Australian Championships: NSW athletes claim two of the greatest National titles ever

12 April 2025

Australian Championships: NSW athletes claim two of the greatest National titles ever

On day three of the Australian Championships being held this week in Perth, the women’s 1500m and men’s 100m National titles will go into history as two of the greatest races in championship history. And the great news is NSW athletes Jessica Hull and Rohan Browning claimed them.

WOMEN 1500m

The four fastest Australian women over the metric mile put it on the line in the 2025 National title. With Jessica Hull, Georgia Griffith, Linden Hall and Sarah Billings competing it would be an enthralling race. An early pedestrian pace saw them pass 300m in 54 seconds. The second lap was just as slow, 73 seconds. It is not sure who this advantaged, maybe Billings, from a 400m background or Hull who had just clocked an 800m PB of 1:58.58 at the Grand Slam in Kingston. Either way, Hull was not going to sit and wait, lifting the temp on lap three as they clocked 66 seconds for the lap. The big four were now in the top-5. Leading at the bell Hull maintained her lead over the last lap clocking 57.0 seconds, although Billings closed the gap slightly with time of 56.69 seconds for her lap. Jessica Hull won in 4:11.36, from Sarah Billings (4:11.51), Georgia Griffith (4:12.09) and Linden Hall (4:13.73).

Jessica Hull was surprised how the race was run.

“A very strange race. I think in my mind, I probably thought Linden (Hall) would take up the running, and experience suggested that,” she said.

“When you go from a little bit further than 400 to go, you just really have people ask questions of themselves, it’s a long way to sprint,” Hull said.

“I wanted to make people either commit or run for second. At the top of the straight, I heard dad (her coach) say I had to use my gears, and they’re all there.

“So I hit it again with a hundred to and if you keep hitting it when people are coming at you, it’s really discouraging to them.”

Hull won her third consecutive title after having travelled from Jamacia.

"I was in Jamaica four days ago and here I am, she said.

"I raced Sunday morning [Australian time] then travelled Kingston to New York to Hong Kong and then straight to Perth," Hull said.

"It's just one of the things you have to get used to.

"I got in at 10:30 on Monday night and I got as much sleep as I could and I knew I'd be awake pretty early."

After running 8km early on Tuesday morning a track session on grass Tuesday afternoon she felt confident she would run well.

MEN 100m

After a wretched couple of years, with a knee injury, few gave Rohan Browning a hope of winning the National title.

The clear favourite was Queenslander Lachlan Kennedy after he had won silver at the Indoors, defeated Gout Gout over 200m, then won his 100m heat yesterday in 10.00 seconds.

The semi-finals did not clarify things as Sebastian Sultana ran a windy 10.08 and Kennedy and Browning both the same time of 10.16.

The final was a cracker with nothing separating Kennedy and Browning with eventually the photo finish splitting them by 0.005 seconds, with both given 10.01 with a 1.5m/s wind.

The bronze medal was just as tightly fortout between Joshua Azzopardi and Calab Law, with both given 10.17, but Josh getting the nod by 0.002 seconds. There was incredible depth with eight athletes under 10.30 seconds.

Rohan was asked if there was a new pecking order?

“Yeah, that's right. Experience. It's all about experience,” he said.

“It felt like Tokyo all over again. It felt really smooth.

“I just had to focus on myself (in Perth).

There might have only been a handful of people in the stadium tonight that believed that was possible (I could win). You only need to believe in yourself.

How much did your experience play out tonight?

I think it made a big difference because I just knew through the rounds you just can't worry about how each round shows. I wanted to run a lot quicker in the semi. I came to Perth looking to run a qualifier and a sub-10, but it didn't happen. But at the end of the day, it's a championship, all you need to do is win.

“And you know, I have faith that this will happen. I had all the training data suggesting that I was in my best shape and I knew it, but I hadn't showcased that to anybody yet.”

“You know, I wanted to come out and remind these guys who their dad is. There's a lot of short memories in this sport. I really couldn't believe how many people came out of the woodwork to knock me last year. Off the back it was a really tough year. But, you know, I'm fully healthy now. Really confident in my knee.”

Not a member of the recent relay success he flagged his intensions.

“I'd love to get back to the relay now that I know that I can be a weapon - like I'm in shape and I'm healthy.“

The 27-year-old also flagged he is not nearing a career end.

“I want to be around to LA (2028 Olympics) and hopefully beyond and be a nuisance for these guys a bit longer.

WOMEN Triple Jump

Defending triple jump champion, Desleigh Owusu didn’t have the best start to the championships when in the qualifying round she fouled the first two jumps.

But that didn’t phase the experienced campaigner.

 “Actually it wasn't too stressed. I think I work quite well under pressure, so I knew I just had to do it. I had no choice.”

Surprisingly she leapt a PB 13.74m, remaining the number four in Australian history. But she did reveal she had cruised through the jump.

“The last jump though I eased off a lot because I was afraid that I would foul again. So I slowed right down towards the board.”

After that news it gave great hope in the final she could do something very special.

In today’s final she fouled her opening jump, before raising her PB again with 13.75m. There was some strong follow-up efforts, 13.68m and 13.63m, but she was ultimately disappointed.

“I did expect more. My last jump was definitely really cool, but a foul. I was hoping to get the record, but that's okay. I've still got the rest of the season to go. I’m a little bit disappointed, but I'll take the win. And it's another PB.”

David Tarboton for Athletics NSW

Image: Men’s 100m final (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)