Four Australian records that could go down in 2017

A national record on the resume is a badge of honour few track and field athletes can boast, but it seems likely that more than one Australian will write themselves into the record books in 2017.

Four-time national champion shot putter Damien Birkinhead (Vic) is arguably the closest to the top of an all-time Australian list after the 23-year-old threw a personal best of 21.21 metres earlier this year in Hobart. The big Victorian followed up his fifth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow by making an Olympic final in Rio.  He will hope to build on that tenth-place finish in Rio in the next twelve months and edge closer to his coach Scott Martin’s national record of 21.26m set in Melbourne nearly a decade ago.

Another Rio Olympian in Linden Hall (Vic) is also close to a national best mark in the women’s 1500m following a huge season on the track. The 25-year-old posted a personal best time of 4:01.78 minutes in Eugene (USA) earlier this year in May.  That time places her third on Australia’s all-time list, less than a second behind Sarah Jamieson’s record of 4:00.93 set in Stockholm ten years ago. She will obviously also have one eye on becoming the first Australian woman to break the magical four-minute barrier for 1,500m ahead of national teammates Zoe Buckman (Vic) and Jenny Blundell (NSW). It’s more than possible this quartet could also push Lisa Corrigan’s 2007 mile mark of 4:22.66.

Ryan Gregson (Vic) is already the holder of the men’s 1500m Australian record but could very well better his own mark of 3:31.06 minutes in 2017 following an impressive injury free year on the track. The 26-year-old was consistently fast on the European circuit for the whole season, finishing with a best time of 3:32.13 mins at Monaco Diamond League this year. He also came very close to running a personal best in the mile in Oslo running 3:52.59 mins, just a few tenths of a second outside his fastest time at the distance from 2010 the same year he set the 1500m record.

New South Wales high jumper Brandon Starc is edging closer to Tim Forsyth’s national record of 2.36m set in Melbourne nearly twenty years ago. The two-time national champion leapt an impressive 2.31m in China at the back-end of last year and nearly equalled that mark at the Olympic Games in Rio. The 23-year-old who came eighth at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the moment shares second place on the national rankings list with David Anderson and Lochsley Thomson.