Matt Shirvington | Australian athletics is looking bright (14.04.26)

0:00Now, back to Whitley. The world will be shaking. It is seismic. How good is Bruce, the world athletics championships on the weekend in Sydney had those two highlights. Excuse me, and there's little doubt Australia is entering an athletics sweet spot. And nicely timed too, I've got to say ahead of LA 2028. And probably more permanently Brisbane 2032. Peter Bowle, Jess Hull, Claudia Hollingsworth. It's a name a few, all marquee names already. But nothing gets the juices flowing at more than a sprinter.

1:01And in Gout Gout and Lockland Kennedy, we have two with extraordinarily high ceilings. On Sunday, Gout Gout smashed his own national 200 metres record, becoming the first Australian to run under 20 seconds. And Lockland Kennedy became the first Aussie to break the 10-second barrier on home soil, running 9.96. It really could be a gold age. And there's no one better place to assess the landscape. And Channel 7 Sunrise is host Matt Shervington, who won bronze and qualifier and joined us 100 days out for this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Shervington, are you good to have you on? Tom, you don't need me. You summed it up beautifully. Well done. We've got two Queensland sprinters that as you said by 2032 are going to be in their prime. And who knows? When you look back and you list some of the most iconic Australian Olympians of all time, you think someone like Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Kathy Freeman, and then you think to yourself, why are they so good? Is it because they performed extremely well at a home Olympic Games in 56 in Melbourne

2:03and then of course 2000 in Sydney? And I just think someone like Gout Gout particularly, who's 18 years of age and will be a Spritly 24 years of age by 2032 comes around. We could see another icon in someone like him. Just amazing. I mean, I use this term in the most polite way, but he is a freak. He is a freak in the best way. He is built for speed and he is built for competition like this. And we saw it all culminate on Sunday to break that national record. And not just break it, like he absolutely obliterated it. And there's something about the 200 metres of well. It gives him time to separate himself from the field as he kicks around the bend. So he won't be at the Commonwealth Games. He's focusing on the world under 20 championships in Oregon in August. But he's quicker at the same age than what you saying Bolt was. How high is he ceiling? How far can he go? Yeah, by almost half a second based on that time that we saw.

3:04And even so in athletic world, he's been around for a little while. We've been watching this young kid come through and do amazing things at a junior level. For about a year he really burst onto the stage when he broke, originally broke Peter Norman's 20.06 national record. That was about 12 months ago. And he's held that for the last 12 months and then he just smashed it over the weekend. When he broke Peter Norman's national record, your same bolt got on social media and said, Hey, this kid reminds me of me. I mean, that is the level of endorsement that he's getting. It's not from anyone else. He's not being labelled as the next his same bolt. Your same bolt is actually saying, Hey, this kid is like me. So huge amount of pressure, huge amount of expectation. But he's almost half a second faster than your same was at the same age. So he's almost ahead of the game in that sense. Also too, he's got a 10 flat 100 meter run as well. And probably will break 10.

4:04May even do it at the junior nationals up in Brisbane this weekend and rival Lockheed Kennedy is 100 time of 996 that we saw a couple of times over the weekend here at the senior nationals in Sydney. The ceiling, the truth is he could be anything. He's got to stay injury free. He's got to get stronger. And all of the things that he's coached by, Shepherd are working on at the moment technically. And he's got huge amount of room for improvement in his 200 alone. And we saw that over the weekend where kind of the second half of that, that first 100 around the bend is still, you know, not perfect. So the sky's the limit. So you were 20 when you went to quite a lumper and won bronze in the four point four by one. How is it having the weight of a nation on your shoulders and the pressure, particularly in these sprint races where, you know, one poor millisecond or one, just slightly awkward step can be the difference between glory and finishing second last.

5:07Yeah, and that's it. That's exactly right. You literally get a bad start at the wrong time and it's all over. You know, I often will talk to, you know, school kids or other athletes. And we've all heard of the 1% is right. The 1% is of the things that you do consistently and determined. And you make sure you leave nothing out on the training paddock or wherever it is that you're working hard. There are two types of 1% is in our game. And in any game, it could be full. You could be anything. There's the 1% is input, which is the work that you do. But then there's the difference between a real champion and someone that just goes out there and executes. And that is the 1% is output. And that's taking advantage of those moments and making sure that you are ready 100%. The best example of that is probably lucky Kennedy right now. For me, he is the most efficient technical runner we've ever produced in terms of sprinters. He is just flawless. You go back and watch him run. You pause it at any moment. It is just the perfect form.

6:08He's so locked in through the core. He doesn't move his head. He breathes, nice and relaxed. Everything's moving fluidly. It's just amazing to watch. And I think gout watching his, what would you say, roughness or room for improvement is the most exciting thing. So you're right. There's going to be moments that he'll execute beautifully and there will be moments where he might miss his chance. But the way they're working and the way they're managing his load right now and the smart decisions they're making for him and himself are the right ones. And that's why I think we'll get longevity with him. It's so exciting when you've got a potentially generational athlete coming through. And you're right. Gout Gout has been around for a couple of years. He bursts onto the scene with who's this kid? And now he just goes from strength to strength. What's he like as a person? I know he spent time with him for Channel 7 special with Bruce and Raylen Boyle. Take us behind the scenes. What's Gout Gout like the person? Yeah, humble background and you know, Sudanese upbringing. He was born obviously in Australia, but a couple of his siblings weren't.

