Photo Credit: Athletics Australia
Sydney University Athletic’s Club sprinter Rohan Browning took a tad over 10 seconds to make his mark at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Browning ran a personal best of 10.01sec to win his heat of the 100m, which included some of the big names in world sprinting, including former Olympic and two-time world champion Yohan Blake.
Running in lane one, Browning made a great start and cruised past a bemused Blake at the halfway mark on his way to becoming the second fastest Australian over the distance and book a berth in the semi-final.
The 23-year-old law student and Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness Elite Athlete Program member also earned a new nickname: The Mullet.
Unfortunately Browning muffed the start in his semi-final and finished fifth in 10.09sec to miss out on a place in the final.
“It’s tough, I just never got out and then I had my work cut out for me,” Browning told Channel 7. “I feel like I came back well through the end of the race but I left myself with too much work to do. It’s only 100m.
“I’ve been consistent this year, and I’ve been knocking on the door of sub-10, a big breakthrough. Hopefully it comes later in the year in Europe. I’ll definitely walk away from this experience with a lot learned.
“I feel like this season I’ve had all the component parts of the race. It has been about putting it together in one run. And it is coming. But, you know, that’s part of figuring out the event and racing at this championship level. I mean in 2019 I came 40th. I ran basically dead last in my heat at the World Championships, so I’m heading in the right direction. The next Olympics is only three years away.”
Having put the world’s best sprinters on notice that there’s a serious new contender on the block, Browning joked after his semi-final effort: “Unfortunately this mullet was swimming upstream tonight.”
