Commonwealth Games Day 2: Gold to O’Hanlon

4 August 2022

Commonwealth Games Day 2: Gold to O’Hanlon

There were mixed fortunes for the NSW athletes on day two of the Commonwealth Games. Favourite in the T37/38 100m Evan O’Hanlon confirmed that standing with gold, while defending champion Brandon Starc jumped through pain to claim silver in the high jump.

Five-time Paralympic champion Evan O’Hanlon had won the T37/38 100m convincingly on the Gold Coast four years ago, but there has been a lot of water under the bridge since. Now in the twilight of his career, he was still favourite in Birmingham, but faced one major danger, Rio Paralympic gold medallist, South African Charl du Toit. But Evan was too good going on to win in a solid time of 11.23 with du Toit second in 11.54.

“It was pretty nice to do it in front of my family,” he said.

”I was hoping to get a quick start so I could do my own thing.”

Early in the men’s high jump competition, defending champion Brandon Starc looked in danger of being eliminated. However he had been lucky to even make it to the start of the event, after withdrawing from the World Champs with a bruised heel.

In Birmingham this morning he need two attempts at 2.15m, then three at 2.19m, where he was looking at placing 7th. Brandon explained his challenge.

“I just had to grit my teeth and jump through the pain,” said Brandon. “Pretty much every jump it (his heel) was hurting. I had to take my shoe off for a bit of relief.”

But after requiring a second attempt at 2.22m, he railed and cleared 2.25m on his first attempt, eventually sufficient to win the silver on countback from Kiwi Hamish Kerr who also cleared 2.25m.

“It was one of the toughest comps I’ve ever had,” Brandon remarked.

After missing the 100m final four years ago on the Gold Coast by less than 0.01 seconds, Rohan Browning progressed into the final in Birmingham this morning with a strong second place in the semi-final in 10.17. Ranked sixth amongst the finalists, he placed sixth clocking 10.20.

Rohan was positive about the result.

“It good to make the final and the career is going in the right direction. I would have loved to have been on the podium. I’m not satisfied but don’t want to beat myself up. It has been one of those seasons.”

He also revealed after the World Champs, he considered withdrawing from the Commonwealth Games.

“After World Champs I thought about packing it in and going home and getting into some work.”

He also mentioned how much of an influence his coach Andrew Murphy has had on his career.

“Murph has been at the core of everything. He has guided me and has been so much more than a coach, but a mentor and friend. I can’t speak more highly about his impact on my career, he is the one who got me into the sport.”

The cut-throat nature of some events made it tough for Charlie Hunter to qualify for the 800m final. Competing in heat one, he gave himself every opportunity, but in the end placed a close fifth in 1:49.94. Just 0.41 seconds separated places third to fifth and as it was a tactical and slow heat, there was no chance of progression as one of the fastest non-automatic qualifiers.

In the 400m heats, Steve Solomon rebounded from his World Champs run, to progress very smoothly into the 400m semis. He placed second in his heat in 45.98 seconds, the sixth fastest time amongst the 48 starters.

He spoke about his journey in the last month.

“I just wasn’t able to get the body right for Worlds. I’m proud of how in the last two weeks I’ve taken time to refocus and run 45 seconds today.”

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Evan O’Hanlon (courtesy of @athleticsaustralia / @christo1966)