Another world athletics championship (WC) is before us at Eugene, Oregon. 64 Australians have been selected to compete against the world’s best track and field exponents. It’s part of a mega month for Aussie athletics with many also competing at the Commonwealth Games which start at the end of July.

While I hope that some Australians medal or make the top eight in a number of events in this most competitive of global competitions, just qualifying for such a major meeting is a fantastic achievement given that most do so via World Athletics rankings against the best in the world.

With wider Australian public interest mostly evident only when Australia has a medal chance, as was the case when large audiences eagerly anticipated medal success by Peter Bol in the 800m and Stewart McSweyn in the 1500m at last year’s Tokyo Olympic Games (OG), all participating athletes will cherish their achievement of qualifying for a global athletics championship for the rest of their lives.

100m male: Rohan Browning and Jake Doran.
Rohan Browning, who made the semi-finals at last year’s OG when placing 13th after running a personal best (PB) of 10.01 in the first round, is Australia’s best chance of making the semi-finals.

Hopefully, Browning, now 24 years of age, can challenge his PB with the right conditions on what looks to be a very fast track given times at the recent US track and field championships at the same track.

He recently ran 10.08 (+1.6) on July 3 in Switzerland when finishing fifth.

To be frank, however, making a global 100m final remains one of the most difficult tasks of all track and field events.
Browning comes into the WCs with the 37th fastest 2022 time of all the final entries with seven men under 9.90 and 16 under 10.00.

Doran, with a PB of 10.15 (2018), will hopefully match or surpass his best ever time.

100m female: Bree Masters
Masters, who ran a PB of 11.33 during 2022, faces 20 rivals who have 2022 times below 11.00.

200m male: Aidan Murphy and Calab Law.
Murphy and Law (both 18 years) will find it difficult to make the semi-finals given their fastest 2022 times ranks 32nd and 44th in terms of the entries with eight under 20.00.

However, while they will not match the feats of Darren Clark who ran fourth in the 1984 OG 400m final when just 18, it will be interesting to see how both Murphy and Law go with regard to testing their current PBs (Murphy 20.41 and Law 20.63)

200m female: Jacinta Beecher and Ella Connolly.
With Beecher and Connolly achieving 2022 PBs of 22.70 and 22.95, they will be competing in one of the toughest 2022 WC events with four entries running below 22.00 this year.

400m male: Steven Solomon and Alex Beck Steven Solomon, an Olympic finalist in 2012, ran a PB of 44.94 at the OG last year when finishing 13th.
He has a good chance of making the semi-finals again although ranking 22nd of entries in terms of the best 2022 times.

Alex Beck also has a chance to make the semi-finals if he can repeat his PB of 45.54 at the 2020 OG, enters the WC as the 38th fastest of entries.

800m male: Peter Bol and Joseph Deng.
Peter Bol, coming off a magnificent fourth in the Olympic Games last year, has the seventh fastest time of the WC entries with another Australian record of 1:44.00 when second in the Paris Diamond League meeting on June 18.
Joseph Deng, the training partner of Bol, recently ran 1:44.69 on June in France and has a PB of 1:44.21 set in Monaco on 20 July 2018.

Deng has the 20th fastest time of the entries.

800m female: Catriona Bisset, Tess Kirsopp-Cole and Claudia Hollingsworth (just 17 years of age)
Bisset shapes up as Australia’s best chance with the 11th best time this year of the entries with 1:58.54 when running third at the Diamond League (Stockholm) on June 30.

1500m male: Oliver Hoare, Stewart McSweyn and Matthew Ramsden.
Oliver Hoare, who made the Olympic 1500m final last year when finishing 11th, has a solid chance to medal in the 1500m after recently finishing 2nd in the Oslo Diamond League mile on June 16 with a time of 3:47.48 behind the Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Stewart McSweyn, who ran 7th in the OG 1500m final, is recovering from long covid but did run a much better race in a recent Diamond League 3000m when running 7:31.93 at Stockholm on 30 June 2022.

One can only hope that McSweyn will be back to his 2021 best at the WC when he ran an Australian record of 3:29.51 for the 1500m. However, with four other entries having PBs faster than 3:30.00, it will be tough for Hoare and McSweyn even at their best.

1500m female: Jessica Hull, Georgia Griffith and Linden Hall
Jessica Hull has a good chance of finishing top eight with the 7th best time this year of the entries with 3:59.31 after making the OG final last year when 11th. Linden Hall, who finished 6th at the OG, is another sub-4 minute performer who is a strong chance to finish top eight again after a recent run of 4:02.65 when winning in Stockholm on 30 June 2022 after running 4:00.58 two weeks earlier in Spain.

5000m male: Ky Robinson, Matthew Ramsden and Jack Rayner
Rayner has the best 2022 form and has some chance of making the final with the 14th fastest 2022 time of the entries with 13:06.00.

Nine of the male 5000m entries have broken 13:00.00 in 2022.

5000m female: Natalie Rule, Rose Davies and Jessica Hull.
With all three having 2022 bests of around 15:06 to 15:07, they confront ten other entries with 2022 best times below 15:00.

10000m male: Jack Rayner
Rayner has a good chance of finishing top eight given he has run the 7th fastest time this year of the entries with 27:15.35, albeit five of his competitors have broken 27 minutes this year.

Marathon: Sarah Klein
Klein, with a 2022 PB of 2:30:49, faces many higher ranked runners with seven entries breaking 2:20.00 in 2022.

110m Hurdles: Nick Hough and Chris Douglas
Hough and Douglas, with 2022 times of 13.43 and 13.65, have 27 entries ahead of them with times of 13.40 or faster.

Hopefully, Hough and Douglas get the right conditions to test their PBs.

