Rohan Browning is competing at the 2020 Jandakot Airport Track Classic. Come and see him or watch him on the livestream. 

TICKETS - https://www.ticketmaster.com.au/event/1300582DA445685A

Men’s 2019 100m review

By Matt Lynch

New kings were crowned in a phenomenal season over the blue riband event. The season proper started on a rain-soaked Canberra track and an index finger across the lips of Jack Hale, as he sent a shoosh across the land, handling the field in a very handy 10.23 (equal second fastest performance).

The real shock came from then local ACT star and future Kiwi, Eddie Nketia, who, with a direct quote from Hale “Who taught Eddie how to start in 2 weeks”, sliced 0.2 off his 10 day old PB to clock 10.30 and make people stand up and notice. To be honest though, if you haven’t noticed Eddie Nketia, have you been living under a shot put?

Before the race, Jack introduced himself to Eddie and asked if he was feeling good, he was met with “Jack, I can’t see straight I’m that nervous.”

This season-best gave Hale the confidence he needed to rewrite his personal best from the German city of Mannheim, when he set the then Australian U20 record of 10.21 in 2016. That PB was old enough to walk, when the 2019 Jandakot Airport Perth Track Classic rolled around. Lining up against the usual suspects, Hale clipped 0.01 off his best, making sure his old PB didn’t last 1000 days (it lasted 995 to be exact). 

Now isn’t athletics such a strange beast. It took 995 days to beat his personal best, which is a lifetime for a 21-year-old sprinter, yet, just seven days later, he took another 0.01 off the time, clocking 10.19 at the best meet of the season, the Queensland Track Classic (100% personal bias right here) for third place. Excuse me? Did I just say third? I did.

In what was the 100m line up of the year, Japan sent across sub 10 monster Yoshihide Kiryu, 60m indoor record holder Takuya Kawakami and South Korean record holder KukYoung Kim. Not only this, but it was the 100m season debut of Rohan Browning. We hadn’t seen Browning over the 100m since the Commonwealth Games semi-final, where he missed the final by mere thousandths. 350 days to be exact.

QLD delivered again with a delectable 2.0 tailwind for the men. And my lord did they also deliver. From the gun, Kiryu and Browning went stride for stride, with only the most perfectly timed dip separating the Japanese athlete (10.077) from the Aussie (10.080).

The time of 10.08 was quite significant in Australian history. Sharing 10.08 with Josh Ross, it was both the equal third fastest in Australian history as well as the equal fastest by an Australian on home soil. At the 2007 Australian championships, Ross clocked 10.08 in the 100m final in the main stadium at QSAC. Almost 12 years later, Browning did the exact same thing about 150m away on the “warm-up track”. That time by Ross also sent him to the 2007 Osaka world championships, the last athlete to represent Australia at a world champs in the 100m, aligning their destinies even further.

We also need to consider, this was Rohan’s first 100m of the season. At the 2019 Sydney Track Classic, he ran a 400m that produced more lactic acid than the entire Tour de France. In Perth, he took out the 200m, and in Brisbane he opened up with a 4x100m just over an hour before his 100m debut.

Hale ‘settled’ for a PB in third with 10.19. The 60m specialist Kawakami went 0.08 better than his previous best for 10.24, and the man who can’t say no to a race, Alex Hartmann, hit a PB with 10.27. It had been 26,088 hours (a week short of three years) since he ran a then PB of 10.29 to win the 2016 Australian title. Only a week before in Perth, Hartmann finished 0.24s behind Hale in 10.44. seven days later he is re-writing his all-time bests. Never count Hartmann out.

All these races set the stage for a thrilling finish to the domestic season at the Australian championships in Sydney. Reigning 100m champion, Trae Williams, had slowly been working through the season, as a few hammy issues had kept him from really opening up and testing himself at the regular track classics, but was still coming into the champs with a respectable 10.30 season best.

The heats always throw up some interesting matchups, as everyone tries to win in the most nonchalant fashion possible. It’s the opportunity for everyone to put a little show pony out there. A throw back to Ato Bolden and Maurice Greene trying to win their heats at the Olympics in the slowest time possible.

I can only assume the semi’s and final were amazing, as I was about 90 minutes north, several beers deep, delivering a best man speech at a wedding. If my speech was racing in those semis in Sydney, I definitely would have earned a centre lane in the final. Just saying.

No matter how good my speech was though, it was never going to be as good as big Eddie Nketia as he sped to a NZ U20 record with 10.19. Putting himself in pole position for the final. Thankfully, my best-man duties had been completed by the time the final came around, and between DF boogies, I flicked on the livestream, gathered a few athletics fans who were also at the wedding, and sat down to feast on the Asia/Pacific sprinting delight that was on showcase at SOPAC.

Just as dominant as his previous displays, Nketia comfortably took the win in 10.22, backing up his semi run, collecting the scalps of basically the entire current Australian sprinting fraternity. To make this run even more impressive, at the start of the week, Nketia lined up in the U20 age group against Jake Doran, setting up a rivalry that will hopefully last a decade or more, with Nketia winning that battle 10.60 to 10.61 into a formidable -1.9 wind.

The Nketia/Doran battle continued at the Oceania championships in Townsville, with Eddie taking the win in all races, scoring the Oceania title, and securing the area champion wild card for the Doha world championships. This meant Australia and New Zealand would both have a 100m representative at the Doha world championships for the first time ever (maybe, I didn’t really check).

After a few torrid months leading into Doha, Nketia only ran twice and Browning once, and wouldn’t you know it, they were in the same heat! Not only were they in the same heat but lining up beside them was the reigning world champion Justin Gatlin, Andre De Grasse and Adam Gemili. Bloody Hell! If you’re going to make your individual world championship debut, you’ll certainly never forget this line up.

Eddie and Rohan finished fourth and fifth respectively in 10.24 and 10.40 in their 23^rd and 6^th 100m races of the season. Ridiculous longevity from Eddie and great resilience from Rohan, as both athletes lined up at the latest calendar world championships ever.

Looking back at Tokyo 1964, Australia had two men in the 100m. Victoria’s Williams ‘Bill’ Bearle and New South Wales’ Robert ‘Bob’ Lay. New Zealand had no male in any distance under 800m in 1964, but they won gold in the 800m and 1500m, so I guess that makes up for it.

With 2020 around the corner, I’m of the belief we’ll have a minimum of two men in the 100m in Tokyo (one qualified outright and one via points) with NZ having two also.  Joseph Millar will make it on points and Eddie Nketia will line up in Tokyo as the reigning world U20 champion, fresh off the plane with his gold medal from Nairobi, setting the championship record of 10.04. That’s my spicy take to finish this much too long men’s 100m season review.