Leaning up against a fence at the Doonside Little Athletics track in western Sydney, Sebastian Sultana admits he’s still in a mild state of shock.
It’s been two weeks since the 17-year-old sprinter from Schofields ran 100 metres in 10.27 seconds and broke the Australian under 18s record by over a tenth of a second. In sprinting terms, that’s an eon.
But it is one thing seeing a record on a page, quite another trying to wrap your head around being the fastest 17-year-old in Australian history. He has now run quicker than all the big names at the same age, like Patrick Johnson, Matt Shirvington and Rohan Browning.
“It still doesn’t feel real to me; it is yet to sink in,” Sultana said. “But it feels amazing, for sure.”
Sultana is already a catchy name – courtesy of his father’s Maltese heritage – but if the last year is any guide, the country will soon know Sebastian’s name for his raw speed alone.
At a meet in Illawong in late October, Sultana clocked the sizzling 10.27s, smashing the under-18 record of 10.38s set by Jack Hale in 2015. It was a huge personal best time for Sultana, which he’d only just set weeks before with a 10.42s – a run which broke Browning’s NSW under 18s record. And that run had come after Sultana had posted a PB in September at the NSW All Schools as well, with a 10.53s in the rain.
Sebastian Sultana practising starts at Doonside Little Athletics track.Credit:Edwina Pickles
All in all, with three runs in just over a month, Sultana has chiselled 0.33 seconds off his PB and his coach Greg Smith reckons he’s only just getting started.
“He is confident in his ability and I truly believe he is the real thing,” Smith said. “I know he was a bit shocked but his off-season training, it wasn’t showing 10.2s but it was showing 10.3s. I kept telling him, you’re in real good shape man.”
To put things in context, Browning’s best at 17 was 10.47s and Shirvington’s was 10.6s. He then ran 10.03 at 19.
Sultana added: “It has been insane. I never imagined I would be running this quick, this early in the season. Each race I have just thought, I will run my best and see what happens. And then it’s a PB every time. When I ran that 10.53s at All Schools, I ran a perfect race and I thought I don’t know how I can beat that.”
Sebastian Sultana is faster at 17 than Matt Shirvington was at 18.Credit:Fred Etter
Sultana almost quit sprinting a few years ago, when he was unable to keep up with youngsters who grew bigger and faster in their early teens. Before 2020, Sultana told his mum Diana he’d give it one more summer.
“He basically said ‘I am going to give it one more season and if I don’t go well I will go back to OzTag or league’,” Diana said. “I knew he had potential, I said ‘you just have to grow’.”
Sultana finally filled out, and with the benefit of a weights program, he added power to his pace and began to beat the bigger kids. He won the Australian under 18 titles in the 100m and 200m in April, and finished fifth in the under 20s, behind a stellar crop of rising sprinters in Jai Gordon, Calab Law, Connor Bond and Ryan Tarrant.
‘It has been insane. I never imagined I would be running this quick.’
Sebastian Sultana
Sultana didn’t get selected for Australia’s World Junior Athletics team, but will still be eligible for the next one in 2024.
“My goal is to represent Australia at the 2024 World Juniors and see where it takes me,” Sultana said.
“The end goal is running at an Olympics, but that’s a way down the line. And with I reckon with the junior development we have right now, and the talent coming through, we have a good shot at doing well.”
Running fast at 17 is a long way from making a mark as an adult sprinter on the world stage, where a ticket to an Olympic 100m final requires a sub-10-second run.
Sebastian Sultana and his coach Greg Smith share a laugh before training.Credit:Edwina Pickles
But Smith – who also coaches Aussie Olympian Bendere Oboya – believes Sultana has all the ingredients to enter that territory.
“At the world level now, if you’re not “ten-oh” (10.0s to 10.1s) or below, you’re at the back of the pack,” Smith said.
“He has to allow his body to develop. It takes patience but he has to put in the work in weight room, the work on the track. That will come. I look at where he is now and if he gets it all right, I wouldn’t have any surprise if he goes sub-10.
“One thing he has to his advantage is his start is elite, and explosive, and when you look at the world level, you gotta have a great start. He has got it, and it’s only going to get better with strength.”
