Kerley and Centrowitz Set To Run In Sydney
Published Wed 01 Feb 2023
The fields at this year’s 2023 Sydney Track Classic are quickly shaping up to be some of the best in recent times – with the addition of USA Track & Field royalty in the form of reigning 100m World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, Fred Kerley, and 2016 Olympic 1500m Champion, Matthew Centrowitz Jnr. Athletics NSW would like to acknoweldge the efforts of Athletics Australia in ensuring both Kerley and Centrowitz have the ability to compete multiple times across the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Summer Series.
The world’s fastest man raised the excitement levels in the Australian Athletics community for this year’s Summer Series, with his announcement to run the Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne - a very welcome one for the Continental Tour Gold Meet at Lakeside Stadium.
“I am excited to start my season in Australia and I will also use this as a training base for the upcoming season. I have competed in all the other continents, and I am excited to get the opportunity to compete in Australia,” Kerley said.
He has since been confirmed for the 400m at the 2023 Sydney Track Classic, set to run his first full-lap in a year, with his personal best a phenomenal 43.64 (1.30 seconds quicker than the fastest current 400m Australian athlete – Steve Solomon) and part of the Gold Medal 4x400m team for USA at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships.
His United States counterpart, 33-year-old Matthew Centrowitz, will thrill the distance running fans in Sydney when he takes to the track to face Jack Rayner, Cameron Myers and many more of the most exciting distance talent Australia has to offer in the National 3000m Championships.
“Australia is easily one of my favourite places to train and race. I enjoyed my time there in 2018 and have been looking forward to returning ever since,” Centrowitz said.
“It’ll be a perfect atmosphere for me to kickstart my 2023 campaign and get back to competitive racing. Australian middle distance running is better than ever so I hope these blokes will take it easy on me down there."
Athletics NSW General Manager – Andrew Matthews – who is delivering his 9th edition of the Sydney Track Classic, including several whilst in his role as Competition Manager at Athletics Australia, which featured the likes of Asafa Powell, David Rudisha, David Oliver and Dame Valarie Adams, commented on how exciting it was to have international Olympic and World Champions back at Sydney Olympic Park.
“We’re very grateful to have athletes of this calibre come to Sydney to showcase their world-class talents in front of our athletics community. We’d love to see our members, and their friends and family, come and watch some of the best track & field you could hope to see in an engaging and exciting format of athletics that only happens once a year”, Matthews stated.
The team at Athletics NSW is also looking to introduce a number of novel concepts to this year’s Track Classic, including platinum seating options, meet and greet opportunities, engaging food & beverage activations, plus more. Further announcements on these initiatives will be made shortly via Athletics NSW channels.
The 2023 Sydney Track Classic will take place on Saturday, 11th March between 4pm-9pm, with plenty of opportunities for children and schools to be involved in events prior to the main program.
For more information and tickets, see the Sydney Track Classic page here.
