The Tokyo Olympics produced plenty of memorable moments for Aussie athletes in track and field.
Whether it was Ash Maloney winning bronze in the decathlon, Peter Bol making the 800m final, Rohan Browning shocking everyone en route to the 100m quarter finals or Riley Day running lights out to qualify for the semi-finals of the 200m, the green and gold shone brightly in Japan.
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Hopefully, all are headed for further greatness at the upcoming Commonwealth Games and World Championships this year.
Tantalisingly, the ripple effect from performances like those also brings renewed enthusiasm for the sport. Teenagers start busting out moves that make everyone take note.
The star of the young guns in Australia is Queensland’s Torrie Lewis, who has the potential to be absolutely anything.
She is already doing Raelene Boyle-esque things on track at a comparable age. Boyle, of course, was an Olympic silver medallist and Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
Lewis has just turned 17. Her coach, former Australian 100m rep Gerard Keating, describes her as “the best prospect and potentially the best sprinter I have ever seen”.
“She is the current Under-17 champion of Australia in the 100m and 200m. And her best distance in time will be the 400m,” he added.
Lewis is the only teenager in Australia to have already qualified for the 100m, 200m and 400m at August’s World Junior Championships, which are crammed into this year’s jam-packed athletics schedule.
She is ranked the third fastest teenager in the world for 100m and second fastest for 200m. Lewis is also on the Australian Open women’s relay team headed for the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships later this year.
Last weekend she ran second in the Open Queensland 100m Championship final, pipped to the line by unbeaten flyer Ella Connelly, who is five years her senior. Significantly, back in third was the defending 100m Australian champion, Hana Basic.
Lewis ran 11.35sec into a headwind, which not even Boyle could do at 17. The Queensland superstar will head to Sydney soon and compete in the Under-20 titles, where she is expected to win comfortably, and also run the 100m and 200m in the Open category.
These meets serve as Commonwealth Games and World Championship selection trials.
Only exciting Olympian Riley Day is faster than Lewis over 200m in Australia and every week it seems this super teen is getting faster and faster.
Lewis is still in high school and has just signed on with a sponsor to promote an energy-enhancing tea drink called E-Tea.
“I’m a high level coeliac so this tea, which is gluten free is ideal and I am just so thankful for people wanting to help me,” she said.
Lewis’ humility, along with her undeniable talent, are a perfect mix for drawing the right kind of attention to herself. Apparel company Under Armour sponsors her too and the teenager’s star is set to rise.
Lewis is already something special but we shouldn’t expect miracles right away. She’s only 17 after all, and has plenty of improvement in her. The good thing is she has time on her side.
Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah is 30 and legendary fellow multiple Olympic medallist Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is 35. Maturity is one of the key elements to sprinting success, and Lewis’ journey is only just getting started.
“The upcoming schedule means she can run at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and the World Junior Championships where she would be one of the favourites, but it is tight,” said coach Keating.
Meanwhile, in South Australia there is a lanky lad of 18 named Aidan Murphy who boasts a pedigree that in horse racing terms would see him considered a blue-blood. His mother was an Australian rep, also a sprinter running under her maiden name of Tania Van Heer where she twice won Commonwealth Games medals.
And Murphy is something very special. He runs 200m and already this season has bettered the 38-year-old Under-20 National record for the trip that was held by the great Olympian Fred Martin.
Murphy is untouchable at 200m and has run 20.41sec — which for his age is phenomenal and for open 200m sprinting makes him a strong Commonwealth Games final hope.
“It is great to get that time over and done with – I have been looking at that for a long time and to do it here at the State Champs means a lot to me,” he said of his blistering run in the South Australian Open 200m final.
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