The biggest names in Australian athletics are poised to draw the curtains on the historic show that has been the 2025 Australian Athletics Championships, as rising sprinters Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy go head-to-head while Kurtis Marschall chases the elusive six-metre marker.
The track has been running hot all championships and few races have been more highly anticipated than the Men’s 200m, as a rematch between World Indoor 60m silver medallist Kennedy (QLD, Andrew Iselin) and global sensation Gout (QLD, Diane Sheppard) looms in Perth.
With the eyes of the world on the 17-year-old Gout at last month’s Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne, it was Kennedy who upset the teenager with a breakthrough performance of 20.26-seconds to extend his credentials to the 200m distance, with Gout wasting no time in bouncing back to post times of 9.99 (+3.5) and 9.99 (+2.6) over 100m already this week.
The Women’s 200m will also be fiercely contested as an even field headed by Kristie Edwards (NSW, Andrew Murphy), Jessica Milat (VIC, Cathy Woodruff) and Lakara Stallan (NSW, Andrew Murphy) will see a new champion crowned, while Rhiannon Clarke (WA, Danny Kevan, T38) and Mali Lovell (NSW, Katie Edwards, T36) will lead the charge in the Para 200m events.
Fresh off gold and silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, Australia’s high jump queens Nicola Olyslagers (NSW, Matt Horsnell) and Eleanor Patterson (VIC, Fayaaz Caan) have been cleared for takeoff in Perth, with Patterson leading the head-to-head count at 28-19.
Olyslagers has held the recent ascendency with dual Olympic medals while Patterson soared to the 2022 world title, as the only two Australian women in history to soared over two-metres take centre stage with contrasting styles yet similar results.
World Championships bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall (WA, Paul Burgess) has long been chasing the six-metre marker in the pole vault, and there would be no more fitting stage to fly higher than ever before at his home track in Perth at an Australian Championships.
With a personal best of 5.95m, Marschall has attempted the elusive feat on multiple occasions in 2025, but the time might just be right on the ninth and final day of athletics action at the WA Athletics Stadium – a track some regard as the best in the world for pole vaulters.
A pair of 800m showdowns have Olympic finalist Peter Bol (WA, Justin Rinaldi) and Claudia Hollingsworth (VIC, Craig Mottram) slated as favourites for national gold, but they will be forced to work in one of Australia’s hottest events.
Just one day after her 20th birthday, Hollingsworth will look to make it back-to-back Australian titles when taking on fellow Olympic semi-finalist Abbey Caldwell (VIC, Gavin Burren), while Bol will look for revenge over 2024 champion Luke Boyes (NSW, Ben St Lawrence) and Olympic semi-finalist Peyton Craig (QLD, Brendan Mallyon & Craig Mottram).
Adding to the action in the field, World Athletics Indoor Championships bronze medallist Liam Adcock (QLD) will make his return to the happy hunting ground of his 8.33m career best at the Perth Track Classic, while Paralympian Ella Hose (VIC, John Eden, F37) will headline the Women’s Para Shot Put.
The 5000m events will round out the middle-distance contests as Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull (NSW, Simon Hull) and Georgia Griffith (VIC, Nic Bideau) prepare for a rematch after taking gold and bronze respectively over 1500m yesterday, while the additions of national record holder Rose Davies (NSW, Scott Westcott), Isobel Batt-Doyle (SA, Nic Bideau) and Lauren Ryan (VIC, Lara Rogers) add fuel to the fir. World Indoor bronze medallist over 3000m Ky Robinson (QLD, Dathan Ritzenhein) meets Cameron Myers (ACT, Dick Telford) who is chasing the double after winning a star-studded 1500m bout in the Men’s race.
The Australian Athletics Championships is the finale of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series and is also supported by the Western Australian Government through Tourism WA, as well as Venues West and Athletics West.
Full entries, schedule and live results can be found HERE.
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
Posted 13/4/2025
