Myers out to lead Aussies to Ultimate athletics high
Mitch Phillips |
Man-of-the-moment Cameron Myers and fellow 1500m star Jess Hull will lead the Australian track assault at the inaugural Ultimate Championship in Budapest, while high jump duo Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers are ready to light up the infield.
Held over three nights, World Athletics’ new money-spinner will feature the richest prize pot in the sport, with a dozen Australians among those seeking a share of the $US10 million ($A14 million) up for grabs.
Each individual event winner will pocket $US150,000 ($A209,000), with the runner-up earning $US75,000 ($A105,000) and the eighth-placed athlete picking up $US10,000 ($A14,000).
World Athletics conceived the event to fill the “fallow year” when there is no World Championships or Olympics and came up with a slimline format featuring the cream of the sport – Olympic and world champions, Diamond League champions, rankings leaders and some exceptional wild cards.
Two of those – Norway’s multiple champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and new mile world record holder Josh Kerr – will go in a mouth-wateringly stacked 1500m field.
It features 20-year-old Myers, who showed last week he not only deserves to be among such exalted company, but can race them in the full belief he can cap an already impressive season with another statement victory.
He showed maturity beyond his years to bide his time then squeeze through the narrowest of gaps on the kerb to snatch the 1500m crown at the Diamond League final in Brussels, taking the prized scalps of Olympic champion Cole Hocker and Ingebrigtsen.
He will start on Sunday (Monday AEST) as second-fastest in the world this year behind Kerr, who beat him into a distant second in the mile at last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“I wouldn’t say that this victory is a surprise to me,” said Myers after his Brussels triumph.
“I would more say that it’s a relief that I can finally show what I was building in the last couple of years.”
Seasoned campaigner Hull ran a season’s best 3:54.76 for third in the 1500m in Brussels but the 2024 Olympic silver medallist is, as ever, full of confidence, saying: “I think I’m finding momentum at the right time.”
Hull will be joined by her Commonwealth Games mile conqueror Abbey Caldwell in the 1500m, and will also race the 5000m alongside double Commonwealth champion Rose Davies.
Lachlan Kennedy, Oceania 100m record holder with his 9.85sec silver-medal run in Glasgow, will probably need something similar to challenge the big guns led by world champion Oblique Seville.
Torrie Lewis, the first Australian woman to break 11 seconds in the 100m, goes over 200m but will also need to find an extra gear to make the final.
Australia has high hopes of challenging for a winner’s bracelet – no medals will be awarded – in the field events too.
Patterson won the Diamond League high jump final last week with world champion Olyslagers third.
They were split by Ukraine’s world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh, with the trio again looking set to battle it out on the stadium’s black-grass infield, one of several innovations the event is trialling, in Friday night’s (Saturday AEST) opening session.
Triple Commonwealth champ Kurtis Marschall will attempt to topple his illustrious friend Armand Duplantis in the pole vault as he did at the Stockholm Diamond League meet but Olympic champion Nina Kennedy misses out with a thigh injury.
AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION IN THE ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Men
100m: Lachlan Kennedy
1500m: Cameron Myers
5000m: Ky Robinson
Pole vault: Kurtis Marschall
Women
200m: Torrie Lewis
800m: Sarah Billings
1500m: Abbey Caldwell, Jessica Hull
5000m: Rose Davies, Hull
High jump: Eleanor Patterson, Nicola Olyslagers
Javelin: Mackenzie Little
AAP