Latest news with #AustralianAths
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Dominant' discus dynamo Denny's Doha Diamond delight
Australian discus powerhouse Matthew Denny says he's determined to become the "dominant" figure in his sport -- and the Olympic bronze medallist has taken another step towards achieving his aim with an impressive Diamond League triumph in Doha. With a superb display in the Qatari capital on Friday, Denny, who moved to second on the world all-time list after a 74.78m throw in Ramona, Oklahoma, last month, defeated Swedish both world champ Daniel Stahl and Slovenia's former global gold medallist Kristjan Ceh. It demonstrated how the 28-year-old from the little Queensland town of Allora is ready to kick on after finishing third in Paris last year, as he declared: "It is awesome to win again. "I have been tired after a lot of travel and a bit flat from the start, but I have had a really good start of the Diamond League season and I cannot wait for the next one." Back on top 😤Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Denny has kickstarted his Diamond League title defence in commanding fashion, unleashing a bomb of 68.97m in the final round to take victory in the Men's Discus at the Doha Diamond WRAP UP: ✍️ — Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) May 16, 2025 This was the Commonwealth champ and two-time Diamond League winner's first competition since the amazing breakthrough of Ramona, where his effort was only bettered by Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna's incredible world record there of 75.65m. "It was pretty tough coming home after that competition if I'm honest. That 74, it levelled me. My first session back, I felt like I forgot how to throw, I was so fatigued," Denny said. "There's momentum there but I didn't know what to expect today in regards to distance and whether it would be enough, in terms of whether the boys would be out to prove a point to me." But he ended up proving a point to them just a day after he had told reporters: "My aim has always been to be the most dominant figure in men's discus." Denny opened up the lead in tricky, windy conditions with his first-round effort of 67.33m, which kept him ahead of Stahl (67.06m) and Ceh (66.92m) throughout until he sealed the deal with a best final-round effort of 68.97. "I would love to get more really big throws," said Denny, who always seem to have the best brought out of him by the lucrative Diamond League circuit and its glittering prizes. "The diamond (trophy) is mine and nobody can take it from me. I had to make sure that nobody was taking from me in that last round and I pushed myself to secure the victory so I am very grateful," he said, having also collected $US10,000 ($A15,600) for his night's labours. The fastest 100m in the world this year!Tia Clayton clocks a world-leading 10.92 to beat her sister Tina and @realshellyannfp at #DohaDL 🇶🇦#DiamondLeague📸 @GorczynskaMarta — Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) May 16, 2025 Among the international highlights was Jamaica's Tia Clayton edging her twin sister Tina Clayton in the women's 100m in a 2025 world-leading 10.92 seconds - 0.1sec faster than her sibling. Double Olympic 100m champion, the 38-year-old Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had to settle for fourth.
Perth Now
11-05-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
Aussies take mixed 4x400m silver in World Relays
Australia's 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Luke van Ratingen, Ellie Beer, Terrell Thorne and Carla Bull are celebrating the country's second ever silver medal at the World Athletics Relays championship in China after another record-breaking run. The Aussie foursome couldn't match the American champions in Guangzhou on Sunday but, for the second day running, lowered the national and Oceanian record to take the silver in 3min 12.20sec. On a fine final session of the two-day event, their medals were the icing on the cake as four Australian teams booked their places for the world championships in Tokyo, including the men's 4x100m, who could feature both sprint stars Lachlan Kennedy and Gout Gout in Japan. SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED 🇦🇺⚡Australia's 4x100m men have held their nerve at the World Athletics Relays to book their ticket to the World Athletics Championships, with the team of Lachlan Kennedy, Joshua Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Prince Jackson clinching second place in… Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) May 11, 2025 The mixed, women's and men's 4x400m teams also all made it to the global showpiece in September. Pride of place, though, went to the mixed quartet, which demonstrated its strength in depth in the final, being much changed from the foursome of Bull, Cooper Sherman, Reece Holder and Alanah Yukich who had broken the Oceanian record in 3:12.34 in the heats on Saturday. The American quartet of Chris Robinson, Courtney Okolo, Johnnie Blockburger and Lynna Irby-Jackson were in a class of their own as they broke the championship record in 3:09.54, but the Australians matched the nation's best ever result in the seven editions of the event. The only other silver they had won was in 2019 in Yokohama when Catriona Bisset and Josh Ralph finished second in the 2 x 2 x 400m relay. "I couldn't be any more stoked. We were so ecstatic to make the final and coming away with a silver medal, we are just so happy. We got all of our 400m crews to the world championships which is so exciting," said Beer, Gold Coast's 22-year-old Olympian who had earlier also helped the women's 4x400 qualify. Queenslander Bull's big night saw her also just miss out on another medal as the youthful mixed 4x100m team - alongside Olivia Dodds, Connor Bond and Josiah John - clocked 41.22sec to finish fourth in the final behind the victorious Canadian four. The men's 4x100m outfit of world indoor 60m silver medallist Kennedy, Joshua Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Prince Jackson clocked 38.31sec to claim second place in qualifying round 2 and book the Australian place at the global championships. "We are really stepping up our standards this year coming off the national record of 37.8 in Sydney," said Azzopardi, who know the team could be bolstered by 17-year-olf Gout Gout in September. "We feel like we can really push for those medals and that will be the goal. We will be ready come the world championships in September and that's the main thing." The men's 4x400m - Sherman, Reece Holder, Aidan Murphy and Tom Reynolds - clocked 2:59.73 to clinch their place in Tokyo, just 0.03sec outside the venerable 41-year-old Australian record. The international highlight came with Britain's 4x100m women's team - Nia Wedderburn-Goodison, Amy Hunt, Bianca Williams and Success Eduan - stunning both Jamaica, whose team included Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, and the USA to claim victory.
