Australian athletics has never seen an hour like it. An irresistible crop of young sprinters delivered historic achievements in the drizzle of Glasgow, winning medals in the men’s and women’s 100m on a remarkable day at the Commonwealth Games that saw the two national records in the blue riband event obliterated.
That drama was bookended by another heroic 10,000m gold and a one-two in the women’s high jump. Following up the success the previous day of Rose Davies, Ky Robinson secured Australia’s first gold in the distance event since 1958.
Moments later, Lachie Kennedy took silver in the men’s 100m, just a nose behind Cameroon’s winner, Emmanuel Eseme. “That definitely wasn’t a perfect race. I know I’ve got so much more in the tank,” Kennedy told Channel Seven, still panting from his effort. “But I mean, for now I’m going to celebrate. For now I’m going to be happy.”
If the medal was impressive, the time was something else. With a 9.85sec and a legal tailwind of 1.3m/s, the Queenslander set the new national benchmark. The pursuit of Patrick Johnson’s mythical 9.93sec in Japan in 2003 had long tortured Australia’s fastest men. Kennedy skewered it.
“9.85 is crazy. Like, that’s nuts,” he said. “I don’t plan on slowing down, you know what I mean? I feel it’s going to be pretty hard to run that fast again but I’m happy now. I’m happy to be able to say I’ve run that, got that Australian record finally. It was about time.”
Torrie Lewis was almost as quick. She became the first Australian woman to go under 11 seconds with a 10.99sec (1m/s) run that secured bronze behind New Zealander Zoe Hobbs and England’s Amy Hunt.
“I was so nervous after my semi, being the fastest qualifier, I was just [thinking] I just need to do it again – and better, hopefully – so I’m just glad I could do it,” she said, calling it a “perfect race for me”: “In the next few years, I’ll improve, but right now it’s perfect for me.”
These were not outlier performances. Both Kennedy (9.94sec) and Lewis (11sec) had run personal bests in the semi-finals. At 22 and 21 respectively, both loom as consistent contenders in global finals in the run-up to Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032.
They are not alone in a suddenly deep crop of Australian sprinters. Eddie Nketia, after his change of allegiance from New Zealand, ran 10.03sec in the semi-finals and 10.06sec in the final to finish sixth. It was the first time in 44 years two Australians were in the final. Meanwhile, the teenage Gout Gout – whose personal best is a flat 10sec – watched from home as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Kennedy’s silver ends a 64-year wait for a medal in the event, since Michael Cleary won bronze in 1962, when it was still known as the 100 yards. He did so by overcoming the bronze medallist, Kanyinsola Ajayi, the Nigerian 21-year-old who has beaten the reigning world champion, Oblique Seville, twice in recent Diamond League meets. And the Australian flipped the script on fifth-placed Jeremiah Azu, the Welshman who had beaten Kennedy to world indoor gold over 60m in China last year.
Kennedy had missed last year’s outdoor world championships due to a stress fracture in his back but came back stronger to claim his first national title in Sydney in April. He is known for his fast start. The Glasgow final showed he can match it with the world’s best through the back end.
Pushing past Ajayi on his inside in the second half of the race, the Australian briefly held the lead before Eseme got him on the line by two hundredths. “I thought I won,” Kennedy said. “Old mate must have come flying through on the inside, he must have brought it home strong. But I mean, man, I can’t complain.”
Lewis exploded on to the scene when she set a national record of 11.10sec as a 19-year-old in 2024. She has moved to the Netherlands to train with Laurent Meuwly, the coach of Femke Bol, and appears to have found another level.
“Number one, I wanted a move for my life, I’ve always liked to travel,” Lewis said. “And two, I just wanted to put it all on the line. I want to do this for my career. I want to be the best I can. I want to move to the best coach I can find, with the best group I can find and that’s what I did and it’s finally paying off.”
Her bronze is the first time an Australian has stood on the podium in the event since Tania Van Heer won bronze in 1998.
The sprinting success in Glasgow was followed by the first medals for Australia’s field athletes. Eleanor Patterson cleared 1.96m to upset Nicola Olyslagers to secure gold in the Australian high jump one-two, before Lara Roberts took bronze in the hammer.