Against the backdrop of a soaking wet track – hardly ideal sprint conditions – Lachlan Kennedy and Torrie Lewis ran faster than any Australian man and woman ever had, and did it when it counted.
The semi-finals gave a glimpse of what was to come. 9.94 for Kennedy, a new personal best and just one-hundredth-0f-a-second short of Patrick Johnson’s national record from 2003. For Lewis, even better, an 11.00 run to take four-hundredths-of-a-second from her own mark set just last week.
What would the finals have in store?
Medals.
Kennedy produced a sensational race, leading at 30m, 50m and 80m in a see-sawing sprint battle. His first 60m, according to bio-mech data, was covered in 6.38s, faster than his 6.43 national record. His fastest 10m was between 40m and 50m, covered in just 0.84s.
He stopped the clock in a sensational 9.85 seconds. The only problem? The superior top-end and back-end speed of Cameroon’s Emmanuel Esme. Courtesy of the fastest 10m split of the race – 0.83s between 60m and 70m – and followed by two consecutive 10m segments at 0.84s, he took the lead and won in 9.83 seconds.
“At first I actually thought I’d won. Then I realised I’d finished second, and I thought, “Damn.” But then I saw the time and thought, “Wow, that’s not bad.”
Lachlan Kennedy
“I was pretty pumped and honestly a bit shocked. You always get a bit of brain fog after a race, but to run that time against a field like that was incredible,” Kennedy said.
“Shout out to my team and everyone who’s supported me—I couldn’t do it without them. There’s definitely more to come.”
That more to come includes the 200m heats tomorrow, as well as relay duties.
Lewis, likewise, looked as though she had a chance of victory throughout the race, but deceptively it was Kiwi Zoe Hobbs running from lane 8 that always had victory in hand, leading for the entire race before setting a new personal best of 10.93 seconds.
In a tight finish Amy Hunt from England just edged Lewis out in the final run to the line, 10.98 to 10.99: the first time an Australian has broken 11 seconds for the distance.
“I was so nervous after my semi being the fastest qualifier,” the 21-year-old told Channel 7.
“Hey, perfect race for me, I’ll get better in the next few years,” she added.
Eddie Nketia also made the men’s final courtesy of a new personal best of 10.03 seconds in the semis, equalling his previous personal best of 10.06 seconds in the final.
Meanwhile, Rohan Browning (10.14, season’s best), Ebony Lane (11.52) and Georgia Harris (11.90) were knocked out at the semi-final stage.
Hear from Lachlan Kennedy in his post-race interview
