Before the emergence of Gout Gout, Lachie Kennedy and the new generation of athletes leading Australia\u2019s charge towards Brisbane 2032, Moloney represented the future of the sport. Yet his life now would have been impossibles to foresee: his years of injury recovery, a new coach, the end of his friendship with Dubler, and new ambitions.<\/p>\n
The decathlon teammates\u2019 relationship was tested in the aftermath of Tokyo, and Moloney has previously said he sometimes felt the public\u2019s interest in Dubler\u2019s contribution overshadowed his own achievement. Moloney offers a simple \u201cno comment\u201d when asked to elaborate on their relationship now.<\/p>\n
The Olympic bronze medallist is now focused on selection for this year\u2019s Commonwealth Games, after he ended his decade-long career in the 10-discipline event due to a succession of injuries and, he admits, sheer boredom.<\/p>\n
The hurdles specialty allows him a newfound focus. \u201cI\u2019m used to just absolutely flogging myself,\u201d he says. \u201cNow I have to work on form, which is all new to me, work on stride lengths.\u201d<\/p>\nAfter 10 years dedicated to decathlon, Ash Moloney has a new event.<\/span> Photograph: Casey Sims\/Australian Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMoloney has made rapid improvement since his first competitive 400m hurdles event in February, when he eased across the line in Brisbane in 57 seconds. Two weeks later in Hobart he ran sub-53s, before recording two times under 52s before nationals in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been ambidextrous my whole life, I can sprint hurdle on both legs,\u201d he says. \u201cIt almost just seemed like why not? Why not give it a try? Get that question out of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the national athletics championships Maloney ran under 50s for the first time, when he finished third in the final, only narrowly behind Matthew Hunt \u2013 a 19-year-old who is one of the country\u2019s most promising young athletes \u2013 and 22-year-old Kyle Bennett.<\/p>\n
The trio are the top qualifiers for Friday\u2019s Oceania championship showdown in Darwin. \u201cI believe I can make Comm Games,\u201d Moloney says. \u201cI believe I can go 48 [seconds].\u201d<\/p>\nMoloney held off a strong challenge in the 1500m to get on to the podium in Tokyo.<\/span> Photograph: Antonin Thuillier\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMoloney backed up his Tokyo bronze with another podium at the world indoor championships in 2022, in a period of four years when he remained his country\u2019s top decathlete. But he could not repeat his early success on the international stage, failing to finish in successive outdoor worlds as well as the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\nHis ailments included foot, hamstring, knee and adductor injuries, and he spent 2025 recuperating. \u201cI was just struggling with injuries, 10 events is a lot of events,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m a big boy, I\u2019m getting older, I just needed time off from the events.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I high jumped I was in agony. Getting ready for events, I was more nervous about hurting myself again than I was just competing, having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moloney says the change of event and his new approach \u2013 he is now coached by Andrew Iselin, who also oversees sprint star Lachie Kennedy \u2013 has given him a renewed enthusiasm. \u201cHonestly, I was bored with decathlon, I just wanted a new challenge. I\u2019ve been doing decathlon since I was 16, I\u2019m 26 now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maloney and Dubler chose different training environments after the Tokyo Games, and went their separate ways. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any bad blood there,\u201d Dubler says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a change of situation, a change of coaches and perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dubler, still only 31 himself, continues to compete in decathlon, although he missed competition at the nationals in April with an adductor strain. He hopes to win selection for the Commonwealth Games with a strong performance overseas in coming months.<\/p>\nCedric Dubler, in the green photographer vest, is keeping his career options open.<\/span> Photograph: Dean Lewins\/AAP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe aspiring content creator still went to the nationals in Sydney but as a videographer, working for the Queensland Academy of Sport. \u201cI obviously really love athletics, so I asked them if I could come down, cover some stuff for them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey gave me a budget to work with, so for me, it is work experience in a sense, which is a pretty cool work experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if they are no longer close, Dubler still sees Moloney around athletics events. He remains a believer in the talent of his fellow Queenslander, though his support now comes from further away.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter his first [400m hurdles] race, there were a few question marks about how it would go, but every time he steps foot on the track, he continues to improve, and continues to impress,\u201d Dubler says. \u201cIt\u2019s always a risk changing event, but hopefully it pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was briefly the face of Australian athletics, whose heroics at the Tokyo Olympics inspired a nation. Ash Moloney secured the country\u2019s first Olympic decathlon medal in dramatic circumstances in 2021, when he surged home in the 1500m, egged on by a screaming Cedric Dubler at his side. Now Moloney has taken his biggest leap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-244519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}