Lachie Kennedy upstages Gout Gout on Australian athletics' historic night
Teenage sprint sensation Gout Gout has been upstaged by rival Lachie Kennedy in the 200m at the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne on a night that confirms athletics' resurgence in Australia.
In front of around 10,000 fans at Lakeside Stadium, the first sell-out at an Australian one-day athletics meet in more than two decades, the 17-year-old finished just four hundredths of a second behind his fellow Queenslander. Kennedy, who last week won Australia's first medal in the 60m at the world indoor championships, finished in a personal best of 20.26s after running a powerful bend and holding off Gout at the line.
The 21-year-old said he could feel Gout, the 200m national record-holder, closing in the final metres and said he 'got lucky' this time. 'My goal was just to go out hard and try my best to hold him off,' Kennedy said. Gout said he will use the defeat as motivation, and competing against Kennedy in recent years has helped him improve his speed. 'It's not a new rivalry, but it's a rivalry I appreciate and I love Lachie, he's also a Queenslander,' he said.
The Maurie Plant meet is the one-day highlight of the Australian athletics calendar, but it comes two weeks before the national titles in Perth, where the pair are set to meet again. Gout said he would be ready for the next race. 'It definitely puts fuel to my fire, and it lights that burn, so when I get to training, [I will] work even harder and help better myself for nationals.'
Kennedy was backing up in the final race of the night after winning the 100m early in the evening. Although he didn't go close to the 10-second barrier in blustery conditions, his 10.17s was too good for national champion Seb Sultana and Rohan Browning, who finished third.
In the women's 200m, Kristie Edwards ran a sensational bend and held on for victory, with Jessica Milat second and Torrie Lewis fading for a disappointing fifth.
Paris Olympics 200m gold-medal winner Letsile Tebogo chose to run the 400m but was beaten into second place by his countryman Bayapo Ndori, with another Botswanan, Leungo Scotch, in third. The country was narrowly pipped for gold by the USA in the 4x400m relay in Paris.
Tebogo's run on Saturday was his season's best in the longer event but he now shifts gears for the northern hemisphere summer. 'Now, we are done, we are focused on the 200 metres, now we did what we wanted to do,' he said.
One of Australia's other teenage stars, Cameron Myers, broke a high-quality men's 1500m field, stretching out in the final lap and holding on to beat Adam Spencer. 'It was tough conditions, but I was able to muscle it out as best I could,' Myers said.
In the women's 1500m, Claudia Hollingsworth sprinted away in the final straight to defeat Sarah Billings, Linden Hall and Abbey Caldwell. After the 19-year-old won with a season's best time, she said it was a 'crazy' race, and the field was 'insane'. 'Lots of pushing, lots of change of position, not quite the race plan I predicted, but I got the job done in the end,' she said.
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Two-time Olympian Ellie Beer capped off a memorable week with a strong performance in women's 400m. The 22-year-old was part of Australia's women's 4x400m relay team that won bronze in the world indoor championships a week ago. She streaked home for a personal best 51.35s in the women's 400m, winning by more than a second and a half.
High jumper Eleanor Patterson made the most of the absence of Nicola Olyslagers to win the women's high jump easily with a clearance of 1.94m. Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny won the discus with a throw of 68.17m, within two metres of his national record.
In front of the jammed grandstands at Lakeside, Denny said it was a memorable evening. 'Even that intro, when you look out and the stadium is packed, and getting that good throw, that's probably up there with my top three moments of my career,' he said.
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The National
an hour ago
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Scotland's quickest-ever woman is back and ready to run fast
She was in constant, excruciating pain and even lying in bed was unbearably sore. It was quite a contrast for the Scot who, just a few years earlier, had established herself as the fastest Scottish woman in history and was, it seemed, on her way to becoming a truly world class sprinter. But just as she was peaking, the worst of luck struck Rees. In the summer of 2023, only a few months after setting a new Scottish indoor 60m record (she was already Scottish 100m record holder), Rees tore her hamstring. In itself, this would be a serious enough setback but more bad fortune was to follow, with Rees being diagnosed with arthritis in her pelvis which, it turned out, was the source of her crippling pain. Given her physical issues, it's perhaps no surprise that the Edinburgh AC athlete began to accept that her career as an elite runner may have been halted just as she was hitting her peak. 'This time last year, I really wasn't sure if I would ever compete again because I couldn't even walk without pain,' the 26-year-old says. 'I would go to the track to do rehab and watch people running and I just couldn't ever imagine that being me again. 'It was a really tough time because I was still turning up to training, but I didn't feel like I was in the sport anymore.' Rees admits that the prospect of hanging up her spikes for good was a 'constant thought' but it was watching the Paris Olympics last summer that persuaded her to give athletics one more shot. 'Last year, I became a 'normal person', not an athlete and I had a good time but when the Olympics was on television I thought, yes, I've had a fun summer but I want to give it another go because I still had a real drive to compete at major championships,' she says. 'Giving up would have been the easy option, and I think me a few years ago would have quit but I didn't want to reach the end of my career and feel like I hadn't given it everything.' A change of medication kick-started a recovery that saw Rees tentatively return to training and turn of the year went encouragingly smoothly, to the point that she felt able to dip her toe back into the world of competitive sprinting. Alisha Rees is Scottish women's 100m record holder (Image: Alex Livesey/ Getty Images) In the past two months, Rees has raced six times and while she's not producing the sort of times she was at her very best - her fastest time this season is 11.78 seconds in comparison to her Scottish record of 11.30 seconds - when she takes a step back she's able to appreciate the distance she's travelled since this time last year. 'It's strange being back competing, because you forget what it's like. Before my first race back, I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so nervous,' she says. 'But it's so good to be back. I know it will take time to get close to where I was before, but it's very hard to be patient. 'I've got faster nearly every time I've raced, though, and I do believe that by the end of the season, I'll be in a position where I'm happy with how I'm running.' There will, Rees hopes, be further improvement in her performance within the coming weeks, which will lay the foundations for a strong performance at the British Championships in August, which is where her injury issues began two years ago. She is, however, reluctant to set too many long-term goals - her injury issues make it impossible to know just how her body will cope with the stresses and strains of elite-level sprinting - and so her focus remains on appreciating her health and fitness and any success on the track will be a welcome, and well-deserved, bonus. 'I'm enjoying the sport again, which is so nice because last year it was a very unenjoyable time,' she says. 'I'm happy to be turning up at training and able to do the sessions, so I'm feeling good. 'There's the Commonwealth Games next year but this time, I'm in a very different position from where I was a year out from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 'Obviously, I would love to target an individual spot in the team next year, but at the moment it's hard to know if that's realistic or not because I've still not raced much. 'There's also the chance to go for a relay spot, which would be amazing too, because a home Games will obviously be amazing. 'The goal for this year was to get back racing and I've already hit that target so it'll be nice to see where I can go from here.'
