Speedster Rohan Browning shapes as the perfect person to get Australia off to a flying start in what shapes as a massive few weeks for the national track and field team.
The 24-year-old shot to prominence in the 100m at last year’s Tokyo Olympics where he went within a whisker of becoming just the second Australian to break the 10-second barrier.
Fast forward 12 months and Browning will be one of the first members of a 63-strong squad in action on day one of the world championships in Eugene on Friday (early Saturday AEST).
Browning hit form earlier this month in Switzerland with a run of 10.08 – his third best time ever.
He fully expects to better that on the lightning-fast track at Hayward Field – the spiritual home of American athletics in the place dubbed TrackTown, USA.
“I knew with the process we’d been working on, with restructuring the way I start the race, that I had to take a step back to take a few steps forward in the long run,” Browning told AAP.
“That race in Switzerland was the first time it came together for me this year and it couldn’t have come at a better time, being my last race before the world champs.
“It ticks a box and it’s good for your confidence – my third best time ever.
“It’s still not where I want to be at and this is just the nature of this sport, where you’re constantly unsatisfied and always want to be at a higher level.
“But it’s all about coming into shape at the right time for a major championships.”
Even if Browning does manage to dip under the 10-second barrier and join Patrick Johnson in one of the most exclusive clubs in Australian sport, the likelihood is that it will be the US sprinters headed by Fred Kerley battling for gold in the blue-riband event.
Shock Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Marcell Jacobs from Italy is under an injury cloud, while 35-year-old Yohan Blake remains the pick of the Jamaicans in the post-Usain Bolt era.
But Australia boast legitimate medal chances in plenty of other events, including the women’s high jump where Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are serious podium contenders.
Defending women’s javelin world champ Kelsey-Lee Barber and Olympic decathlon bronze medallist Ash Moloney are proven big-event performers and Jessica Montag is the No.1 ranked women’s race walker in 2022.
And there is unprecedented strength in depth in the middle-distance ranks in the likes of Peter Bol (800m), Ollie Hoare, Stewart McSweyn and Linden Hall (1500) and Jessica Hull, a former University of Oregon star who will double up in the 1500m and 5000m.
All of those big names will then back straight up for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
“In terms of planning for the year, my coach (Andrew Murphy) and I treat the two events equally,” said Browning.
“They are in close enough proximity that you can peak and then hold it for long enough for both events.”
The three brightest young stars in the world championships squad, 200m duo Aiden Murphy and Calab Law and 17-year-old 800m runner Claudia Hollingsworth, will do a rare back-to-back senior-junior double by heading straight from Eugene to the under-20 world championships in Colombia.
© AAP
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