On reflection, some incredible Australian relay success this year 🔸 GOLD World XC Championships 🔸 BRONZE World Relays 4x4 Men, 6th fastest time ever 🔸 GOLD Comm. Games, 4x1 men 🔸 World Road 5km team, beating Kenya for SILVER Which one was your favourite?

Izzi Batt-Doyle’s fantastic new Area Record of 2:20:38 at the Chicago Marathon moves the Australian record up to 18th on the list of country records. Which one of these countries has a faster women’s marathon record?

The review of 2026 continues .. (this was a big one!) April 2026 There was some star-power to kick off April with Sha’carri Richardson and Christian Coleman lighting up the Stawell Gift, but this month was all about the Nationals for Australian athletes. Selections were at stake, for Commonwealth Games as well as World U20 Championships. It’s hard to know where to start with the 2026 Championships – so why not at the end. The last individual event of the program, the men’s 200m, and Gout Gout delivers an extraordinary finale, running a World U20 and Area Record in winning in 19.67 (+1.7). Not only that, Aidan Murphy runs 19.88, and the top seven all run PBs. At the completion of the meet, eleven athletes were selected for the Commonwealth Games, this being the initial phase of selection based on winning a National title and having the standard. The eleven and their performances: 🔹Isaac Beacroft and Elizabeth McMillen gained selection after winning the 10000m RW titles back in January, along with the qualifying time. 🔹Peter Bol & Nina Kennedy selected after both winning their 5th National titles. Bol’s 800m win in 1:45.60 meant he’s just one title behind the Olympic Champion Ralph Doubell’s six. Kennedy, off her short run-up vaulted 4.65m, and now has the most National Pole Vault titles of Australian women. 🔹Another approaching all-time title status is Nicola Olyslagers, whose 7th High Jump title (1.99m) puts her one behind Alison Inverarity and Chris Stanton. At the other end of titles won, two young sprinters who took their first senior titles. 🔹Fireworks were going off as the men’s 100m field were on their blocks, and Lachlan Kennedy exploded to produce a home soil record with 9.96 (+0.5), equalling what he did in the heat, and only the second Australian ever sub-10. 🔹Reece Holder manages to hold on to win the 400m (45.11) ahead of a cauldron of talent that was about to bubble over in Botswana. The two 1500m National Champions were selected for the Comm. Games mile event, but each got there in very different circumstances. 🔹Cameron Myers wins his 2nd title at 19 years old, running the first sub-3:30 in Australia, the first person in the World to do this before May and commentators afterwards suggested it was only the second time ever an athlete had run sub-3:30 gun-to-tape (Timothy Cheruiyot’s World Championship in 2019 the other). 🔹In comparison, the women’s final was a slow kickers race and Jessica Hull took the lead entering the straight. Claudia Hollingsworth went for a gap on the inside, but Hull closes this off, and in adjusting to go around, Hollingsworth accidently trips Hull who goes down. After protests and appeals, it’s not until the next day that Hollingsworth is declared the winner. 🔹On the final day, the women’s 800m was run with more intent with Hollingsworth, on her 21st birthday, prepared to push the pace, and Abbey Caldwell using her kick in the last 50m to defend her title (1:58.57). 🔹Liam Adcock continued his good early season form, winning his 3rd long jump title with a great series of eight metre plus jumps, best of 8.26m (+0.1) over Chris Mitrevaski with 8.12m (+0.3). To explain a few names missing from this selection list: 🔸Kurtis Marschall not selected as he failed to clear a mark in the final – perhaps his only blemish on what was to become a remarkable year. 🔸Jessica Hull does take the 5000m title (15:13.21), her 10th National title, ahead of Linden Hall with Rose Davies, who had an interrupted preparation, in fourth. However Hull is not selected because she hadn’t run a domestic Summer Series event – one of the other criteria for early selection. 🔸Strange to say an athlete winning her 7th National title was something of a surprise, but Brooke Buschkuehl’s comeback after her first child was still building and she was up against the World U20 champion in Delta Amidzovski who leapt 6.84 (+1.3) in qualifying. In a fascinating battle, Buschkuehl pulled out the winning jump of 6.67m (+1.1) on her final attempt. Other multiple national title winners from the Championships: Michelle Jenneke 100m hurdles (5th title), Mackenzie Little Javelin (5), Sarah Carli 400m hurdles (5), Ellie Beer 400m (4), Desleigh Owusu Triple jump (4). No Matthew Denny in that list above, because he was making his pilgrimage to “Throw Town”. In the second of the three events in Ramona OK, Denny wins in 74.04m, and joins world record holder Mykolas Alekna as the only men in history to complete three competitions over 74 metres. In that event it was the first time six men threw over 70 metres. The next week saw the Australian U20 Championships in Brisbane. This was particularly exciting because so many U20 athletes had reached the qualifying standards in some events, so the finals became American-style first two past the post got their ticket to Eugene and the World U20 Championship. Izobel Louison-Roe was a stand out with gold in both the high jump and triple jump, the latter equalling the Australian U20 record, 13.36m (+1.0). Gout Gout defended his 100m title with 10.21 (+0.5). Others to set Championship Records included Daniel Williams 800m 1:46.94, Dylan Ruming 400m 47.17 (U18), Zara Hagan 100m 11.41 (+2.6), Emma Fryga 800m 2:02.37, Maya Taber 200m 23.14 (+2.3) (U18). To wrap up the month in style, Eddie Nketia (recently confirmed to run for Australia) runs a windy 9.84 (+2.8) 100m in the USA, and Jaylah Hancock-Cameron runs a new Australian Road Mile record of 4:26.4 in Ballarat, taking six seconds off Jessica Hull’s record. Hard to boil down to just four choices – but who’s your pick? Gout Gout WU20R 200m Lachie Kennedy 100m 9.96 HSR Cameron Myers 1500 3:29.85 HSR Jaylah Hancock-Cameron 4:26.4 AR