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3 days ago
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Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis has surged into the semi-finals of the 100m on the opening night of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and declared – even after setting a new national record – that she can go faster.
The 20-year-old finished third in her heat behind American Sha’Carri Richardson and Jamaican Shericka Jackson with a time of 11.08s despite a headwind of 0.8m/s.
“I was super nervous for this competition because I knew in training that these are the times I can hit – actually, this is the slowest time in my mind I had – so hopefully I can just build on that,” Lewis said.
After lowering her own national record by two hundredths of a second, Lewis – who has moved to the Netherlands this year to train under coach Laurent Meuwly – said she has plenty of improvement left.
“Another one [national record], yeah, now we’ll make it another one, then another one,” she said.
Lewis plans to also run the 200m and 4x100m relay in Tokyo, but she still believes an appearance in the 100m final tomorrow night is not out of the question.
“If I do as well as I think I can, I can make a final, but you know, it’s going to be very tough, and I’m happy with my time now, so we’ll just see how it goes tomorrow,” Lewis said.
Bree Rizzo, who revealed on Saturday she has been battling long Covid for much of the year, finished sixth in her heat, while Ella Connolly also missed out on the semis after finishing seventh.
In the morning session, Australian fans found reason to celebrate despite a lack of medals after Canadian Evan Dunfee won the meet’s first gold in the 35km race walk.
The 34-year-old has made Australia his home over summer for much of the past decade in a bid to avoid the Canadian winter, and broke the North American record in February at the Australian 20km race walking championships in Adelaide.
Australia’s own walkers also performed well in the stifling conditions, led by Rebecca Henderson who finished ninth behind women’s winner María Pérez from Spain.
“I knew on my best day I could probably be around that eighth to 12th and that happened, so I’m really happy,” Henderson said.
The Australian finished strongly, and overtook Peruvian Kimberly García in the final kilometre. “I just tried to stay relaxed at the start and not worry if people got ahead because I knew it was hot and people were definitely going to come back to me throughout the race.”
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In the men’s race, Dunfee’s first major international gold medal was close as he led by nearly a minute in the final kilometres in the course looping around the streets of Tokyo.
But in late drama the Canadian clutched his hamstring and briefly stopped and stretched. He struggled on to defeat Brazilian Caio Bonfim by 33 seconds, with Hayato Katsuki delivering bronze for the host nation.
Dunfee said he stayed patient, and the result was a dream come true. “The last two kilometres felt like the hardest ones I have ever done,” he said. “I had to channel all my strength for all the people back home.”
In a steamy race brought forward by half an hour in a bid to avoid the worst of the Tokyo heat, Rhydian Cowley was best of the Australian men finishing in 11th, having overcome a hamstring injury that curtailed his preparations.
Liv Sandery slowed in the final stages to finish 14th in the women’s event, and Alannah Pitcher crossed the line in 19th.
Henderson and Cowley will race again in the 20km event in a week’s time.
Inside the stadium to end the morning session on the first day, Australia’s mixed 4x400m relay team was eliminated after finishing fifth in their semi-final.
The United States’ lineup set the fastest time in the morning session, and Saturday’s night’s final is set to be a memorable occasion after Japan snuck through as the final qualifier.
