Source : ABC NEWS
Lachie Kennedy hates losing, likes winning, but what he truly loves is when all the pieces come together for the perfect race against the best in the world.
The 22-year-old has run six of the top 10 times by an Australian in the 100m.
In fact, last year’s national championship 100m final, where he finished behind Rohan Browning by just 0.005 of a second, was the only time in the past two years that he has been beaten over the distance at home.
“I don’t enjoy losing in any form or aspect, so when I’m against fast people, I know I need to bring my A game if I want to win,” he told ABC Sport.
“Almost as much as I don’t like losing, I love the pressure as well.”
In the past 18 months, Kennedy has emerged as one of the brightest lights of a new generation of Australian track and field athletes.
The spotlight is shining on Australian athletics at the moment. (Getty Images: Kelly Defina)
A silver medal in the 60m at the indoor world championships in March last year was his first eyebrow-raising moment at an international meet, and he followed it up a few months later with the second legal sub-10-second 100m race ever run by an Australian.
Locally, the rise of Gout Gout has helped Kennedy shine brighter by virtue of a gripping rivalry between a teen sensation and a man slightly further into his athletic journey.
It all culminated in April, when Kennedy was crowned national champion for the first time, making history with his 100m victory at the meet to qualify for this month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
For the first time in decades, Patrick Johnson’s national record is truly under threat.
Of the top 93 times by Australians over 100m, 35 were recorded since the start of last year, with Kennedy’s double 9.96 and 9.98 the only legal sub-10-second runs.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Kennedy said.
“Patrick Johnson’s record’s stood for longer than I’ve been alive, so I think it’s about time that record goes.”
Kennedy said, in his experience, the likes of Johnson and Matt Shirvington, Australia’s sprint stars of the 90s and 00s, are loving seeing the new generation of runners coming for them.
“I’ve met [Johnson] a couple of times and he’s always been very supportive. He wants the best for me. He wants his record to be broken,” Kennedy said.
Patrick Johnson (left) and Matt Shirvington (right) went back and forth in 90s and 2000s. (Getty Images: Mark Dadswell)
“And Shirvo as well has been a massive supporter of mine too. They’re all good blokes and really just want the best for the sport.
“They love it and they’re still around it. You can tell how much they love it because they’re paying all this attention to it. They’re still involved in the sport heavily.
“I can’t speak for everyone, but those two in particular have always been big supporters of mine with advice or tips about handling the pressure and executing. Who better to hear it from than them?”
Lachie Kennedy has had plenty of encouragement from previous sprinters, including Matt Shirvington. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
In Australia, he is well and truly The Hunted.
But as the season shifts into the Diamond League meets and more international events, the Brisbane native is back to being the underdog. And that’s just how he likes it.
“I like lining up against the world’s best and not being a favourite; I like being a smoky, I like being an underdog. It’s a good feeling, it’s exciting, it’s intense, it’s pretty raw,” he said.
“The extreme focus [of] competing against the world’s best, I live for those moments. I wanna run against the world’s best.”
He will get that chance at the Prefontaine Classic on Sunday morning (6:37am AEST) and, while Gout Gout’s back soreness has deprived us of another clash between the Aussie stand-outs, the field at the famous track in Eugene, Oregon is thrilling:
- Jamaican Oblique Seville and Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi, the fastest men in the world this year
- Two-time Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek
- Recent Diamond League 100m winner Gift Leotlela
- Former world champion Christian Coleman
- American veteran Trayvon Bromell
- Rising star Ackeem Blake
All of them have better personal bests than Kennedy, most of them have more international clout and three of them beat him at the event last year, but those are the most interesting races for a competitor like Kennedy.
“I want to have to run my best race in order to win,” he said.
“You don’t want to run a bad race and win, it’s kind of unsatisfying. But if you run a really good race and you win, that’s the best feeling in the world … and even if you run a great race and get second, it just drives you even more to know there’s still people better than you; that next thing, the next goal to reach.
“I would much rather run against a bunch of fast people than have an easy race.”
Four of the Prefontaine field — Seville, Blake, Leotlela and Ajayi — he can expect to see in Scotland later this month.
Also joining him at the Commonwealth Games will be Eddie Nketia and, controversially, Browning.
Nineteen-year-old Gout opted to compete at the U20 world championships in August instead of the Games, which finish just days before, depriving us of another chapter in their rivalry.
Instead, Kennedy is hoping to run against Nketia for the first time.
The 25-year-old still holds the New Zealand 100m record of 10.08 and, since switching allegiances to Australia last year, has dipped under 10 seconds four times with illegal tailwinds, but also bettered his legal personal best to 10.06, making him Australia’s sixth-fastest 100m runner behind Johnson, Kennedy, Gout, Browning and Shirvington.
“I look forward to our first race; hopefully it is that Commonwealth Games final,” Kennedy said.
“How awesome would that be, having two Australians in the Commonwealth Games final? And maybe we both get a medal; it’d be historic, it’d be awesome.
“They’re the things you live for, it’s what you train for.
“I just think it’s good for the sport, good for the fans, good for the athletes. The more excitement, the more eyes on it, the better it is for everyone.”
The 100m program in Glasgow starts on July 27 with the finals on the morning of July 29 (AEST).
