Commonwealth Games Preview | Aussies on track in Birmingham

Competition on the track in Birmingham is set to be fierce as 55 Australian track athletes and four combined event athletes toe the line at Alexander Stadium. Watch the Commonwealth Games athletics program live on Channel 7 and read about our must-watch events below:

Sprints and Hurdles 

Men’s 100m
Two of Australia’s fastest men, Rohan Browning and Jake Doran will line up on the blocks, and will be using their learnings from the recent World Athletics Championships to excel in the blue-ribband event. With 11 athletes in the field who progressed through to the semi finals, both men will be hard at work. 

After a shock ending to his USA campaign where he was run out in his heat, Browning now has his eyes firmly focussed on a place in the final. His progression in the championships is the focus rather than how fast he stops the clock, but Browning will need to run closer to his 10.08 season’s best to step up from his world championships result. Doran, who this year won the Australian has been nothing short of consistent this season, but will be looking to bring down his 10.29 time clocked in Eugene, closer to his personal best of 10.15 from 2018. 

Australia’s best result of recent times at the Commonwealth Games is a fourth place by Matt Shirvington in 1998, with a time of 10.03s. 

Women’s 100m
Australian sprints double champion Ella Connolly will headline a strong Australian team of three, including Naa Anang and Bree Masters for the Women’s 100m. 21-year-old Connolly missed out on the chance of competing at the World Athletics Championships in her strongest event, but in the form of her life, will join a host of the world’s fastest women on the start line.

Connolly’s personal best of 11.25 set this year puts her at number 9 on Australia’s all-time list and she plans to better her mark in Birmingham. Joining her will be Masters, who is eager to go again after running 11.29 on debut at the World Athletics Championships and Naa Anang, who proved she is back in form at the recent Oceania Championships when running 11.29.

Up against them will be the heavyweights of women’s sprinting including red-hot favourite Shericka Jackson who took silver at the world championships with a 10.73 run, as well bronze medallist  Elaine Thompson-Herah who stopped the clock at 10.81.

Women’s 100m T34
A trio of Australians will be on the start line for the Women’s 100m T34 wheelchair racer, with Paralympic bronze medallist Robyn Lambird headlining the Australian action. Robyn, ranked number three in the Commonwealth will line up against Tokyo gold and silver medallist Hannah Cockroft and Kare Adenegan, both from England, making this a world-class event.

Lambird clocked 18.68 last year in Tokyo, but with more than one and a half seconds between Adenegan, the Western Australian will be pushing harder than ever for a personal best to go at least one step higher on the podium. 

Also competing will be wheelchair racer and thrower Rosemary Little and Australian team debutant and CGA Kurt Fearnley scholarship holder Sarah Clifton-Bligh who enters the Alexander Stadium seeded fifth.

Women’s 100m T38
Rhiannon Clarke took silver upon her international debut in the Gold Coast but will be up against two heavyweights in T38 sprinting, both hometown heroes; Sophie Hahn and Olivia Breen, who are both ranked one and two going into this Games. Clarke clocked 13.04 in Mackay earlier this year, cementing her place on the team at the end of the qualifying period, but will need to find a few more milliseconds if she wants to equal her placing from the last Games.

Fellow Western Australian Ella Pardy will also step up to the challenge, and with a time of 13:07 is an outside chance of a medal. 16-year-old Indiana Cooper makes up the Australian quota, and is set to thrive on the world stage as she dons the green and gold for the first time. 

Men’s 100m T38:
Australia has just one shot at gold in the Men’s 100m T38, but lucky we have reigning gold medallist and five-time Paralympic gold medallist Evan O’Hanlon on the roster. Spurred on by taking bronze at last year’s Paralympic Games, O’Hanlon is ready to defend his title. 

While the 34-year-old has had younger athletes overtake him on the world stage over the past four years, he will enter Alexander Stadium as the fastest athlete in the field, with Paralympic gold medallist Thomas Young (GBR) having recently withdrawn from competition. Over this qualifying period, O'Hanlon has run a best time of 11.00 seconds. 

Men’s 100m T47
Canberran Jaydon Page had his first taste of international competition at the Tokyo Paralympics and now he’s ready to win his first international medal in Birmingham, ranked as number one in the Commonwealth.  Page ran 11.09 in Brisbane - 0.05s ahead of Nigeria’s Suwaibidu Galadima. 

Also competing is the youngest male athlete on the Australian Athletics Team in Birmingham, 16-year-old Anthony Jordan who dips his toe in international competition. Jordan is ranked number 9 in the field, and will be pushing for a spot in the final. 

