Torrie Lewis celebrates after winning the bronze medal in the women\u2019s 100m.<\/span> Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI was so nervous after my semi, being the fastest qualifier, I was just [thinking] I just need to do it again \u2013 and better, hopefully \u2013 so I\u2019m just glad I could do it,\u201d she said, calling it a \u201cperfect race for me\u201d: \u201cIn the next few years, I\u2019ll improve, but right now it\u2019s perfect for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 whose personal best is a flat 10sec \u2013 watched from home as he recovers from a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Kennedy had missed last year\u2019s 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\u2019s best through the back end.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cI thought I won,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cOld mate must have come flying through on the inside, he must have brought it home strong. But I mean, man, I can\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNumber one, I wanted a move for my life, I\u2019ve always liked to travel,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAnd 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\u2019s what I did and it\u2019s finally paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her bronze is the first time an Australian has stood on the podium in the event since Tania Van Heer won bronze in 1998.<\/p>\n
The sprinting success in Glasgow was followed by the first medals for Australia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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\u2019s and women\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255092,"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-255091","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\/255091","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=255091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}