Against the most decorated field of 800-metre runners Australia has fielded, 18-year-old Claudia Hollingsworth upstaged everyone.
If the competition of Australian running can be distilled to one event, it’s the women’s 800m.
Claudia Hollingsworth ran an eye-popping 800m in a star-studded field.Credit: Eddie Jim
While other events imported overseas athletes for the Maurie Plant Meet in Albert Park on Thursday night to find serious competition for Australia’s best, the women’s 800m needed only draw from around the country.
In what could be the most competitive, and deep, generation of 800m women’s runners Australia has ever had, the meet was able to boast national record holder Catriona Bisset, Olympic finalist Linden Hall, Georgia Griffiths (who made the 1500m final at the worlds in Oregon), former Olympic 400m runner Bendere Oboya, and Commonwealth bronze medallist Abbey Caldwell.
And rising star Hollingsworth could be better than all of them.
Australian sprint star Rohan Browning in action in the 100m.Credit: Eddie Jim
She broke two minutes (1:59.81), setting a new personal best just a smidgen outside the Olympics qualifier. She already has two under-20 national records, became the Oceania champion last year over 1500m, has turned down tempting approaches from AFLW feeder clubs, and is only just out of high school.
“It’s crazy, [I’m] so happy [for my] first PB since I was 16, so it has been a while since I could crack that 2:01. To go under two minutes is just crazy – I am super happy so early in the season,” Hollingsworth said.
“It was probably a national final basically, it was just crazy the depth in the Aussie runners at the moment, and to be up against those girls, it was insane to think about. I was on the start line thinking about how it was a great opportunity to try and run fast with these girls.”
Liz Clay after her impressive run.Credit: Eddie Jim
At the top of the final straight, Claudia (it’s Cloud-ia not Claw-dia) overhauled Bisset and then Caldwell, and never looked threatened.
Given what she’s already achieved in an Olympic year, at just 18, the prospect of what lies ahead – whether be it in the 800m or the 1500m – is tantalising.
“The Olympics are obviously on my mind but [I’m] definitely only taking it race by race,” she said. “I haven’t got that focus because it puts a bit of pressure on. It’s pretty crazy to do it so early on in the season, which is exciting.”
Oboya led the field and ran a terrific 600m, but after stepping up from 400m she is finding the 800 still half a lap too far.
In 2021, Liz Clay was a whisker from making the 100m hurdles final at the Tokyo COVID lockout Olympics. A year later in Eugene Oregon, at the world championships, she broke her foot and she has spent two years since going through recovery, rehab, setback, and build-up to get back again.
On Thursday night, winning in 13.02 from Michelle Jenneke (in 13.12s) – the now veteran who once was so chiselled the hurdles looked worried – announced she could yet be a candidate for Paris.
Sprint champion Rohan Browning ran a workmanlike 10.34s in the 100m in his first competitive race of the year, before backing up later in then 200m.
A quietly impressive performance came from little known teenager Jess Milat in the 200m. The tall, long-striding Victorian runner is raw but looked strong, sweeping home in the last 50m to win in 23.63s.
Australian-born French hurdler Sasha Zhoya, who agreed as a teenager to run for France and was returning to compete for the first time in Australia since making that decision, was to offer a glimpse of what Australian athletics had missed in the 110m hurdles, but unfortunately injured himself in the warm-up and was a late withdrawal.