News.com.au
04-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Aussie women shine on world stage with Diamond League podiums
Gout Gout has lifted athletics to a place in the Australian sports consciousness where it hasn't been for more than 50 years. But the teen tyro won't be doing the heavy lifting alone, with a gaggle of track and field athletes excelling on the world stage. Victorian Sarah Billings became the second-fastest Australian woman over 800m over the weekend when she finished second in the Shanghai Diamond League in a personal best time. Her 1min 57.83sec behind Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma (1:56.64), made her the only Aussie woman beside two-time Olympian Catriona Bisset to break the 1:58 barrier for the distance after crossing just 0.05sec outside Bisset's national record. It was a second Diamond League podium in a row for Billings, who was third in the 1000m at the opening Diamond League round of the year in Xiamen. The breakthrough campaign of Sarah Billings has rolled on at the Shanghai Diamond League which saw her become the second fastest Australian woman in history over 800m, finishing in second place as high jumpers Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson also landed on the podium ðŸ'ŽðŸ'¥â€¦ — Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) May 3, 2025 The 27-year-old, who has already qualified for the 1500m at the world championships in Tokyo later this year, heeded the advice of coach Nic Bideau, stepping on the gas in the final laps and waiting for gaps to open down the straight. 'Today I had a really clear race plan, I just wanted to go really hard at 300m (to go),' Billings said. 'My coach Nic told me this morning that gaps open up with 100m to go on the inside and to watch for it; I watched for it and some opened up. 'I have been picked for the World Championships in the 1500m already so that's still the main goal, but I think that (800m) was pretty close to the national record, so I'm just really happy.' High jump duo Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson also stepped on to the podium in second and third place respectively, only bettered on the night by world record holder and Olympic champion, Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh. Olyslagers cleared 1.98m on her second attempt to separate herself from Patterson who finished with 1.95m. Mahuchikh was the only woman in the field to clear 2m, with a clean sheet to 2.00m, where Olyslagers missed all three attempts before the Ukrainian lifted the bar to 2.03m, missing her attempts. 'The competition today was a big improvement from last week (Xiamen Diamond League), I enjoyed it,' Olyslagers said. 'Today I had courage and I am thankful for that. 'This is the first time I have started my season a bit later, so every jump of course I want to be over 2m and getting personal bests but I have great faith that God will get me ready. I don't worry about the past, I just go forward.' In other results, pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall (5.72m) was fourth behind Olympic champ Mondo Duplantis, who set a meet record 6.11m, while Mackenzie Little was ninth in the javelin and Liam Adcock seventh in the pre-program long jump. On the track, South Australia's Matthew Clarke was 10th in the 3000m steeple chase, while rising Queensland middle distance runner Jude Thomas was 16th in the 5000m in his Diamond League debut.
Al Jazeera
15-04-2025
- Sport
- Al Jazeera
Who is Gout Gout, Australia's record-breaking teenage sprint sensation?
