A relay squad anchored by Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis has smashed the national 4x100m record for the second time this year to claim an automatic spot at the Paris Olympics.
Racing at the World Relays meet in the Bahamas, Ebony Lane, Bree Masters, Ella Connolly and Lewis clocked 42.83 seconds to finish second in their heat behind Germany. It was the fifth fastest overall time, with the top two in each heat advancing to the final and guaranteeing their places for the Olympic Games in early August.
Australia have now booked an Olympics spot in the women’s 4x100m relay for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games, while the men’s 4x100m team locked in their place the following day.
“I think we all had a lot of trust in each other, so we said, you know what, let’s just relax, we’ve done the work and we’ve done this a million times,” Connolly said. “Let’s just go do this and qualify for the Olympics together.”
The same quartet had flagged they were destined for great things by running 42.94 at the Sydney Track Classic in late March, breaking an Australian standard that had stood for 24 years. Lewis, 19, is also well placed to contest either the individual 100m or 200m in Paris. The US women were fastest in the Bahamas qualifying round in 42.21.
ICYMI | Australia’s women’s 4x100m relay team has all but punched their tickets to Paris 2024, with a record-breaking performance in the opening round of the World Relay Championships in Nassau, the Bahamas tonight.
— Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) May 5, 2024
👉 https://t.co/fC1l3kPlsq#ThisIsAthletics #WorldRelays pic.twitter.com/iDm5GvQvw2
Australia’s 4x100m men went within a whisker of claiming their automatic Olympic slot when pipped for second spot by Jamaica in a photo finish on day one at the World Relays, but made amends on Sunday (Monday AEST).
The youthful quartet of newly crowned Australian individual 100m champ Sebastian Sultana, Jacob Despard, Calab Law and Joshua Azzopardi finished second behind South Africa in their repechage heat in 38.46 seconds. The top two in each of the three repechage races joined the eight finalists in getting automatic starts at the Paris Games in early August.
Sultana, 19, shot to prominence last month in Adelaide when he took down long-time Australian sprint standard bearer Rohan Browning to win a first national 100m title. Browning will be available to bolster the relay squad in Paris and is also well placed to again contest the individual 100m at the Games.
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“The race was really smooth, I was very confident after the heat yesterday and knew we could get it done,” said Sultana. “It feels absolutely incredible to have qualified for the Paris Olympics, fulfilling a childhood dream.”
The inexperienced Australian 4x400m squads were unable to match those efforts in Nassau, although the women were somewhat unlucky to be drawn in the fastest of the three repechage heats. Their time of three minutes 28.05 seconds would have been enough to finish in the top two in either of the other heats.
There are still two vacancies to be filled in the men’s and women’s 4x400m fields for the Paris Games by the June 30 cut-off.