fitness. I didn’t have any intention to do Worlds or Commonwealth Games after essentially retiring but I wasn’t happy with the terms I was leaving the sport,” Frayne said.

“With Covid and my on-and-off track experience with my manager passing away, and barely jumping… I didn’t jump 8m for the last three years or something. I’m just trying to absorb it and I knew it was going to be a good Championships with the crowd. I’m enjoying the experience and want to create a legacy, even if it isn’t winning at a major championship.”

One does not have to scan back far through the records to be reminded of Frayne’s historic 8.33m leap to win silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Jessica Hull, Linden Hall and Georgia Griffith proved why they are the three fastest women over 1500m in Australian history when stamping their presence on the first round of the 1500m, all progressing to the semi-finals with authority after finishing in the top-three of their respective heats.

While the top-six athletes from each heat and the next six fastest were set to advance, the trio set the tone when going above and beyond, with Hall the quickest of the Australians in 4:03.21, followed by Hull (4:04.68) and Griffith (4:07.65) in contests that varied in tactics.

Connected closely by time and name, Hall and Hull have drawn the first of two semi-finals on Day 2, while Griffith will fly the flag in the latter of the two bouts in a bid to book three Australian tickets to the Women’s 1500m Final at the World Athletics Championships.

While the women’s 1500m competition heats up, the action is only beginning in the Men’s 1500m with Australian record holder in the mile Oliver Hoare, world number three Stewart McSweyn and national silver medallist Matthew Ramsden toeing the line.

Arguably one of Australia’s most ferocious racers, Stewart McSweyn makes his long-awaited return to global competition after being forced to withdraw from the World Athletics Indoor Championships due to the effects of long covid. Now back fit and firing, the Australian record holder comes in with a lifetime best of 3:29.51.

Since returning to full health, McSweyn has only raced once – the 3000m at the Stockholm Diamond League where he placed fourth. His time of 7:31.93 was only seconds off his Australian record best, showing there is still much more to give ahead of today’s race.

A tough competitor and a strategic racer, US-based Hoare has a deep connection with Hayward Field, winning the 2018 NCAA 1500m title as a University of Wisconsin Sophomore and having placed second at this year’s Prefontaine Classic on this very track.  Hoare will race confidently after a stellar season, with his most impressive result of the year a 3:47.48 mile to stamp his presence on the global scene.  

A year after heartbreakingly missing out on selection for the Tokyo Games, Ramsden will be making up for lost time in the 1500m and comes in with a season’s best of 3:37.05. The West Australian be pushing hard for a top-six finish in his heat to secure his spot in the semi final. 

Not since the Tokyo Olympics have Australia’s two best female high jumpers, Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) and Eleanor Patterson taken to the field together. Today the friendly foes will be in action for the Women’s High Jump qualification round, ahead of Day 5’s final. Both will go into the qualifiers quietly confident, with Olympic silver medallist Olyslagers ranked third in the world, and Patterson one of only two people to clear 2.00m or higher this year.

Five-time World Championships representative Nick Hough and Australian 60m hurdles indoor record holder Chris Douglas will also take to the start line on day two competing in the Men’s 110m hurdles.

A solid performance by Hough at the Oceania Championships of 13.43 (1.7) puts the two-time Olympian in good stead for a semi-finals berth, while Douglas’ lifetime best of 13.65 (-0.4) shows he’s ready to launch at his first major championships outdoors.

Bree Masters will become just the third Australian female in more than two decades to compete in the blue-ribband event at the World Athletics Championships when she takes centre stage in the 100m heats. A former beach sprinter, 27-year-old Masters is in career-best form, having run 11.33 at the Australian Track and Field for a new personal best.

Masters will run in Heat 6, drawing lane six to be sandwiched between the two fastest women in the encounter this year – the USA’s Melissa Jefferson (10.82) and Switzerland’s Majinga Kambundji (10.89).

A trio of World Championships debutants in Amy Cashin, Brielle Erbacher and Cara Feain-Ryan will line up for battle in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase.  Olympian Cashin is the only of the three to have met the qualifying standard in the final weeks of the qualifying period last month, winning the Portland Track Festival event in 9:27.91, but Erbacher and Feain-Ryan aren’t too far behind as they put their all into tonight’s heats.

Erbacher’s best of 9:32.96 was locked away in April this year, while Feain-Ryan will be looking to improve upon her personal best of 9:36.35.

Catch the action live via Beln Spots, and evening sessions can also be viewed live on SBS On Demand.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 16/7/2022