There were many highlights at the 2022 World Athletic Championships (WC) at Eugene, Oregon.
Memorable moments included the 400m hurdles with Alison dos Santos running a personal best of 46.29 and Sydney McLaughlin (USA) obliterating the word record with a time of 50.68 in the female race, Faith Kipyegon Kenya winning the 1500m in a fast 3:52.96 after four girls took off running a blistering first lap of 55 seconds, Noah Lyle running an American record of 19.31 when winning the 200m by 0.46, and the 35 year old Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) who won her seventh global 100m title (five WCs and two Olympic Games) with her first won in 2009 and her last two since becoming a mother.
But what of the Australian performances in a team with over 60 competitors in the biggest of all 2022 competitions?
In medal terms, Australia did better than Tokyo in medal winning two golds and a bronze at the 2022 WC compared to one silver and two bronzes in 2021.
In terms of team points, given that 8 to 1 are awarded for finishing from first to eighth, Australia finished equal ninth with 47 points, as they did at the Tokyo in 2021 when earning 52 points.
However, while Australia had 14 top eight finishes at Tokyo, they had 11 at the 2022 WCs.
Before I offer my top ten Australian performances at the 2022 WC, it is worth highlighting a number of other athletes who achieved a personal best (PB).
This included Bree Masters and Calab Law, running 11.29 and 20.50 in the first round, who were the only Australian sprinters to run PBs on a fast track with favourable conditions.
Michelle Jenneke, who obliterated her previous PB of 12.82 with 12.66 in the 100m hurdles semi-final.
Michelle Jenneke of Team Australia reacts after competing in the Women’s 100m Hurdles Semi-Final on day ten of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 24, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
In the longer races, Amy Cashin ran a PB of 9:21.46 in the 3000m steeplechase, as did Sarah Klein in the marathon with 2:30:10.
But here are my top ten Australian performances, with the order not necessarily matching their top eight positions.
First mentioned is Kelsey-Lee Barber, who easily won with a throw of 66.91m on her third throw, by far her best throw of 2022.
Barber has clearly been Australia’s best performer since 2019 having also won bronze at the Tokyo OG last year and gold at the 2019 WCs.
Eleanor Patterson winning gold in the high jump with a PB and an equal Australian record of 2.02m is next.
Taking three jumps to clear 1.98m, and being in fourth place as the jumpers sought to clear the 2.00m height, Patterson won the gold by clearing 2.02m on her first jump.
Patterson’s performance fulfils the potential she first showed in at senior level when jumping 1.96m in Townsville in 2013 when just 17 years old.
Jessica Hull, who finished seventh in the 1500m with a time of 4:01.82, is rated the best of Australia’s running performances for a number of reasons.
Her seventh placing, building upon her excellent 2022 season and a number of very good finishes in the Diamond League, improved greatly from her 11th place in the Tokyo OG 1500m final.
While her finishing time of 4:01.82 was outside her PB of 3:58.81 (Tokyo 2021), Hull did well by not going too fast after four girls took off and ran a 55 second first lap, thus maximising her potential to gain a top eight finish for the first at a global championship.
There is a possibility she ran with Covid given she tested positive a day after her competition, although Hull downplayed this by stating “Please, please, please know that I am truly proud of the race I put together on Monday night and this is by no means meant to suggest anything about the way I raced the 1500m final”. https://au.sports.yahoo.com/athletics-2022-aussies-devastating-news-at-world-championships-221942377.html
Nina Kennedy, when jumping 4.80m to win bronze, also makes the list with her best ever performance, just short of her PB of 4.82m.
Brooke Buschkuehl (formerly Stratton), who has previously finished top eight in three global outdoor championships (7th 2016 OG, 6th 2017 WC and 7th 2021 OG), did brilliantly to finish 5th with 6.87m.
Peter Bol, who made the 800m final as the fastest loser in the semi-final when running third with 1.45:58, comes in next with his 7th place in one of the most competitive of all athletic events.
Next is Matthew Denny, who finished sixth in the discus with 66.47m.
Denny, who finished fourth in the Tokyo OG with a PB of 67.02m, again showed his ability to perform when it counts in a major final.
Denny’s fine 2022 performance occurred in one of the highest standard global finals ever given that Kristjan Čeh (Slovenia) became the first athlete to throw the discus over 70m in a major global championship with 71.13m when winning gold.
Denny is the only Australian male athlete to finish top six at the last three global championships (2019 WC, 2021 OG and 2022 WC).
Mackenzie Little, who finished eighth at Tokyo, produced a personal best throw of 63.22m to finish fifth.
Nicola Olyslagers, finishing fifth in the high jump with 1.96m, also makes the list despite jumping a much lower height than at the Tokyo OG when winning silver with 2.02m.
Jemima Montag makes my list for finishing fourth in the 20km walk with 1:28:17.
Finally, while Stewart McSweyn finished ninth in the 1500m final with 3:33.24, his performance was excellent and worth noting after a low recovery from covid.
Winning the semi-final in a controlled manner was impressive, as was his ability not to go too fast in the final as a noted front runner.
He clearly outperformed his more favoured team mate Oliver Hoare who came into the WC with an Australian mile record but did not make the final.
In summary, Australian athletes collectively produced an excellent performance at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
The beauty is we get to watch many of them again in this week’s Commonwealth Games (CG) in Birmingham, England against many of the top WC performers from Great Britain, Jamaica, Kenya and Canada.
Hopefully some of our track athletes can win a few medals at the CG to match the exploits of our female field athletes who were clearly outstanding at the 2022 WCs.
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