{"id":350943,"date":"2023-12-01T21:37:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T22:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=350943"},"modified":"2023-12-02T04:02:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T04:02:04","slug":"aussie-whiz-kids-close-to-home-olympics-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=350943","title":{"rendered":"Aussie whiz-kid's close-to-home Olympics hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian middle-distance stars Cameron Myers<\/a> and Jye Edwards are close mates and crank out hundreds of kilometres together every year, cracking jokes, chatting away and willing each other on as they chase Paris 2024 selection.<\/p>\n

But as the Canberra-based training buddies grind out their work in the Australian capital, they know there's a considerable chance of only one of them being in the French capital when the gun is fired at the Olympic Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stewart McSweyn<\/a> and Oliver Hoare<\/a> are expected to make the Australian men's 1500m team\ufeff, leaving Myers, Edwards, Matthew Ramsden and Adam Spencer<\/a> fighting for one spot.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Peking Duk, Hooker to light up iconic Melbourne event<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Fuming sport in 'survival mode' after Comm Games farce\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Scared of the dark': Smith hurls ball as temper boils\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to Wide World of Sports ahead of Saturday's Zatopek:10 athletics meet in Melbourne<\/a>, Myers\ufeff said he and Edwards hadn't talked about the reality that although they're close mates and training buddies, they're also locked in a tense battle for Olympic Games selection.<\/p>\n

"We both know how competitive it's going to be and we're both hoping we're one of those people selected," Myers told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

"We both have a lot of mutual respect for each other.<\/p>\n

"He's a very talented athlete, so I know when he's fit and healthy he'll be a very hard person to beat."<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Myers made global headlines when he became the fastest 16-year-old miler in history in Melbourne in February, clocking three minutes and 55.44 seconds (3:\ufeff55.44) to edge the mark set by Jakob Ingebrigsten, the Norwegian ace who won 1500m gold at Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n

Myers turned 17 in June and set off to Europe for his debut overseas racing tour shortly after<\/a>, competing in Germany, the Czech Republic\ufeff, France and Poland.<\/p>\n

In a scorching 1500m field at the Silesia Diamond League\ufeff in July, the Lake Ginninderra College student posted 3:33.26 to nail the World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games qualifiers<\/a>. Instead of extending his stay in Europe to race at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, he flew back to Australia and slotted back into class with his mates.<\/p>\n

Edwards also had a European season this year, but the injury-plagued 25-year-old's campaign was derailed by \ufeffphysical setbacks. He returned to Australia without an Olympic Games qualifier in the bank, before going under the knife for Achilles surgery.<\/p>\n

Myers and Edwards are both coached by Dick Telford and managed by James Templeton<\/a>, who's also the agent for Peter Bol<\/a>, Joseph Deng<\/a>, Gout Gout and Sarah Carli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"We do a lot of sessions [together]. He happens to get over the top of me in a lot of sessions," Myers said of Edwards, who joined McSweyn and Hoare in the men's 1500m at Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Jye<\/p>\n

"I know how talented an athlete he is so I'm almost looking up to him, funnily enough. I have a lot of respect for him and I know he's a great athlete, a great competitor, so it's going to be pretty tough to beat him.<\/p>\n

"He's especially\ufeff good for training. Sharing the load between the two of us makes it easier.<\/p>\n

"And then I also get to look up to him for experience and things like that. He's obviously a very well-established racer and he's had experience on the circuit in the Diamond Leagues and stuff, so it's good to have someone like that around you."<\/p>\n

Edwards won the Australian men's 1500m title in 2021 and is a 3:49.27 miler, but troubles with his Achilles, knees, calf muscles and shins have riddled his career.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffI definitely feel myself feeling pretty sorry for him," Myers said.<\/p>\n

"Going into the European season this year he was quite a bit fitter than me and it was just unfortunate that he had some injuries over there.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffAll the boys that I'm training with are really supportive of both us and they just want the best of both of us individually … There's a lot of support and mutual respect."<\/p>\n

Myers has recently been churning out 110 kilometres a week\ufeff and is set to line up in the men's 3000m at Zatopek:10 on Saturday, in which his chief rivals will be Ramsden and Jude Thomas.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Myers has smashed a raft of Australian junior records this year, as well as the under-18 1500m world best. He paced the famous Bowerman Mile at Eugene's Diamond League final, won by Ingebrigsten in a European record. He also struck a deal with Nike \u2014 it was only a matter of time before the multibillion-dollar juggernaut would snap up the prodigy.<\/p>\n

But less than a month out from the new year, Myers is hungry for me.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"\ufeffBefore I ran that time [3:33.26 at the Silesia Diamond League] I was pretty disappointed, I suppose, because it took me so long to run the world standard," Myers said.<\/p>\n

"I sort of had that goal going into the European season … and I thought I was in pretty good nick, so I thought I should have done that … I ran pretty average in Ostrava and I thought that was a race where I could have knocked that standard off. So I did it in the last race, which made me at least satisfied, but I sort of left wanting a lot more.<\/p>\n

"It's good to have that going into the Olympic year, I suppose, and I've carried a lot of momentum from that."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian middle-distance stars Cameron Myers and Jye Edwards are close mates and crank out hundreds of kilometres together every year, cracking jokes, chatting away and […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":350945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350943"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350948,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350943\/revisions\/350948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/350945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}