7:11And his family obviously migrated to Australia and for a better life. And that's exactly what they got in Brisbane. He went to Ipswich Grammar and one of the coolest things is when you're in year 12 or the seniors at Ipswich Grammar, you have to line up out the front when kids are arriving into school and welcome all the other kids to the school yard. And apparently all the kids line up to say get out. Because they want to get it with the champion. He's graduated now. He's got the fruit to train everyone. And he's, he's going to, he has earned the respect as a person and the respect is an athlete and that's only going to continue. So I lock on Kennedy you mentioned before. And he's just as exciting, albeit a couple of years older and he's running so well in the 100 meters. That was your event. You made a career out of it. That's what got you started.

8:13And that's what you're well known for. You said he's technically proficient. What's his ceiling? How far can he go as an athlete? You know, the irony for Lockhe is essentially a broken back has led to him breaking the 10 second barrier over the last weekend because back in July he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back. That was the last time he raced properly before this, this summer. And he had to go back a number of steps. He was doing Pilates weekend week out. He was doing a lot of core work and really strengthening in and around his spine so that one, he could recover, but two, he wasn't going to do it again. So as you said, he's only 22 years of age. He's so young. And I think if Gout wasn't around and so many people have already referred to this, that he would be stealing all the headlines. And he's done an amazing job to cut through the way that he has and deservedly. So he's beaten Gout in his pet event over the 200 of the Mori plant meat

9:13in back to back years. He's broken 10 at the National Championships and has shown that he's only got more to come as well. So the thing with Lockhe, which I think is most impressive aside from his technical ability, is he is a competitor. So he knows how to find it when he needs it. And we saw that at the National Championships. He was beaten last year by Ron Browning, although he had the fastest qualifying time. And he learned a lot from that. And he just seems to, he's a smart kid. He's a really smart kid. You get a chance to talk to him. He's very switched on for a young, you know, 20-something-year-old. And that's going to pay him back to the intelligence that he has. More broadly, Australian athletics. How strong is it at the moment compared to previous generations or other eras that you've seen and have been involved in? So often Tom, like we always get like waves of really a really good female cohort and the women will dominate. Or there'll be a particular event like pole vault,

10:15which will have a really good coach that might lead to three or four athletes over a generation that will do well, or the hurdles, or the sprints, or whatever it is. Right now, we have such a mixed bag of champions. So we've got Nicola Sluggers and Eleanor Paterson in the high jump. And just between the two of them there, you know, world champions, world medalists and contenders at the Olympic Games. We've also got Nina Kennedy, of course, who is a world champion, Olympic champion, in the pole vault. We've got the middle distance is just outrageous right now with Jess Hull letting just setting the world on fire in pretty much everything she turns in mind to at the moment. The 1,500, of course, her pet event, unbelievable. But the other one is Cam Myers, 19 years of age, and is just a middle distance freak as well. I was watching him run the 1,500 over the weekend, and it's like it's effortless.

11:16Like he just, he puts zero effort in and just rolls around the track so easily. But then he can put a turn of pace on if he needs to as well. He's so switched on, so focused. And then you've got Matt Denny, trying discus, you know, he's on the precipice of breaking a world record, not an Australian record, a world record, and putting himself in, you know, Commonwealth Games, you know, champion contention. But then once L.A. rolls around, he could be on top of the podium after getting bronze in Paris. I love it. There's so much excitement around this sport, which I think it's fair to say has gone through troughs and various waves in Australia across the journey. And, you know, I remember watching in the 2000 Olympics, and I remember clearly Kathy as well. But I'm not sure many younger sports fans have seen an exciting era like we're about to embark on now. So it's 100 games until Glasgow, all on the screens of seven. Shave a heading over for it. Are you going to be on the ground for Channel 7? Yeah, we'll be covering it here.

12:16We've got an amazing contention over there in Glasgow that will be calling the events live. And we'll bring you every minute of the action. Don't worry about that on the screens of seven. And one last one, I always find this interesting when I speak to former elite swimmers or runners. What's your running program now? How often are you running? And what are you doing? Not enough time here. I've got to be honest with you. I'm trying to, I got a glimpse of you at the Premier's lunch together round. And we didn't get a chance to catch up. But it's those moments where you know that when a glass of wine is put in front of you, you're allowed to drink it now that you're retired. They're the things that hold you back the most directly. Yeah, especially in those sorts of penfolds events when your glass just keeps getting filled up. You end up never having an empty glass. And it's good wine. It's a beautiful wine. I know. Hey, Chef, I really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for jumping on. Love your work on Sunrise. And I'm sure we'll speak again soon. Nice one. Take care. Matt Shervington joining us a hundred days out from the Commonwealth game.