Women’s 200m:
Jacinta Beecher and Ella Connolly will be Australia’s two representatives in the Women’s 200m. Beecher became a world championships semi finalist last week and will be aiming to go one step further to become a Commonwealth Games finalist on what is only her second representative team. Beecher sprinted to 22.70 (-0.2) earlier this year to qualify for both championships, while Connolly enjoyed a successful domestic season where she ran 22.95 (+0.6).

Just as in the 100m, the Australian women will come up against Jamaica’s Sharika Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who will threaten their quest for the final. 

Men’s 400m:
Six-time Australian 400m champion Steve Solomon has not had the easiest season, with injuries and illness stopping him from unleashing his potential but has re-focussed and reset after the World Athletics Championships, and will put himself to the test to see if he can lower his 45.28 season’s best. 

100m Hurdles
Michelle Jenneke ran the second fastest 100m hurdles time by an Australian at the recent world champions, having clocked 12.66 (-0.4) - more than 0.1 seconds off her previous lifetime best from seven years ago. The Queenslander doesn’t see her return as a second coming but saw her run as a breakthrough after battling two years of injury.

Alongside her will be Celeste Mucci who returns to her second Commonwealth Games, this time as a hurdler after previously competing in the Heptathlon. Mucci, the sixth fastest female sprint hurdler that Australia has ever produced, copped a fall and a disqualification in her geat in the USA but will be looking to run sub 13 for the fourth time in her career. 

110m Hurdles
The evergreen Nick Hough is  in form after running 13.51 in his heat at the World Athletics Championships. The time was his second fastest ever at a major global championships, but he has his eyes on setting a new personal best.

Hough’s last lifetime best of 13.38 was run at the last edition of the Commonwealth Games where he won bronze, but since then a hoard of hurdlers have risen to the challenge, with 9 athletes having run faster than the 30-year-old this year. Hough will come up against a trio of Jamaicans including Hansle Parchment who has run sub 13 this year, and England’s Joshua Zeller who has most recently clocked 13.19 meaning Hough will need to come closer to his personal best to replicate his Gold Coast results.

400m Hurdles
One year after the Tokyo Olympics, Sarah Carli was untroubled in advancing to the 400m hurdles semi final at the World Athletics Championships and ended her USA campaign with a slick 55.57, to finish seventh in her race. The third fastest time of her career, and the fastest since a life-threatening accident in the gym saw her unable to train or compete for quite some time, Carli will be raring for another shot of running sub 55 for the first time.

Carli will come up against her Trans-tasman rival Portia Bing who she has faced six times in both domestic and international competition. Carli has won the duel with her only twice, but was only narrowly edged out by the Kiwi in last week’s semi final. 

Distance

Men’s 800m

800m sensation Peter Bol will be racing to win fresh off finishing an admirable seventh in the final at the world championships in Eugene.

Bol became a household name after his brave front-running performance at Tokyo 2020 saw him finish a bittersweet fourth. Now in Birmingham, Bol has his eyes not only on the podium, but on the top step, aiming to become Australia’s first two-lap Commonwealth Games men’s champion since Peter Bourke in 1982.

Also in the men’s 800m, Games’ debutant Charlie Hunter enters Birmingham after catching the eye of Australian track watchers producing a series of hot results 800m, 1500m and the mile across the US. Hunter, who boasts a PB of 1:44.35 - third on the all-time Australian list and a time that would’ve been an Australian record just four years ago - will use his tactile ability to advance through the rounds.

The Commonwealths provided five of the eight finalists at Eugene, with a number of sub 1:45 performers set to toe the line including Kenyan Elias Ngeny, South African Tshepi Tshite and England’s Steve Cram. 

Women’s 800m

Three-time national champion Catriona Bisset and three-time national 800m medallist Georgia Griffith will both make the trip across from the Eugene world championships for the 800m in Birmingham.

Bisset, who set the Australian record of 1:58.09 in June of 2021, experienced a dramatic world championships run where she fell and was spiked by a competitor, forcing her to have 11 stitches into her leg. Bruised and cut up, Bisset will regroup and compose herself for what will be another competitive event. Griffith enters her second Commonwealth Games having produced a scintillating run of 2:00:72 in the Netherlands in May, less than a second shy of her 2018 personal best of 2:00:13.

The field is one of the most intriguing of the championships, feature strong home support for world championships and Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson of England who owns a personal best of 1:55:88, and Scotland’s front-running Laura Muir who steps down as she attempts the 800m and 1500m double. Muir’s two-lap personal best of 1:56:73 was set in July 2021. 

Men’s 1500m

A strong Australian line up of Stewart McSweyn, Oli Hoare and Matt Ramsden will challenge the world’s best in the men’s 1500m.

Hoare and McSweyn come into the Games ranked #4 and #5 in the Commonwealth respectively, showing the caliber of the event they’ll contest.

