Australian Athletics Championships: Lachlan Kennedy sends massive warning to Gout Gout in 10-second run

Lachie Kennedy has become the second-fastest Australian of all-time over 100m after hitting 10 seconds flat in his heat at the Australian Athletics Championships.

Kennedy threw down the gauntlet ahead of Saturday’s semifinal and final at WA Athletics Stadium, recording the best legal time by an Australian other than national record-holder Patrick Johnson.

Backed by a legal +0.9 tailwind, Kennedy issued a challenge to rival Gout Gout after the young star’s unofficial pair of 9.99 runs yesterday.

Kennedy had run 10.04 on his last visit to Perth in March, and after talking about wanting to break the 10 second barrier in Perth, the 21 year-old almost did in his first run of the championships.

“Hopefully I can be the quickest ever by the end of the week, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Kennedy said post-race.

“My coach was telling me to give it everything I got, because these are going to be the best conditions but I really want to save all my juice for the final.”

Kennedy, who’s run was 0.01 seconds quicker than Tokyo and Paris Olympian Rohan Browning’s personal best which was previously the second-best Australian time, said he felt comfortable and was confident he would break 10 sooner rather than later.

“I definitely pushed out for the first bit. I was just really practicing how I’m going to run the final. I might have sub-consciously shut off, I was staring at the clock with 30m to go, and I was like ‘oh s...,’ I might actually get this,” he said.

“With a dip (at the finish line) it could have been nine, but I’ve got two more races to do that.

“First 60m, (I was) maybe 90, 95 per cent, but last 40 was just super relaxed, super calm.

“I know I’ll go south eventually. That’s just a matter of time....I’ll do it in the semi or the final.”

Browning was not far behind Kennedy to tee up a blockbuster Saturday at the track, as he recorded a wind-assisted 10.07 (+2.1) which did not count as an official time but still put him through to the next round.

In the 800m, Peter Bol eased through to Saturday’s semifinal and declared himself to be in a positive state of mind.

Bol won the first heat of the night in a time of 1:48.97 and looked comfortable throughout.

Meanwhile, young West Australian sprinter Leah O’Brien — who broke Raelene Boyle’s 57-year under-18 100m record earlier this week — clocked another fast run in the women’s heats to fight her way through to Saturday’s semifinal.

After running 11.14 mid-week, O’Brien recorded a time of 11.31, while national record holder Torrie Lewis and Bree Rizzo both ran 11.25.