Gout Gout, a 17-year-old Australian sprinter, has taken the world by storm following his record-breaking runs in the country's school and national-level athletics championships over the past six months. His electric speed, lithe form on the track, and cheerful demeanour have drawn comparisons with some of the greatest athletes of all time, including Jamaica's Usain Bolt. Gout won the Australian 200-metre men's title with a wind-assisted timing of 19.84 seconds at the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth on Sunday. Here's what you need to know about the young sprint sensation and why he could be the next worldwide track and field superstar. Born to Monica and Bona on December 29, 2007, he is one of seven siblings in the Gout family who migrated to Australia from South Sudan in 2005 and settled in the eastern state of Queensland. In Gout's hometown Ipswich, Queensland, his school's experienced track and field coach Diane Sheppard swiftly took the young boy under her wing upon spotting his talent. His first taste of success came at the age of 13, when he won the 100-metre and 200-metre races in a school competition, but the lanky teenager remained humble and earned plaudits from his coach. 'My biggest thing with the kids is about being humble, and he has got it in bucket loads,' Sheppard told Australian Athletics in 2022. Despite his rapid rise on the track, it was not until December 2024 that the rest of the world took notice of his prodigious talent. YOU GOUT TO BE KIDDING! 💥⚡ 20.05 for World Lead ✅19.98 (+3.6) in the final for the fastest ever time by an Aussie in all conditions ✅ If Gout Gout hadn't already sent a thunderous message to the sprinting world, he has now at the Queensland State Championships. More to… — Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) March 16, 2025Over the past three years, he has dominated the 100m and 200m races in Australia's age-group athletics championships, winning gold in both categories since the age of 15. The 1.83-metre (6-foot) athlete also won the 200m gold at the Oceania U18 Athletics Championships in 2024. When Gout clocked 20.04 seconds in the 200m race at the Australian All Schools Championships in December 2024, he became the fastest U16 200m runner in history. In the process, he surpassed Bolt's time of 20.13 and became the second-fastest 200m male athlete ever in the under-18 category. At the same competition, Gout won the 100m final in 10.17 seconds and broke the Australian U18 record. He's FLYING 😱 17-year-old Gout Gout blazes to 19.84 (+2.2) to win the senior men's 200m at the Australian Athletics Championships 😤 📸 @caseysims_ — World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) April 13, 2025While most of his record-breaking exploits have been at the national level, it is Gout's rapid rise and the remarkable progression in the 200m race that contributed to his growing popularity. Comparisons with Bolt, considered by many to be the greatest sprinter of all time, have contributed to the global media spotlight on the teenager, who is currently placed 30th in World Athletics' 200m rankings. According to Australian media, Gout has become a star and attracts attention when in public. 'The cork's out of the genie bottle now,' Gout's coach Sheppard was quoted as saying of his rising popularity in the past six months. Videos of Gout's exploits on the field have gone viral, with fans calling him the 'future of 200m'. Former Olympian and Athletics Australia President Jane Flemming has not shied away from comparing Gout with Bolt. 'If I've ever seen anybody run like Bolt and built like him, he [Gout] is it,' Flemming said. Gout is yet to compete in a senior World Athletics championship, but he could make his debut as early as July 2025 should Australian Athletics choose to send him. He believes that he can go even faster, and he may be onto something; his personal best in the 200m has drastically improved from 22.68 seconds in 2021 (aged 13) to less than 20 seconds in 2025. 'There is always pressure, but I am just running,' Gout says.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
O'Brien breaks Boyle's 57-year Australian aths record
A 57-year-old record held by Olympic great Raelene Boyle has fallen as Leah O'Brien adds to the sprint renaissance in Australian athletics. The 17-year-old blew the under-18 100m field away at the Australian championships in her home city of Perth on Tuesday, clocking 11.14 seconds. That broke the national women's under-18 mark of 11.20 that Boyle set in her Olympic debut at the 1968 Mexico Games - at the time, also a world junior record. Watch as WA's Leah O'Brien detonates in the 100m at WA Athletics Stadium, setting a new Australian Under 18 record of 11.14. 🤯 — Australian Athletics (@AustralianAths) April 8, 2025 O'Brien joins fellow young gun Gout Gout, world indoor silver medallist Lachlan Kennedy and Australia's fastest woman Torrie Lewis in the country's new wave of speedsters. "I honestly thought my race in the heats (11.46) was a really good time. I expected to maybe go 11.3 in the final but I'm so happy because I have been working really hard for that," O'Brien said. "It's around the time that the open girls run, which is crazy to be running that still in high school." O'Brien will next race in the heats of the open 100m on Friday afternoon, potentially setting the scene for a head-to-head with Lewis in Saturday's final. "I really look up to the top girls in Australia like Torrie Lewis and Bree Masters. I'm always watching their Instagram reels and looking at their photos. It just looks so great and inspirational," O'Brien said. "A lot of my family and friends are here, this is definitely the most support I have ever had. It's so great to experience this moment with the people I love and share the happiness. "I think I have really put my name out there and hopefully I can be in contention for teams in the future." O'Brien, who also won the under-18 200m title at the nationals, is ninth on the international all-time list for the under-18 100m and equal-fourth overall in Australia.