100m Hurdles: Liz Clay, Celeste Mucci and Michelle Jenneke. Liz Clay, the fastest of the three Australians, takes on nine competitors with their best 2022 time below 12.50.

400m Hurdles: Sarah Carli.
Carli, with a PB of 55.09 and 2022 best of 55.66, competes in an event where the world record was recently broken by Sydney McLaughlin when she ran 51.41 at the US championships.
Carli faces 10 competitors with a 2022 time below 54.00.

3000m Steeplechase male: Ben Buckingham and Ed Trippas.
Buckingham and Trippas are ranked 27th and 31st fastest of the entries based on 2022 times.
3000m Steeplechase female: Brielle Erbacher, Amy Cashin and Cara Feain-Ryan. With Amy Cashin running a PB of 9:27.91 during 2022, fastest of the three Australians, hopefully all three can do their best times in a field that includes 15 athletes that have run under 9:20.0 during 2022.

20km Walk male: Kyle Swan, Declan Tingay and Rhydian Cowley.
Declan Tingay, with Australia’s best 2022 performance of 1:20:44, has 16 entries ahead of him based on 2022 times.

20km Walk female: Jemima Montag and Rebecca Henderson
Montag appears an excellent gold medal chance with the best 2022 time of 1:27:27 of the entries, a time set in Adelaide during February.

35km Walk male: Rhydian Cowley and Carl Gibbons
With Rhydian Cowley our best ranked walker at the distance with 2:37:57, he faces eight entries with times faster than 2:30.00.

35km Walk female: Kelly Ruddick.
Riddock, at the amazing age of 49, has achieved an excellent 2022 time of 3:00:04 for the distance, yet faces 12 entries with 2022 bests below 2:50.00. Looking at her walking times over the years, Ruddick’s perseverance is indicated by her 2022 10km times being faster than a decade earlier.

High Jump male: Brandon Starc, Joel Baden and Yual Reath have at least 18 entries ahead of them based on their best 2022 performance.
However, Brandon Starc could surprise with another top eight result after finishing 5th in the OG with a 2.30m clearance.

High Jump female: Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers
Both have excellent medal chances.

Eleanor Patterson, ranked 2nd in 2022 when jumping 2.00m at the World Indoor Championships on March 19, won the Diamond League (Stockholm) on June 30 after finishing 5th at the OG.
Nicola Olyslagers, though just 8th this year with 1.96m, is the OG silver medalist when jumping 2.02m.

Pole vault male: Kurtis Marschall
Marschall is ranked 18th of the entries based on 2022 performances with 5.76m indoors.

Pole Vault female: Nina Kennedy Kennedy has the 6th best jump in 2022 amongst the entries with 4.70m set in Perth on January 28, so has a very good chance of finishing top eight should she jumps near or above her best.

Long Jump male: Chris Mitreveski and Henry Frayne
Mitreveski comes in 10th in terms of entries with 8.21m in 2022. Frayne, who has previously finished seventh in the 2016 OG final, could surprise given his PB of 8.34m is vastly superior to his 2022 best of 8.10m.

Long jump female: Brooke Buschkuehl and Samantha Dale
Brooke Buschkuehl (nee Stratton) goes into the WC with the best 2022 jump of 7.13m (+1.8) achieved at Chula Vista, California on July 9, thus suggesting another top eight global performance at least having finished 7th at the 2020 OG (3 August 2021), 7th 2016 OG and 6th 2017 WC. Samantha Dale, having jumped 6.72m on March 19 at Melbourne, is 20th of the entries based on 2022 performances.

Discus: Matt Denny
Denny has the 7th best 2022 performance of the entries with 67.07m, again likely to be Australia’s best male thrower after finishing an excellent fourth at last year’s OG.

Javelin male: Cameron McEntyre and Cruz Hogan.
With 2022 performances of 81.96m and 79.25m. both PBs, McEntyre and Hogan compete against 21 entries with throws this year better than 82m.

Javelin female: Kelsey-Lee Barber, Mackenzie Little and Kathryn Mitchell
Given recent global performances, Australia’s female javelin throwers have a good chance to medal.
Mackenzie Little, ranking 8th best of entries based on 2022 performances with 63.18m, finished 8th at the last OG.
Kelsey-Lee Barber, with a 2022 best performance of 61.40m, won the bronze medal at last year’s OG with a massive 64.56m.

Kathryn Mitchell comes into the 2022 global championship having finished top eight four times at global championships (sixth 2020 OG, sixth 2016 OG, fifth 2013 WC and eighth 2012 OG).
Now 40 years old, Mitchell is a bigtime performer who won the 2018 Commonwealth Games Gold medal with a massive throw of 68.92m.

Hammer Throw female: Alexandra Hulley.
Alexandra Hulley, who has a PB of 70.55, faces 22 entries with 2022 performances above 72m.
Decathlon: Cedric Dubler, Ash Moloney and Daniel Golubovic.

While Cedric Dubler comes to the WC with the 6th best 2022 score of the entries with a PB of 8393 points, all eyes will be on Ash Moloney who won bronze at the last OG as he seeks to cement his status as one of the world’s best all-round track and field athletes.

For those of us who appreciate athletics at the top level, and I wish there were many more Australians interested, live coverage and replays will be available to viewers via SBS ON Demand.

It may well be that many more Australians will prefer to watch the Commonwealth Games from late July 2022 given that medals won at this level tend to capture the public interest most outside the Olympics, despite the WC being virtually the equal of the OG as a truly global competition.

Hopefully, Australia at the 2022 WCs can build upon its excellent performances at the last OG to win a few medals and achieve many top eight performances.

Good luck to the Australian team.