John Salvado / AAP News
Two Aussie sprinters are through to the next round at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Australian sprinter Rohan Browning has rediscovered his best form in the nick of time to power into the men’s 100m semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Two weeks ago at the world titles in Eugene, Browning was gutted to be eliminated at the same stage of the blue-riband sprint in 10.22 seconds.
He looked immeasurably better at the Alexander Stadium on Tuesday, defying tricky conditions to win his heat in 10.10 – the equal-fourth fastest qualifying time.
Fellow Australian Jake Doran also advanced to the semis on Wednesday in 10.39.
“I have struggled a bit on the circuit this year and the losses really started to pile up,” said the 24-year-old Browning.
“But I knew I had a run like that in me.
“I stumbled out of the blocks and it was far from the perfect race (but) it’s by far my best run of the year.”
Suddenly the crushing disappointment of Eugene was firmly in the past.
“There’s always that humiliation eleme nt when you get run out in the heats but you just try to bounce back from it and not take it to heart,” said Browning, who went within a whisker of becoming the second Australian to break the 10-second mark when he stopped the clocked at 10.01 at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
“Just trust that the form is there, it’s just in the execution.
“I think I’ve tapped into a good vein of form for these championships.”
There was a tricky cross breeze at the Alexander Stadium for the opening session of the track and field, which made Browning’s time even more impressive.
Reigning national champion Doran was also pleased to advance to the semis in second spot in his heat behind reigning Commonwealth champ Akani Simbine from South Africa (10.10).
“I was thinking to myself I can cut the jets here and then thought actually there is a Jamaican (Nigel Ellis) next to me so I probably should run through the line,” said Doran.
“I’m just happy to fin ish that race in one piece and get ready for tomorrow .”
Yupun Abeykoon of Sri Lanka was the fastest qualifier in 10.06.
Five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah from Jamaica clocked the equal-quickest time of 10.99 in the opening round of the women’s 100m.
Australians Naa Anang (11.37) and Bree Masters (11.41) also advanced.
Australian record holder Catriona Bisset did extremely well to finish second in a stacked heat of the women’s 800m in 2:00.40 behind England’s Olympic and world championships silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson and qualify automatically for Saturday’s final.
Georgia Griffith was eliminated despite running 2:00.36, her fastest time of the year.
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver medallist Henry Frayne needed only one jump of 7.85m to progress straight through to the men’s long jump final on Wednesday.
Fellow Australian Chris Mitrevski did it tougher, needing a final-round effort of 7.76m to advance.
India’s Murali Sreeshankar had the best qualifying leap of 8.05m.
Matthew Denny cruised through men’s discus qualifying with 64.63m and shapes as the man to beat in Thursday’s final.