Despite an interrupted lead in, McSweyn produced a bold showing in Eugene, advancing through the heats and semi finals, but was able to bring his best in the final, finishing ninth in 3:33:24. McSweyn shocked the Australian athletics world at the 2021 Diamond League meet in Monaco, becoming the first Australian to dip under the 3:30 barrier, running 3:29.51.

From Sydney via Wisconsin, Ollie Hoare will make his Commonwealth Games debut after earning a set of green and gold uniforms at the Olympic Games, World Indoor Championships and World Championships all within the past year. Hoare enters Birmingham after being edged out in a tactical Eugene race, running well below his 2021 personal best of 3:32:66.

Matt Ramsden joins McSweyn and Hoare in the lineup, having qualified for the Games with a personal best time of 3:34:08 set in Belgium in July of 2021.

Women’s 1500m:
With a recent resurgence of Australian middle distance running, the trio of 2022 World Athletics Championships seventh place getter Jessica Hull, World Indoor Championships finalist Linden Hall and senior team debutant Abbey Caldwell round out a stellar 1500m program for the Australians.

While Hull has proved to be consistent with her performances this season, the US-based runner tested positive to Covid-19 not long after her 1500m final, and will be competing in untested waters when she toes the line. 

Hall was unlucky to be eliminated from competition when crossing the line ninth in her semi final in Eugene but will go in with a season’s best of 4:00.58. If she’s able to race closer to that time, she’ll be in good form for a finals berth.

Australian 1500m champion Caldwell, has had an outstanding season which included a string of consistent performances including a stunning 4:04.18 run in California which saw her qualify for the Commonwealth Games. This will be Caldwell’s first appearance in an Australian senior team and will be surrounded by both the Commonwealth and the World’s best as she gains crucial experience. 

With Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon absent from this race, the Australians will be fighting against Winnie Nanyondo, who has been consistent with four minute runs this year, as well as Kenya’s Edinah Jebitok who has since become a favourite for gold. . 

Men’s 1500m T54:

Jake Lappin makes his second appearance of the Games, transferring from the road to the track alongside fellow Paralympian Samuel Carter as they race over three and three quarter laps. Lappin received the wildcard spot to compete, after ranking 8th in the world at the end of the qualifying period, while Carter received an extra invitation after finishing just behind in 9th place.

Lappin clocked a speedy 2:57.22 in the 1500m in Notwill this year, while Carter’s best of 2:59.11 from Dubai put them in good shape for the final, however they’ll face some fierce competitors in England’s veteran David Weir and Josh Cassidy, who both made an appearance in the marathon, but it’s Britain’s Daniel Sidbury that is the biggest threat, having clocked staggering 2:48.23 in Notwill. 

Women’s 1500m T54
Australia’s middle distance wheelchair athletes are some of the top in the world, with Madison de Rozario having won bronze in the event in Tokyo, Angie Ballard having claimed gold in the event eight years ago in Glasgow, and seasoned campaigner Christie Dawes at ease after decades of experience across multiple distance events.

De Rozario is the favourite for gold, with her time of 3:14.98 from Notwill placing her as the number one ranked athlete in the Commonwealth at the end of the qualification period. More than six seconds separates the 2022 Female Athlete of the Year from England’s Samantha Kinghorn, who is ranked number two, highlighting that a second gold medal may be on the cards.

Ballard, seeded sixth in the field, won silver in the event in 2018, and as someone who performs on well on a big stage, will be up for the challenge, while Dawes, who has not competed in a track event for some time at an event of this magnitude will be pushing for hard for a spot on the podium.

Men’s 5000m and Men’s 10,000m 
World championships starters Matthew Ramsden and Ky Robinson will look to race the Men’s 5000m on the penultimate day of competition, with Robinson also listed in the on the first day of competition on the track.

On debut for Australia in the 5000m at the World Athletics Championships, Robinson made a gutsy effort to qualify for the final,  placing eighth in his heat in a time of 13:27.03. He missed the qualification mark, but his tactical ability and aggressive approach may very well mean he will find himself higher up in Commonwealth rankings following this event. 

Ramsden makes his second appearance of this competition in the 5000m, and will be seeking redemption, unhappy with his 5000m run where he was run out of the heats in 16th place.

Women’s 5000m and Women’s 10,000m

A trio of Rose Davies, Izzi Batt-Doyle and Natalie Rule will battle it out over 12.5 laps against the Commonwealth’s best. 

Davies and Rule both had difficult campaigns at the recent world championships, with Davies unsatisfied with her result, and Rule unable to finish due to blistering conditions in the Eugene sun. Davies comes into the championships having recently recovered from Covid, but will still be looking for a top-tier time as she threatens some of the big names of the sport including a strong Kenyan team led by Beatrice Chebet. 

