Australia Is Back in the 100m Olympic Sprint After 17 Years

Aussie Rohan Browning is going to Tokyo.

It has been 17 years since an Australian male has competed in the 100m sprint at the Olympic Games, but that is set to change thanks to the blistering speed of Rohan Browning.

The 23-year-old from Sydney locked in his place for the 2020 Tokyo Games (taking place in 2021) after clocking a time of 10.05 seconds at the Queensland Track Classic on Saturday.

That time of 10.05 is not only Browning’s new personal best but it's also the third-fastest time in Australian 100m history.

Did we mention that’s also the quickest time set by an Aussie on home soil?

Boy’s got game that’s fo’ sho’.

Speaking about his record-setting run, Browning preferred to downplay it as business as usual.

“Those statistics, they’re nice superlatives and ones that I’m proud of, but in the end of the day you’ve got to go there and perform,” Browning told press after the race.

“There’s lots of work to do but and working on everything is a real process, but it’s great to be able to book that ticket to Tokyo.”

Who said humility is dead aye?

Regarding that extra work, his coach Andrew Murphy says Browning can go faster.

"Once he learns to just run straight he will dip under 10sec," said Murphy.

“He wobbles in his races. And he does it every time. He lurches to the right of the lane halfway through the race then consciously corrects himself and we've studied it closely. He loses a metre every race."

Here’s hoping he finds that metre and can bring the fight in Japan. We’d love to see him up against the fastest in the 100m Final.

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics will be starting on the 23 July 2021 after the coronavirus pandemic forced the Games to be cancelled last year.

Plus, it turns out that Brisbane could be bringing the Olympics back down under in 2032, so watch this space... for, uh, a while. 

You can see all the events broadcast live and exclusive on Channel 7 in Australia.

Header Image: Christian Petersen / Staff via Getty Images