A championship record from Cam Myers was the highlight of the men’s mile heats, while Olli Hoare progressed to the final after being tripped.
Hoare hit the deck in the first heat after about 750m of running when his heels were clipped in a tactical, surging run. Although getting back to his feet and finishing in 4:06, he wasn’t a feature.
The heat was taken out by new world record holder, Josh Kerr, in 3:58.57.
“Well, once I fell, they started to wind it up, so at that point I was at a disadvantage,” a disappointed Hoare said.
But I tried to compete, tried to get back a few spots, and I’m representing my country, so when I get up, I’m going to keep running and keep racing.
Olli Hoare
Hoare progressed to the final following an appeal to the Track Referee. He joined Adam Spencer, who was sixth in 3:59.72. It was Spencer’s first race since April’s Australian Championships, where he placed third.
Cameron Myers kept out of trouble in his heat, taking the lead after 200m and gradually increasing the pace on his way to breaking the Games Record of 3:55.24 set by legendary Kenyan Kip Keino back in 1966. Myers ran splits of 61.0, 58.3, 57.8 and 55.4 (plus 1.3s for the final 9.34m of the mile) to stop the clock at 3:53.85.
“It’s just about getting through the rounds as clean as possible and not getting myself involved in any trouble, so I did that well, stayed out of trouble and felt good,” Myers said.
“Australia has a rich history in the mile, and to be a part of that feels amazing. Hopefully we can get another gold, or at least a medal, to add to that collection of historic miles we’ve had in the past.”
Cameron Myers
Monique Hanlon (23.12, +1.6) and Mia Gross (23.21, +1.5) both won their heats and finished 4th and 6th fastest qualifiers respectively to move through to the semi-final stage. Torrie Lewis was granted a bye as one of the top eight ranked athletes.
Lachlan Kennedy returned to the track after his 9.85s 100m national record the night prior, and with a performance he described as “lackadaisical” ran 20.50s with a +2.6 wind to qualify 8th fastest. Aidan Murphy and Calab Law were both given a bye into the semi-final stage as two of the top eight fastest seeds.
Sarah Carli progressed to the final after a rough run in her heat of the 400m hurdles, finishing four out of four with a 55.76 second run.
Tori West moved into third place in the Heptathlon following a strong performance in the javelin discipline, setting up a 95 point lead over fourth place with just the 800m remaining. Mia Scerri is in fifth.
