Sydney Track Classic – One month to go
Published Sat 15 Feb 2025
Sydney Track Classic – One month to go
The Chemist Warehouse Sydney Track Classic returns to Homebush’s Sydney Olympic Park for the 2025 edition set for Saturday March 15. Scheduled a week before the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, it will provide a final competition opportunity for some selected athletes to finalise their preparation.
The Sydney Track Classic and the national series of meets, has been a key platform for the first taste of international competition for our emerging teenage talent. In 2012, a 15-year-old Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) placed sixth in the high jump. She would go on to win four global medals at two Olympics and world championships.
In 2010 Michelle Jenneke would make the first of seven appearances in the 100m hurdles at the Sydney Track Classic. Michelle, then 16, placed third ahead of winning a silver medal at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Such has been the depth of competition in the hurdles over the years, Michelle would wait until her sixth appearance in 2023 for her first win.
Through the Sydney Track Classic, we witnessed the emergence of future super Sydney coach Andrew Murphy. During the ‘90s he claimed six wins in the triple jump starting in 1991 with 16.17m. By 1996 he had leapt an extraordinary windy 17.28m which remains the meet record. The Sydney Track Classic was his regular local international meet during his 18-year international career where he would wear the green and gold on 17 occasions including at three Olympics. In 2019 his 17-year-old son, Connor, made his Sydney Track Classic debut and is expected to line-up again in 2025.
The meet has regularly produced National records, last year the 24-year-old Australian women’s 4x100m relay record was broken. In the years prior Jessica Hull (3000m), Cam Myers (junior 3000m) and Nina Kennedy (pole vault) all set Australian records. In the ‘90s there were even world records by pole vaulter Emma George and race walker Kerry Saxby.
Events at the 2025 Sydney Track Classic are: 100m (m/w), 400m (m/w), 800m (m/w), Australian 3000m Championships (m/w), 400m hurdles (m/w), high jump (w), triple jump (m/w), shot put (m) and javelin throw (w).
The meet will also be the highlight of an 11-day Festival of Athletics in Sydney from 13 to 23 March where the eight days of competition will also include NSW Open, Junior and NSW Little Athletics Championships.
EVENT FACTS
Date: Saturday 15 March 2025
Time: 5:00 to 9.00pm (late afternoon/evening)
Where: Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush
Tickets: https://www.nswathletics.org.au/events-page/sydney-track-classic
David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: 2024 Sydney Track Classic women’s 100m hurdles Michelle Jenneke & Liz Clay (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)
