Australian athletes Nina Kennedy, Mackenzie Little and Oliver Hoare have geared up for the Paris Olympics with victories at the London Diamond League on Saturday, while the women’s 4x100m relay team impressed with another area record.
Reigning joint-world champion Kennedy cleared 4.85m to win the women’s pole vault, as Little threw a personal best of 66.27m to take out the women’s javelin at London Stadium. Hoare finished first in the men’s one mile with a season-best 3:49.03 to secure his first Diamond League victory and round out Australia’s biggest gold medal haul in one day of the elite athletics series.
Kennedy won her fifth consecutive pole vault competition this year to confirm her place among the leading contenders at the 2024 Olympic Games. The reigning Commonwealth Games champion beat a world-class field that included Olympic champion Katie Moon, who Kennedy shared the world championship crown with last year, and world indoor champion Molly Caudery.
Canadian Alysha Newman was the only competitor to match Kennedy in clearing 4.75m, as the pair then targeted 4.85m. The 27-year-old Australian cleared the higher mark on her second attempt while Newman failed on all three jumps.
Kennedy then missed all three attempts to clear 4.95m which would have beaten her own Australian record of 4.91m set in Switzerland last year, as well as Great Britain’s Caudery’s 4.92m as the best mark this year.
Little gave Australia a winning start to the meet, throwing 66.27m on her first attempt for the second longest mark in women’s javelin this year. The 27-year-old went on to pass the 60m mark in four of her next five attempts to show the sort of consistency that will boost her medal hopes in Paris.
“I’m thrilled at my performance but there’s definitely that unsettled feeling knowing that athletes like [reigning world champion] Haruka [Kitaguchi], Adriana [Vilagos], and Victoria [Hudson] will be there with fires absolutely burning inside, with lots to prove,” Little said.
“I think the event will be really dynamic and open but I now need to keep everything in check and use the nerves and expectations as fuel for some explosive technical throws in Paris.”
Hoare made it three wins for Australia in London, brushing off a dramatic start to the race when three athletes fell without a restart called in the Emsley Carr Mile. Fellow Australian Stewart McSweyn led the field throughout the race until Hoare took charge over the final 250m to beat Norway’s Narve Gilje Nordas by 0.03 seconds.
The Commonwealth Games record-holder in the men’s 1500m led the field across the line with McSweyn fifth in 3:49.59, Australia rising star Cameron Myers sixth in 3:50.16 and Adam Spencer further back in 3:55.49. Callum Davies did not finish.
Australian women’s 4x100m relay team claimed their third Oceania record this year with a time of 42.48 when fourth behind Great Britain (41.55), France (42.10) and a second Great Britain team (42.46).
Ella Connolly started for the Australia team with smooth transitions to Bree Masters and then Kristie Edwards keeping them in the race. Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis then made up ground down the home straight.
“It felt great out there today,” Masters said. “The conditions were great, there’s an amazing crowd of 60,000 out here, so it’s definitely a great confidence boost pre-Paris.
“We’ve got so much depth in our squad and we’re so interchangeable and adaptable in any leg. We’ve proven that by breaking the record with changing team members.”
The men’s 4x100m relay of Sebastian Sultana, Jacob Despard, Calab Law and Joshua Azzopardi posted their fastest time as a team this year (38.31) to finish second behind Japan (38.07) and just 0.14 seconds outside the national record.
Athletes competing at the Paris Olympics are now making their way to Montpellier in France for Athletics Australia’s pre-Olympic staging camp, before the Athletics program starts on 1 August.
