The world’s fastest man Fred Kerley will compete in Melbourne for the first time at a new-look athletics meet where he’ll sprint against Australian sensation, “the Flying Mullet” Rohan Browning.
The US sprinter, who reigns as the 100-metre world champion with a personal best over the distance of just 9.76 seconds, will headline the international athletics stars competing at the Maurie Plant Meet at Albert Park in February.
American superstar Fred Kerley is set to face off against Rohan Browning in Melbourne.Credit:AP Photo
He is due to open his 2023 campaign in the 200 metres at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park.
“I am excited to start my season in Australia and I will also use this as a training base for the upcoming season,” Kerley said.
“It is nice to open my season with the 200 metres because I got injured in the 200-metre semi-finals at the World Championships.”
Kerley, 27, said he had competed on all other continents, and the opportunity to come to Australia for the first time was exciting.
Browning, who ran a time of 10.01 in the 100m heats of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will also compete in the 200 metres to sprint against Kerley, along with world under-20 championships bronze medallist Calab Law and Australian 200m champion Aidan Murphy.
“Can an Australian produce an upset? I’d like to think so,” Browning said, referencing when Damien Marsh, a Queenslander, won the IAAF 100m grand prix final in Monaco in 1995 against the odds.
At least three top 50 names will feature in no fewer than 12 athletic events at the meet on February 23 in what will be the first event of an annual Continental Tour Gold series.
The event is named after Australian athletics stalwart Murie Plant, who died in January 2020, and loomed large in athletics for more than 50 years, mentoring Cathy Freeman, Sally Pearson and Steve Hooker among others.
The meet will be broadcast in more than 150 countries and upgrades the class and standing of what was the Melbourne Track Classic.
Murphy drew with Kerley in the heats of the 200 metres at last year’s World Athletics Championships. “To race a high-profile athlete such as Fred Kerley develops our international presence as emerging athletes,” Murphy said.
Kerley won that race before being eliminated in the semis after suffering a quadriceps injury.
But such is the United States’ global dominance of the event that Noah Lyles still went on to headline an American clean sweep of the medals in Oregon.
Law, 19, said he would do everything he could to beat Kerley.
“We get to measure our speed against him,” he said. “It’s just such a great opportunity for athletes at my stage of development to get to run against the best sprinter in the world.”
With AAP, Michael Gleeson
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