McSweyn and Hollingsworth lead golden night at Maurie Plant Meet

Australia’s middle distance talent reigned supreme at the Maurie Plant Meet - Melbourne tonight, with Olympic finalist Stewart McSweyn and teenage sensation Claudia Hollingsworth taking top honours in front of a roaring crowd at Oceania’s one and only World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level meet.

Racing as one of the most anticipated acts of the night, Stewart McSweyn (Nic Bideau) saluted with a brave victory in the John Landy Mile when stopping the clock in 3:52.00, fending off 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman (GBR, 3:52.11) and teenage star Cameron Myers (Dick Telford, 3:52.44).

The King Island product was rewarded for attacking the race, gritting his teeth to break the tape with a point to the sky in honour of former manager and athletics stalwart, Maurie Plant.

“It’s hugely important, it’s such an honor to run in a meet named after Maurie. To have a massive crowd here is justice to what Maurie meant to the sport. Hopefully it just keeps building year to year,” McSweyn said.

“It was a tough race with great competition. I wanted to make sure I performed and that was a good hitout to start the season.”

18-year-old Claudia Hollingsworth (Craig Mottram) was patient but perfect in the Women’s 800m, executing a flawless final lap to shatter her second consecutive Australian Under 20 record in the space of a week and clock 1:59.81 – torching a field of Australian and international talent.

“I’m just taking it race by race and seeing how far I can go. Each race I surprise myself which is what I’m aiming to do, but I’m always trying to go that step further,” Hollingsworth said.

“I’ve never properly celebrated after a win before, but crossing that line all the emotions actually came out and recognising that winning is such an exciting feeling, especially with the atmosphere. It is pretty cool and pretty crazy.”

Hollingsworth snatched the lead in the home straight from both Abbey Caldwell (Gavin Burren, 2:00.54) and Catriona Bisset (Ned Brophy-Williams, 2:01.41), who finished in second and third placings respectively.

The middle-distance frenzy continued in the Women’s 5000m, with Tokyo Olympians Rose Davies (Scott Westcott) and Isobel Batt-Doyle (Nic Bideau) writing themselves into the history books as the fourth and fifth Australian women to dip under the 15-minute barrier.

Novocastrian Davies left it to the last lap to assert her dominance but claimed the honours in 14:57.54 for a new meet record, while track-turned-road star Batt-Doyle took second place in 14:59.18 as she stepped down in distance to her roots to defeat Ethiopian favourite Aynadis Mebratu (15:04.84). Meanwhile, Jack Rayner (Nic Bideau) took out the Men’s 5000m in 13:16.34.

Australian record holder Nicola Olyslagers (Matt Horsnell) bumped the bar up to 1.99m when taking out the Women’s High Jump in style, owning the top bend of the track with a show to remember as her Paris 2024 Olympic preparation rolls on.

“Tonight I think I won the battle, I was really excited to do 1.99m. Today was like a stake in the ground, the 2.03m wasn’t a fluke, that was the beginning and we’re building,” Olyslagers said.

While 2.01m proved a stretch too far for the Olympic silver medallist, the evergreen Kathryn Mitchell (Uwe Hohn) added to the field action when toppling a world-class javelin field - opening her year with a winning throw of 62.12m to set her fourth Olympic campaign on track.

The stalwart from Ballarat produced her best throw in the sixth round, adding almost five-metres to trans-Tasman rival Tori Peeters 57.35m throw that saw her finish in second. Rounding out the throwing action, Kiwi rival Connor Bell (65.18m) took out his second consecutive win over reigning Diamond League Champion Matthew Denny (Dale Stevenson, 65.09m), spoiling the Australian party at Lakeside Stadium.

Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning (Andrew Murphy) had no trouble in asserting his dominance over 200m when only extending his lead in the Peter Norman Memorial 200m, stretching away from the field in a time of 20.80 (-1.5) to win ahead of Asian Champion Towa Uzawa (JPN, 21.07).

The Women’s 100m Hurdles belonged to Liz Clay (David Reid and Sharon Hannan), who stole the show when beating Australia’s second fastest hurdler of all time Michelle Jenneke (Bronwyn Thompson, 13.12). Paving her way to a comeback after sustaining an injury at the 2022 World Championships, Clay took the win in 13.02 (+0.3), and also defeated her all-time idol Queen Harrison Claye (USA) who placed third in 13.16.

Reigning Paralympic champion James Turner (Iryna Dvoskina) won the Men’s 100m Ambulant, clocking 12.06-seconds to score 97.16 (-2.0) on the BASELINE system. Australia’s fastest Paralympian Chad Perris (Matt Beckenham) was forced to settle for second place, crossing the line in 11.03.

Full results can be found for the 2024 iteration of the Maurie Plant Meet HERE, with the pre-meet results found HERE.

The Chemist Warehouse Summer Series continues with the Canberra Track Classic on March 2, 2023 at the Australian Institute of Sport.

By Lachlan Moorhouse and Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 15/2/2024