‘It really sucks’: The good, the bad and the unfair of Australia’s world athletics championships

It was never going to be as good as Paris. Australia’s record-breaking medal haul at the 2024 Olympics set the bar so high for athletics, the team at this year’s world championships in Tokyo was always unlikely to measure up.

In Paris, Australia won seven medals – one gold, two silver and four bronze – which was the biggest medal haul at an Olympics since the 1956 Games in Melbourne.

By comparison in Tokyo this month Australia won four medals – a gold for Nicola Olyslagers on the last night, and three bronze. At the last worlds in Budapest, Australia won six medals – one gold, two silver, three bronze.

But in 2022 in Oregon, Australia won just three medals; in Doha in 2019 Australia won just one medal, though it was a gold.

Matching Paris or Budapest was never going to happen once Nina Kennedy (gold in Paris) and Jemima Montag (two bronze in Paris) pulled out injured before the championships. If fit, Kennedy would have won a medal in Tokyo. She had won – shared – the gold at the last world championships in Budapest, before her Olympics win.

Both times she cleared 4.90 metres to win gold. That was the height Katie Moon from the US cleared in Tokyo this week to win gold.

Likewise, Montag just wins medals. Two bronze in Paris, a silver in Budapest, and two Commonwealth gold. She just knows how to medal.

Then Australia’s fastest man, Lachie Kennedy, who earlier this year became just the second Australian ever to legally break 10 seconds for the 100m, was also forced to withdraw.

The upshot was that Australia’s team was depleted, finishing 15th on the medal table. In comparison, New Zealand finished fifth with two gold and a bronze.

And yet, with relay teams qualifying, Australian athletics was still able to boast of taking its largest ever team – 88 athletes – to a world championships.

The big winners

Clearly, the medallists in Tokyo all excelled. Olyslagers put in an A+ performance to win a first outdoors gold. Kurtis Marschall was competing against Mondo Duplantis, the greatest ever pole vaulter, so in reality he was really only competing for two places and he got one with his bronze medal. Mackenzie Little even getting to the level to compete while working full-time as an ER doctor is worth a medal. That she then won a javelin bronze was a tremendous effort.

The relay teams bungled multiple handovers. While Australia has invested time in the relay teams in the past year, they clearly need to spend a bit more time on baton handovers. With the new generation of sprinters emerging, this is where they can pick up more medals. But not with handovers like that.

Australia’s biggest successes of the championships were not medals at all. Gout Gout delivered an A-grade performance.

The 17-year-old came to Tokyo with the weight of expectation and the curious eyes of the world on him – and delivered. He enjoyed the exposure to the level, carried the pressure and ran well to make a semi-final. Just getting out of the heats against bigger, more experienced runners is outrageously good for his age.

Torrie Lewis, too, didn’t win a medal and was dirty on herself for not making the 200m final despite running one of the quickest 200ms by an Australian woman. No one else figured her effort disappointing.

Jess Hull just delivers. A silver medallist in Paris, she won bronze in Tokyo in the 1500m in one of the most competitive events at the worlds. She backed that up by breaking a national record on her way to an 800m final.

The unfair

Matthew Denny meanwhile had to compete in an event that should not have even continued.

A bronze medallist in Paris, the discus thrower slipped and nearly rolled an ankle and landed on his face on the ice rink that was the thrower’s circle in the sheeting rain of Tokyo. He flung the discus away in disgust.

“He is pissed off,” Nina Kennedy said in Nine commentary. “This isn’t what elite sport is about.”

She knows Denny well, but no friend’s intuition was needed to pick up on Denny’s feelings. It was a disgrace the event continued, after repeated breaks for rain and to mop the circle. Athletes, normally told the shoes they must wear, were told they could wear whatever they wanted to help them keep their feet. One thrower wore his socks.

Denny wrapped his foot in tape.

“I just said if there’s an option to throw tomorrow, I don’t care if there’s 100,000 people or zero people, like we did zero people for the Olympics in ’21,” Denny said. These were very big, heavy men spinning in circles on a banana peel.

“I’m pretty fortunate that I’ve walked away without a concussion or an injury.

“I mean, it obviously hurts in the way that it went down, and I felt so ready to go for this comp and I’ve never felt more ready for a comp, but it was a bit of a war of attrition. It’s one of those beasts you can’t control.

“I don’t know if anyone’s ever had those nightmares where you wake up and everything’s just going wrong and the dread sets in and stuff. I feel for those boys because I know they would’ve been feeling that walking into the circle knowing they have no grip, they have no chance to really catch one.

“And you work your whole life for these kinds of moments, so to have that taken away – to be honest, it’s shit, it really sucks.”

Only Swedish gold medallist Daniel Stahl cleared 70m. Denny has been regularly clearing 70m all year but in these conditions that was unlikely, and he finished fourth at a world championships for the third time.

Denny was right. It was shit. And it did suck. Sport should be about fairness and this was not fair.

Gout and the next-level excitement and interest he generates – TV ratings outstripping the AFL semi-finals – and to an extent Lewis and Hull, partly obscured the lacklustre performances of others on the Australian team.

The disappointments

Of the 88 Australian athletes in Tokyo, more than 40 performed below the level they were required to hit to qualify for the championships. That is poor.

Some such as 800m runner Luke Boyes, steeplechaser Ed Trippas and walker Rhydian Cowley turned up having not raced because of injury or still carrying injuries, and plainly not fit enough to seriously compete. Sprinter Bree Rizzo discovered she had had long COVID, which affected her preparation. Hurdler Liz Clay hurt her foot in June and struggled in her preparation.

Australia used to have fitness tests in the lead-in to major events for athletes to show they were fit and still performing at the level they had displayed to qualify. It is difficult because Australia’s domestic season is out of kilter with the rest of the world’s, so athletes are asked to peak more often and stay up for longer.

“On the back of last year’s performances, it might, on face value, seem like it’s a drop away,” Athletics Australia head coach Andrew Faichney said.

“But we had three medallists or three medals not here as well. So all in all, I think it’s been a really successful championships. We’ve had a number of our juniors that have been able to come through, and so I think year one in an Olympic cycle is looking very good.”

Four medals here and one of them gold, given no Kennedy or Montag is a solid pass mark for Australia.

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