1 week Ago By Jack Snape
Australia’s sprinting revival has gone up a gear at this year’s national athletics championships in Perth after another record more than half a century old was broken. West Australian teenager Leah O’Brien won the under-18s girls 100m on Tuesday in a time of 11.14s, eclipsing Raelene Boyle’s record in the junior age bracket that was set at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico and had stood for 57 years by six hundredths of a second.
It is the second major Australian record from the 1968 Games that has fallen in the past six months, after Gout Gout broke Peter Norman’s 200m senior men’s mark in December with a run of 20.04s. O’Brien, 17, said she was surprised she went as fast as she did at the WA Athletics Stadium.
“I honestly thought my race in the heats [11.46s] was a really good time, I expected to maybe go 11.3 in the final but I’m so happy because I have been working really hard for that,” O’Brien said.
“It’s around the time that the open girls run which is crazy to be running that still in high school.” O’Brien is the latest athlete to emerge amid a crop of young top-level Australian sprinters whose timeline puts them on a trajectory towards the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. Apart from O’Brien and Gout, 21-year-old Lachie Kennedy won a silver medal at last month’s world indoor championships in the 60m and 20-year-old Torrie Lewis already has the title of Australia’s fastest woman after her national record of 11.
10s in the 100m last year – four hundredths of a second faster than the time O’Brien set on Tuesday. “I really look up to the top girls in Australia like Torrie Lewis and Bree Masters. I’m always watching their Instagram reels and looking at their photos, it just looks so great and inspirational,” O’Brien said, who had already won the under-18 200m title on Saturday in front of her family and friends.
Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion “It’s so great to experience this moment with the people I love and share the happiness,” she said. “I think I have really put my name out there and hopefully I can be in contention for teams in the future.” The national championships in Perth have started with the junior categories, before the senior events begin later this week.
O’Brien’s time places her ninth on the global all-time list among under-18s and ranks her equal-fourth on the Australian Open all-time list. She will now test herself against the likes of Lewis in the open 100m which starts on Friday evening..
