It’s time to stop seeing Lachlan Kennedy as a spoiler for Gout Gout’s 200m ambitions. Instead, it’s time to recognize it as a headline in its own right.
For the second year in a row, Peter Norman’s 200m Memorial was the highlight of the Murray Plant meeting. For the second year in a row, it was presented as the stage on which the gout stamped his credentials as the best runner in the country. For the second year in a row, Lachlan Kennedy edged out fellow Queenslander by winning the gout race.
Now, we shouldn’t read too much into this. In evaluating both performances, there are almost as many caveats as the number of meters in a race. Firstly, it’s Melbourne, not the Olympics, not the World Championships, not even the National Championships. But, again, like last year, Gout only ran the 200m while Kennedy ran and won the 100m earlier in the program.
In 2025, Kennedy ran 10.17 seconds to win the 100 meters by more than a meter over Sebastian Sultana, then went on to overcome gout in the 200 meters, 20.26 to 20.30 seconds. This year, he was even more impressive in the 100m, where his 10.03 put him two meters clear of Rohan Browning’s 10.25. Then, in the only big shower of a cold, wet Melbourne evening, he wentut again in the 200m, 20.38 to 20.43.
Another warning. What happened in Melbourne is not necessarily how the National Championships in Sydney next week (April 9-12) will go. Look no further than last year when rookie Rohan Browning defeated Kennedy to win the 100 (both 10.01) and Gout, having won the U20 100, took first place in the 200 with Kennedy initially left despondent after being disqualified for a false start.
And it wasn’t that the gout’s running was bad, although the 50m outside the blocks was not his highlight reel! He ran well. Kennedy ran better and faster. Kennedy, 22, is a more developed athlete than gout. He will turn 23 in November, and 19 a month later. Obviously each has further development but it will not come in a linear progression. For now, Kennedy is ready to compete with all comers as Gout finds his way one step at a time.
But we shouldn’t allow our excitement about the potential development of gout to overshadow what Lachlan Kennedy is currently achieving. He won the silver medal in the 60 meters at the World Indoor Championships last year and became the second Australian, behind Patrick Johnson, to break the 10-second barrier when he ran a distance of 9.98 seconds in Nairobi two months later. A back injury curtailed and ultimately derailed his World Series campaign.
Drawing a line through their career at the moment, Kennedy is Australia’s best runner. This is clearly the case at the 100 meters where his 9.98 is second only to Johnson’s national record of 9.93. The sum of Kennedy’s five fastest races – 9.98, 10.01, 10.03, 10.03 and 10.07 (all with legal winds) is 50.12. The Browning is 50.14 and the Johnson is 50.16 (again, both are wind legal).
Gout’s youth means he can’t draw from such a deep pool, but with his five fastest times recorded in all conditions – 9.99w twice, 10.00, 10.04w and 10.17 – his overall score stands at 50.22. We expect it to continue to go down.
As gout and Kennedy gout continue to evolve, they will likely collide several times each year. At least in the short to medium term, sometimes Kennedy will come out on top, other times he will gout. The competition will be in favor of both parties and with luck, we will make it to Brisbane 2032.
There was a lot to like about the Melbourne meet besides the battle of the runners. The middle distance races are always a highlight, with wins by Cameron Myers and Claudia Hollingsworth in the 16th century standing out even over Jackson Sharp and Rose Davies in the 2000s and Luke Boyes in the 18th century.
There’s a strong case for both Myers and Hollingsworth as the standout performers of the night – not to mention visiting American Jacorey Patterson in the men’s 400m and Matt Denny in the discus. Myers destroyed world indoor bronze medalist Adam Spencer over the final 450 meters of the men’s 1500m while Hollingsworth was most impressive in holding off the challenge of 1500m gold medalist Georgia Hunter-Bell heading into the women’s race.
Myers set the Australian all-comers record of 3:30.42, breaking the previous record held by Hicham El Guerrouj, if you don’t mind. He left Spencer seven seconds behind in the final 450.
Hollingsworth ran a meet record of 4:01.30, beating Hunter Bell by just 0.22, but it was the way she seized the lead on the final lap and then found something extra to overcome Hunter Bell’s surge in the final 50 meters that was most impressive. Looking at the performance of British women over the past two years, Hollingsworth shadows Myers in my view. Ask me every day for a week, however, and it’ll probably be a 4-3 split decision either way!
Nina Kennedy continued her comeback from a serious injury with a 4.72m win in the women’s pole vault, a performance that may turn out to be more significant than anything else at the meet.
Fortunately, the weather was on the better side of the worst that was forecast. The only significant shower was the one that fell when the men’s field reached 200 meters onto the track and stopped almost as soon as they crossed the line.
Just don’t say Lachlan Kennedy rained down the gout parade. It is a major work in itself.
