Murphy goes oh so close to Australian 400m record

John Salvado | May 19, 2026

Rising sprint sensation Aidan Murphy has gone within a whisker of breaking one of the oldest records in Australian athletics with a stunning 400m run of 44.44 seconds at the Oceania championships in Darwin.

With countrymen Thomas Reynolds and Luke van Ratingen pushing him all the way on Tuesday, the 22-year-old Murphy took full advantage of the hot conditions at Arafura Stadium.

He stripped 0.37 off his personal best to move to second on the Australian all time list, just six hundredths of a second shy of Darren Clark’s national record, which has stood untouched since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

“We’re right there,” said Murphy.

“If the national record isn’t broken this year, it’s just a matter of time.

“Depending on who it is I don’t know, but we’re all just around the corner and slowly chipping away at that milestone.”

Second-placed Reynolds also set a huge PB of 44.69 and Van Ratingen rounded out an Australia trifecta in 45.04.

The trio were part of the Australian squad that twice smashed the long-standing Australian 4x400m record at the recent World Relays meet in Botswana.

“I know I’m close to the (individual) record but I think I ran a perfect race, especially compared to what I usually do, which is to gas the first 200,” said Murphy, son of dual 1998 Commonwealth Games sprint gold medallist Tania van Heer.

“It was really nice to have people on my outside. It’s very rare for that to happen and they set me up up for a perfect race.”

Murphy has set 100m, 200m and 400m PBs in 2026.

He was a flying second behind Gout Gout in the 200m at the Australian championships in April when both men obliterated the national record.

“I think the 200 and the 400 are just two events that go hand in hand and you really have to be good at both of them if you want to be world class at one,” said Murphy.

Ellie Beer won the women’s 400m at the Oceania championships in a season’s best time of 51.99 ahead of fellow Australians Mia Gross (52.25) and Alice Dixon (52.62).

Australian Jackson Rowe (10.19) qualified fastest for Wednesday’s semi-finals of the men’s 100m, with countryman and Paris Olympian Josh Azzopardi and Papua New Guinea record holder Pais Wisil also advancing with a minimum of fuss.