EVERY HERO NEEDS, if not a villain, then a rival. Somebody to spur them on to larger heights. Messi has Ronaldo, Federer had Djokovic and Nadal, Tom Brady had Peyton Manning, LeBron chased Jordan’s ghost, Ali had Foreman and Frazier. And in athletics, even Usain Bolt had at varied occasions, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake. It’s very early days but it surely’s trying like Gout Gout and Lachlan Kennedy have one another. And the winner could possibly be Australian athletics.
Kennedy drew first blood within the budding rivalry, holding on to defeat a fast-finishing Gout by 4 hundredths of a second within the 200m occasion on the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne earlier this 12 months.
Now, the 21-year-old Queenslander has one-upped up Gout once more, clocking a blistering 9.98 seconds on the Kip Keino Traditional in Kenya on the weekend to grow to be the primary Australian in 22 years to legally break the 10-second barrier within the Males’s 100m.
In doing so, Kennedy turned the primary Aussie to realize the feat since Patrick Johnson’s 9.93 Australian document in 2003.
“I used to be there to win at the moment and convey it house, and I’m tremendous stoked to get the win and the time,” Kennedy mentioned. “It’s so good. I can lastly say I run 9! I haven’t wished to hurry it or put the strain on myself, I take each race because it comes and I knew it could come finally.
“I didn’t assume a 9 was reasonable till a few years in the past. Once I was nonetheless enjoying rugby however beginning to prepare and realising I had some pace, I made it the purpose. I’m getting higher with each race. It’s a bonus to have an extended season at house. I’m not getting drained, so I’m trying ahead to seeing what I can obtain later within the 12 months as we get nearer to the World Championships.”
Who’s Lachlan Kennedy?
Put merely, Kennedy is the quickest man in Australia proper now. The Queenslander boasts the second quickest 100m time by an Australian ever behind Patrick Johnson (9.93). Matt Shirvington and Rohan Browning are subsequent with 10.01, whereas Gout’s finest is the ten.17 he ran on the All Faculties Championship in December. Gout has run wind-assisted occasions below 10 seconds, together with a 9.99 seconds in each the heats and remaining of the Australian Athletics Championships in April.
The pair’s rivalry can be brewing within the 200m. Whereas Gout is the Australian 200m document holder with a time of 19.98, Kennedy beat him within the 200m remaining on the Maurie Plant Meet, together with his personal PB. Kennedy ran 20.26 – smashing his earlier finest time of 20.93 – to sneak house forward of Gout, who clocked 20.30.
Beforehand, Kennedy was a member of the 4x100m relay group that set an Oceania document of 38.12 on the 2024 Paris Olympics. He additionally claimed the silver medal within the 60m occasion on the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in China.
Kennedy excelled in Rugby as a junior, earlier than switching to athletics. He’s additionally accomplished a level in engineering and design on the College of Queensland.
What are Lachlan Kennedy’s strengths as a sprinter?
Kennedy is powerfully constructed, with a quick response time that permits him to blast out of the blocks. And get this – Kennedy quarter-squats – that’s, goes 1 / 4 of the best way down right into a squat then surges upwards exhausting as he can – 300kg. This has helped him set some blistering occasions on the 60m distance, though the truth that he was capable of maintain off Gout, a famend quick finisher over 200m, exhibits he does have the stamina to succeed on the longer distance as effectively.
Does Lachlan Kennedy have diabetes?
Sure, Kennedy was identified with Sort 1 diabetes in 2018, a situation that impacts his coaching and efficiency. “In 2018 I used to be medically identified with kind one diabetes, principally simply making the whole lot I do a lot more durable, whether or not that was consuming, doing sport, sleeping, something I at all times needed to monitor my situation,” Kennedy says. “And I nonetheless do. I’ve simply gotten quite a bit higher at it and I now have higher management over ranges and stuff than ever.”
When will Lachlan Kennedy race subsequent?
Kennedy will subsequent run on the prestigious Ostrava Golden Spike meet within the Czech Republic on June 24 the place he’ll tackle Gout within the 200m, earlier than travelling to the USA for the 100m on the Prefontaine Traditional on July 5.
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The put up Lachlan Kennedy is the real deal appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.
