At the Brisbane Track Classic, under a warm still night, the likes of which an athlete dreams about, generational history was made by a NSW runner named Rohan Browning.
The 23-year-old from the Shire in Sydney's south stunned not just himself, his coach and the crowd on hand, but the entire athletics world when he ran the 100m in 10.05sec.
And here's what that looks like.
– He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics
– His time is the fastest by an Aussie run while in Australia in history
– He is ranked number 3 in the world in 2021
– He is the 3rd fastest Australian ever
What it means now is that Australia will have a male 100m competitor at an Olympics for the first time this generation. We are looking at 17 years since an Aussie lined up for battle in the blue riband event at Olympic level.
And there is so much more room for improvement with Browning.
"Once he learns to just run straight he will dip under 10sec," said the only coach he's ever had, Andrew Murphy. "He wobbles in his races. And he does it every time. He lurches to the right of the lane half way through the race then consciously corrects himself and we've studied it closely.
"He loses a metre every race."
That's something Murphy has been working on with his prodigious charge for seven years now. "But he still does it," he smiled.
Their association began quite by chance when Browning transferred from Innaburra High in Menai to attend Trinity Grammar.
Murphy was the head track coach there and he was overseeing the rise of another runner, one we've all become familiar with in recent weeks name Oliver Hoare. When Hoare graduated from Trinity he went to run on a track scholarship at university in the U.S. and of course earlier this year at a meet in New York he ran an Australian 1500m indoor record and qualified for Tokyo also.
"Obviously I'm very proud to see two Trinity boys going to Tokyo," said Murphy.
Browning, who had not trained at all for athletics when he started at Trinity, was a rugby player. Murphy saw him play and noted he had a bit of speed. He suggested to Browning that he come down to practice one day and, well, Browning did.
"His first race was over 100m also and he clocked 13.1sec," recalled the coach. "Which is very slow for a runner but he liked running. Off that run, though, you just could never envisage what he has since achieved in just a few years."
Said Browning, "it was fun when I started training for running races, but I never thought I was fast or could be fast. To be honest, I only really stayed training with Murph because a friend of mine said girls liked track runners more than rugby players," he smiled.
Which of course is true.
"Then, after two seasons of training for the 100m, my time had dropped to 11sec flat and it has been just a continual improvement curve ever since."
Culminating in a performance that has tongues wagging all over the world, particularly because of its brilliance and partially because of his pigmentation.
"I promised my training mates that if I qualified for Tokyo that I'd shout them beers all night, so this was an expensive weekend.
"But one I'd never swap."
Doubtless Victorian middle distance runners Catriona Bisset and Linden Hall would swap their night either.
Both girls clocked under the Tokyo qualifying time too, they in the 800m and their respective runs were stunning. Had Browning not done what he did, this would have been the story of the meet.
Bisset, who went out from the gun as if she was in a 200m race, just kept going. Her bravery was rewarded when she stopped the clock at 1.59.12, a time bettered by just a couple of Aussie women in history.
"I was going for a PB (personal best) tonight and got within half a second, which is close enough.
"I know that if you want to make an Olympic final, you've got to be able to run 1:59, and get through the rounds, so this was great training to time trial this one and see how far I can go."
It will take a sub 2mins semi run to make that coveted final. Now she knows she can do it and do it twice at the same meet if needed.
As for Hall, well she clocked a PB 1.59.22 and this is not even her event!
She is already on the plane for Tokyo in the 1500m and her charge late to just fail shows the world class shape she is in. This 800m run came just two weeks after she broke the Australian 1000m record.
Nick Hough, who narrowly won the 110m hurdles, looks certain to be on the plane too.
He ran 13.51sec which was the fastest time he has run since that glorious, unforgettable night three years ago at the Commonwealth Games when from an unlikely outside lane, he ran his heart out collecting a lifetime PB to grab the bronze medal.
And in the ensuing years he has managed to train for his win last night and build an online business that is now getting global traction.
It's call Outwrite and is an Aussie version designed for anyone writing anything on the computer. It aids perfectly in proofreading, grammar, punctuation, spelling and already his business has assets worth over a million dollars.
Hough is headed to Fortune 500 fame and glory but he's headed for one last hurrah in athletics at the Tokyo Games before that.
"Technically things are finally coming right and that time, even though I hit a hurdle, was the fastest I've run since the Commonwealth Games.
"I'm hoping at the Australian Championships in a few weeks I will run a PB."
Hanna Basic won the women's 100m in a stunning 11.19sec, the 5th fastest time by an Aussie ever. Her heat win was in 11.18sec 90mins earlier which is the 4th fastest and just a dip away from the National record held by former World 200m Indoor Champion Mellnda Gainsford-Taylor in 11.11sec.
The 25-year-old Basic from Melbourne just runs like a machine. She explodes from the blocks and gathers momentum the whole way. Her deceleration phase is world class.
That 11.19sec was with a 0.3mps tailwind. Which is virtually nothing. If her race had been run five minutes earlier when the wind was a full 2.0mps tailwind, she would have broken 11sec. And that puts her not only the greatest sprinter in Australian history, but into rarified global sprinting air!
Other performances of note in Brisbane, the last major meet before the Nationals and official Olympic selection trials in three weeks were –
– Peter Bol in the 800m clocking a stunning 1.45.48 (Tokyo Qualifying is 1.45.20) and this is the fifth time he has run 1.45 this season.
– Brooke Stratton the golden girl long jumper on the comeback trail from knee injury with a winning 6.63m leap and who has 25,000 instagram followers. She is the Australian and Oceania record holder in this event
– Liz Clay the new 100m hurdles star, 2nd fastest Aussie ever behind Olympic gold medallist Sally Pearson, who once again broke the coveted 13sec barrier with her win
– Bendere Oboya whose astonishing win streak is now 25 against Aussie girls when she claimed the 400m in 52.23sec.
– Riley Day who is already on the plane to Tokyo just completely dominated her 200m race in 23.22sec.
– Brandon Starc, the younger brother of Test cricket great Mitchell Starc, won the high jump in 2.29m just missing the Tokyo qualifier of 2.33m.
The next time we see all the Aussie track and field stars will be at the Nationals and Olympic selection meet in Sydney in late April.
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