Batt-Doyle will do the 5000m/10,000m double and after a stint in St Moritz in Switzerland is ready to fire up for both events. Batt-Doyle executed a strong campaign in 2022, including a third place at the Zatopek:10, fourth in the national 5000m and a 10,000m personal best of 31:40.10 in May in London.  The South Australian toes the line in the 5000m, replacing Jessica Hull who has elected to focus her efforts solely on the 1500m. 

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
Australia’s 2022 national championships gold and silver medallists Amy Cashin and Brielle Erbacher will compete in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase. 

In 2022, Cashin won a terrific Australian Championship race, and then set a new personal best of 9:27.91 to achieve a qualifying standard in June. Her momentum has continued into recent times at the World Athletics Championships, where she went to a new level with a 6.45 second personal best - the fastest ever time by an Australian woman at the World Athletics Championships. Placing 17th overall, Cashin only missed qualifying for the final by 0.44 seconds.
In her senior debut for Australia, Erbacher placed 11th in her heat at the World Athletics Championships, clocking 9:40.55.

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase

Australia’s top male steeplechasers Ed Trippas and Ben Buckingham will have another bite of the cherry after missing out on qualifying for the final at the World Athletics Championships.

At Hayward Field in Eugene, where a month earlier he had run at the NCAA Championships, Trippas placed sixth in his heat in a time of 8:23.83 - the second fastest time ever run by an Australian at the event. Trippas missed the final by just three seconds. 30-year-old Buckingham placed ninth in his heat, but if his performance of 8:19.79 in June is anything to go by, the lawyer turned runner could do something special in the final.

Walks

Australia’s walkers, mostly known for their prowess across 20km and 50km, will swap out their usual road surface and take their marks at Alexander Stadium for 25 laps of the track. Both the Men’s and Women’s events will feature three Australians, as Commonwealth Games number one Jemima Montag, Rebecca Henderson and Katie Hayward join Rhydian Cowley, Kyle Swan and Declan Tingay as they aim to continue Australia’s strong history in race walking at the Commonwealth Games.

Reigning gold medallist Montag placed a fantastic fourth at the World Athletics Championships, and owns the both the lowest personal best and season’s best, putting her in good stead to step atop of the podium. Hayward and Henderson too boast some of the most impressive times, meaning a trifecta could be on the cards. Rivaling the trio will be Welsh athlete Heather Lewis who placed seventh in the 20km distance in 2018. 

Just like in the Women’s event, the Men’s race will see the Australians set the pace, with Tingay the fastest of the 10-strong field. Tingay has been in top form this year, lowering his lifetime best on the track to 39:22 but was unable to translate that form to the 20km distance at the World Athletics Championships and will be hungry to complete his international campaign with a medal.  Cowley and Swan too are medal contenders, with season bests of 40:28 and 39:22.

Combined Events

Four athletes take the Commonwealth stage in the Decathlon and Hepathlon with Tokyo Olympian Cedric Dubler leading the charge for a combined events team of Daniel Golubovic, Alec Diamond and Taneille Crase.

Dubler finished his world championships campaign with his highest ever placing at a world championships, with an 8th place finish scoring 8246 points across the 10 events, and will be taking in that confidence as he looks to step up one or two places higher to better his bronze medal result from the Gold Coast Games four years ago.

Golubovic joins the Australian Commonwealth Games team as a determined all-rounder with fans and family on both sides of the pacific. The dual US citizen most recently scored 8071 for 14th place at the World Athletics Championships. His highlights among his six season best performances was his 13.92 personal best in the 110m hurdles. 

Oceania Champion Diamond arrives in the UK, after replacing Ash Moloney who bowed out of debut Commonwealth Games due to injury last week. While he comes in as the underdog with a best point score of 8002, Diamond is one of only a few in the field to have not competed at the World Championships, meaning he will have the advantage of a fresh body and mindset to compete.

While Dubler is Australia’s best chance for a medal in the ultimate all-rounder event, he’ll come up against some of the world’s best decathletes including defending champion Lindon Victor from Grenada, who finished in fifth place in Eugene with his second highest score ever of 8474. Most athletes on the field will also be backing up from their performance in Eugene - a challenge that no competitors in the field have faced before, in doing two decathlons in as many weeks. 

In the Heptathlon, 27-year-old Taneille Crase makes her international debut. The ninth best Australian in history, Crase most recently won two Heptathlons in the space of a few months, taking out the Australian Athletics Championships and the Oceania Championships, with a personal best score of 5945. Crase’s strengths among the seven events include a 100m hurdles personal best of 13.43, a long jump best of 6.17m as well as a comparatively strong result in the 200m and high jump. 

By Jake Stevens and Sascha Ryner for Commonwealth Games Australia
Posted: 2/8/2022