Sprint double for Lewis as Little launches to victory at the 2022 Brisbane Track Classic

The sun failed to shine for the 2022 Chemist Warehouse Brisbane Track Classic but Australia’s top track and field talent and some international visitors brought light to the afternoon with strong performances seen across the board.

17-year-old Torrie Lewis (Gerrard Keating) kick-started her day by flying out of the blocks to lead a class 100m field which included Bree Masters (Ryan Hoffman) and Mia Gross (John Nicolosi), to win in a time of 11.37 (+0.2).

The time is the third fastest of Lewis’ short career to date and just shy of her 11.33 personal best, as she continues her momentum towards the World Athletics Under 20 Championships, having secured her ticket to Colombia at last week’s Australian Track and Field Championships.

Lewis returned to the track later in the afternoon in the 200m with an equal personal best time of 23.18 (-1.6), defeating the in-form athlete of Georgia Hulls (New Zealand) to make it a sprint double for the day.

“Something I have really been practicing in training is getting my starts, with a better reaction time and more power - it looks like it’s coming together,” Lewis said.

“I definitely want to make the final in both events (in Colombia) and depending on how I am with my form, hopefully be in medal contention.”

Mackenzie Little (Angus McEntyre) owned the runway in Brisbane when defying the challenging conditions to throw a shiny new personal best of 62.79m, defeating reigning world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber (Mike Barber) in the process.

“I’m really excited with how I competed today despite the conditions. I want to be there at all the major finals and to be throwing like I did today, so I’m just excited that on any day I can come out and do my best,” Little said.

Little is yet to secure the automatic qualifying standard of 64.00m for the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games but sits pretty on points and rankings, setting up an enticing international campaign where she will be eyeing the top spot alongside Barber. The Men’s Javelin was taken out by Little’s teammate Cameron McEntyre (Angus McEntyre) with a throw of 79.26m.

Peter Bol (Justin Rinaldi) just keeps winning. Having already booked his ticket to the World Athletics Championships in Eugene and secured automatic nomination for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Bol put on a show in Brisbane when teasing the crowd with a hot pace for 790m, before easing up to celebrate as the clock read 1:46.12.   

“This is where it starts, you have to win races here to be able to go out there and win overseas. Brisbane is one of my favourite places and it’s nice to be back in Australia racing again, in a month’s time we are back overseas,” Bol said.

“I didn’t really worry about the conditions. Rain or not, wind or not, I came out here and treated it as a training session – that’s when you run the best. Conditions weren’t ideal but race-wise it was ideal.”

Freshly crowned national champion Jake Doran (Paul di Bella) made it back-to-back wins with a swift 10.28 (-1.5) to strengthen his claim as one of the nation’s leading sprinters, saluting as he crossed the finish line ahead of Edward Osei-Nketia (New Zealand) in 10.30 and Jake Penny (Mandi Cole) in 10.41.

“Last year I was last in this race and last in the national final, so to completely turn that around is amazing. This one is really special because I’ve got my grandparents, great uncles, aunties – this is my state and I love running fast in front of my friends and family,” Doran said.

Doran’s scorching form has only recently separated him from a tightly contested Australian men’s sprinting crop, as he looks to follow in the footsteps of Rohan Browning on the international stage in 2022.

18-year-old Aidan Murphy (Peter Fitzgerald) once again proved too strong for the seniors after last week’s Australian 200m final, stretching away from the field in the back half to land another big win on the national scene – the clock reading 20.89 (-0.8).

“I feel like the job is done now that nationals and Brisbane are ticked off. Every single race I have done has been with better and better fields, and ever since Adelaide Invitational I haven’t felt that much pressure – but we got it done,” Murphy said.

Reece Langdon (Philo Saunders) continues to flourish after recently being classified as a T38 athlete, today producing a strong final lap of the Men’s 1500m Para/Local race to finish in second place with a time of 3:52.94 – just shy of his own Australian record. Fellow T38 competitors Angus Hincksman (Simon Moran) and Deon Kenzie (Philo Saunders) clocked times of 4:03.92 and 4:06.94 respectively.

World Athletics Indoor Championships finalist Chris Douglas (Joey Woods) tore away from a slick field assembled for the 110m Hurdles, clocking 13.65 down the back straight to beat home seven-time Australian champion Nick Hough (Anthony Benn).

Liz Clay (Sharon Hannan) continued her unbeaten run over three years on Australian soil, clocking 13.02 (-0.9) to add to her domestic dominance and beat home Celeste Mucci (Darren Clark) and Michelle Jenneke (Gary Bourne) – forced to work hard for the win over the final hurdles.

“The goal was just to consolidate what I did last week. These girls are so talented and challenge me every race, but there is so much more to come this year,” Clay said.

Bendere Oboya (Justin Rinaldi) bounced back from her first-round exit at the national championships to hold on for the win in Brisbane, remaining calm in the finishing stretch to clock 2:03.10 and hold on for the win after an aggressive start.

Continuing the trend of his national championships campaign, Chris Mitrevski (John Boas) once again leapt over eight-metres in Brisbane – taking out the competition with a jump of 8.06m. The 25-year-old has been a model of consistency this season and only needs to find one-centimetre on his legal best to meet the 8.22m World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games qualifying standard.

The Men’s 100m Para race belonged to Nick Hum (John Boas, T20) as he showed national champion Jaydon Page (Sebastian Kuzminski, T47) a clean pair of heels to take line honours in 11.02 (+0.1) to Page’s 11.09, but it was Alexander McKillop (Rosemary Coleman, T36) who took the win with his percentage of 98.98% after clocking 11.84.

Reigning national 400m champion Alex Beck (Mark Ladbrook) was pushed to his absolute limit when running 46.38 to finish second behind Kaito Kawabata (Japan), with the international visitor fending off the Australian who fought on valiantly in the home straight.

Tokyo Olympian Sarah Carli (Melissa Logan) switched out the hurdles for the flat over 400m, clocking a significant personal best of 52.90 to finish second behind New Zealand’s Rosie Elliot – building on the form that saw her clinch an emphatic national title last week.

For full results, click here.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 9/4/2022