PuraVida Sports

Melbourne

A sold-out crowd roared inside Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadiumon Saturday night, as the Maurie Plant Meet delivered an unforgettable night of world-class athletics, capped off by a spectacular sprint double by Lachlan Kennedy who took down teenage prodigy Gout Gout.

With the eyes of the nation on 17-year-old Gout (QLD, Diane Sheppard) at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meet, it was Kennedy (QLD, Andrew Iselin) who stole the show in the Peter Norman Memorial 200 metres, scorching the bend to secure an unassailable lead and win in 20.26 (+0.4) – the fifth fastest time by an Australian in history.

As a silence of anticipation covered an otherwise energetic Melbourne crowd, Kennedy extended his range to 200m after winning World Indoor silver over 60m in Nanjing, China last week – toppling his teenage rival who was valiant in 20.30.

“The crowd here is insane, I’ve never run in Australia in front of a crowd like this before. They really fuelled me to keep going and hold G-man off. I mean, what a race, my goal was to go out hard and I was just trying to hold him off and I got lucky this time,” Kennedy said.

Gracious in defeat, Gout kept the result in perspective as he faced the biggest challenge of his career to date:

“Like people say, winning feels great, coming second feels bad and third feels even worse, so coming second just puts fuel to my fire and it ignites that burn,” Gout said.

“The silence was crazy out there. The silence was loud as people say, you could hear a pin drop and then suddenly everyone was screaming my name at the top of their lungs. This is something not a lot of people can say they experience, I’m just taking it step-by-step and enjoying the moment.”

Earlier in the night, Kennedy won the 100m in 10.17 (-1.1) defeating Sebastian Sultana (NSW, Greg Smith, 10.29) and Rohan Browning (NSW, Andrew Murphy, 10.30), while Kristie Edwards (NSW, Andrew Murphy) served up a breakthrough in the Women’s 200m to take down Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis (QLD, Andrew Iselin) in 23.18 (+0.7).

Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo (BOT) also took centre stage as Melbourne and the world watched with bated breath, with the smooth-moving sensation stepping up to the challenge of the 400m.

The 21-year-old warmed into proceedings to challenge his Olympic silver medal winning 4x400m teammate Bayapo Ndori (BOT) in the home straight, with Ndori spoiling the party in 45.14 to Tebogo’s 45.26.

Olympic bronze medallist Matthew Denny (QLD, Dale Stevenson) continued his dominance with a new meet record of 68.17m, crushing the field and bettering his world lead when taking down Great Britain’s Lawrence Okoye who mustered a 64.30m effort.

“Today was good. You know, we’re just not in peak form just yet. We’re waiting for a couple of weeks for the comps in the USA but it was fun out there. I feel like 8000-10,000 Australias is worth about 80,000 Frenchmen, so there was such a great buzz out there.”

Adding to the action in the field, five-time global medallist Eleanor Patterson (VIC, Fuzz Caan & Marco Fassinotti) soared up and over 1.94m in the Women’s High Jump when competing at home for the first time in seven years, just one week after claiming silver at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

The middle-distance action was led by a pair of teenagers as Cameron Myers (ACT, Dick Telford) and Claudia Hollingsworth (VIC, Craig Mottram) ran rampant in the 1500m showdowns, winning in times of 3:34.98 and 4:05.97 respectively.

The 18-year-old Myers ran his rivals into the ground to win the John Landy 1500m in front-running fashion, while 19-year-old Hollingsworth swarmed a host of domestic and international rivals to set a new meet record.

World Indoor Championships bronze medallist Ky Robinson(QLD, Dathan Ritzenhein) was triumphant in the Men’s 5000m when winning in 13:13.17 and defeating Seth O’Donnell (VIC, 13:15.57), while Georgia Griffith (VIC, Nic Bideau) was the first Australian across the line in the Women’s 3000m in 8:35.10 – putting in a gutsy effort to keep pace with the newly crowned meet record holder Fentaye Belayneh (ETH, 8:34.30).

Emerging talent Lianna Davidson (NSW, Angus McEntyre) stamped her arrival on the Australian javelin scene when surpassing the 60-metre barrier for the third time in her career, launching to 61.06m to defeat World Championships bronze medallist Mackenzie Little (NSW, Angus McEntyre) with 59.66.

USA’s Jillian Shippee took down a truly international field in the Women’s Hammer Throw with a 71.26m meet record, ahead of France’s Rose Loga (69.05m) and New Zealand’s Lauren Bruce who launched the hammer to 68.87m. Australian record holder Stephanie Ratcliffe (VIC, Don Babbitt) threw 68.10m in her return to Australian shores from the USA.

The biggest names in Paralympic sprinting were in the house and delivered in style as Paralympic champions James Turner(ACT, Iryna Dvoskina, T36) and Anna Grimaldi (NZL, T47) roared to victory in times of 11.82 (-1.4) and 12.40 (+2.0) respectively.

Turner defied the headwind to finish narrowly outside his own world record, while Grimaldi scored 95.88 on the BASELINE system to beat home Mali Lovell (NSW, Katie Edwards & Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, T36) in 14.38 for a score of 95.13.

Two-time Olympian Ellie Beer (QLD, Brett Robsinson) continued to prove her dominance over 400m, taking down a field of Olympians and rising stars in a career-best time of 51.35.

The 2025 Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne was the final one-day meet of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series, with athletes now turning their attention to the Australian Athletics Championships in Perth, beginning next week.

The meet was also supported by the Victorian Government through its Significant Sporting Events Programme.(Australian Athletics)

ALL PHOTOS: MAURIE PLANT MEET / WORLD ATHLETICS