Look out Rohan Browning, there’s a glut of young male sprinters on the rise looking to knock off your crown.
Browning’s efforts at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games – he finished just out of the medals in Birmingham earlier this year – have revived Australia’s hopes in the blue riband 100m.
The man nicknamed the flying mullet had the nation on the edge of its seat during the Tokyo Olympics after pushing into the semi-finals.
But there’s a new wave of sprinters rising through the ranks and set to star at the Australian All Schools track and field championships in Adelaide this week.
Young gun Sebastian Sultana is leading the pack, having set a national U18 record of 10.27sec in October.
Just one Australian has ever broken the 10 second barrier for the event.
Patrick Johnson’s 9.93sec effort occurred in Japan almost 20 years ago and despite the best efforts of a generation of sprinters since, the First Nations athlete remains the only Aussie to have legally dipped under the barrier.
While Browning notched a 9.96 last year, assisted by a tailwind of 3.3 metres per second (above the allowable 2m/sec), he seems destined to join Johnson, having run 10.01 to win his heat at the Tokyo Olympics.
But Sultana is already faster than both at the same age, as well as Australia’s other most recognised sprinter of recent times, Matt Shirvington.
The 17-year-old won the 100m in Adelaide on Friday in a sizzling 10.57 after practically sauntering through his heat into a headwind in 10.65.
Sultana – who broke the 2015 record of the last teen labelled the ‘next big thing’, Tasmania’s Jack Hale with his 10.27 run – headed a list of five athletes with nomination times under 10.9 in the 100m in a promising sign for the sport.
But it’s not just in the top age group where there are promising signs.
Head down an age group and a Queenslander with South Sudanese heritage is blowing up records as well.
Gout Gout headed to Adelaide with the Australian U16 record already in his keeping thanks to a run of 10.57 earlier in the season.
On Friday, he smashed Jordan Shelley’s nine-year-old Australian schools record in the 200m with a heat run of 21.15, stripping 0.29sec from the existing mark.
The Ipswich Grammar student, whose coach Diane Sheppard likened him to “one of those things that blow around in car yards” earlier this year due to his unruly style, won the final in 21.14, setting another national record and raising expectations for his 100m later in the meet.
Sultana and Gout will be in action throughout the weekend at the Australian All Schools carnival, a breeding ground for future champions who now have plenty of role models to look up to thanks to a recent Aussie renaissance in the sport.
Originally published as Australian schools track and field titles 2022: Next gen sprinters shine on opening day
