The Countdown is on
Angus Barnes | Mar 13, 2026
The countdown has well and truly started as athletes tailor their preparations depending on their next target.
This weekend we have plenty of domestic highlights stemming from the two days of the Adelaide Invitational action (Friday & Saturday evenings) as well as the Australian Half-Marathon Race Walking Championships (Sunday morning). See below for a preview of these meets.
Overseas some of the Australian contingent competing in the NCAA (almost 100 in total at last count) are focused on the NCAA National Indoors this weekend, with details for Div I and Div II finals on our website. Another group are spending the weekend in Italy for the World University Cross Country Championships.
And things don’t slow down next week. The Australian team has been selected for the World Indoors Championships in Poland. While relatively small, the team of eleven boasts seven international medallists and two debutants.
Then two weeks from now we get to visit / watch the super-exhilarating Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne with plenty of big names competing.
A lot of athletes will clearly be aiming to peak at the Australian Championships in Sydney, only one month from now. With Australian titles, as well as Commonwealth Games selections on the line, there’ll be strong fields as well as the excitement of competing on the new Sydney track.
The week after that the juniors have their own Australian U20 Championships in Brisbane. With over 100 athletes now having achieved a World U20 standard in their event, the selection trials will be high stakes, with first two on the podium getting the automatic selection in the majority of the events.
And no respite for some after this. World Relays are in seven weeks, and the first China Diamond League (Shanghai) in nine weeks. Then it will be interesting to see who makes the trip to Darwin for the Oceania Championships, ten weeks from now, where the points on offer can have a big impact on an athlete's world ranking.
The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are just over four months away, with the World U20 Championships a week after. Six months away from the World Ultimate Championships In Budapest, a week after which there is the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen.
Despite some saying this is an “off” year for athletics, that’s an awful lot of major international championships to prepare for. For now a preview of some of this weekends activity:
Australian podium success at the NCAA National Indoor Championships (Div I) has come relatively recently - with David McNeill & Ryan Fosters' podiums in 2010 likely the earliest. Success has been solely in the distance events - which makes Eddie Nketia's participation in the 60m finals this weekend of note, also given his transfer of allegiance from New Zealand to Australia in late in 2025.
The top ranked Australian going into these champs is Hayley Kitching in the 800m (ranked #2) - the last victory by an Australia at NCAA Indoors was Charlie Hunter in the men's 800m in 2021. Tomas Palfrey has a busy weekend having qualified for the mile and 3000m, and will join his college's distance medley relay (DMR) team. Thomas Diamond also goes in the mile and the DMR, with other possible DMR team members: Imogen Gardiner, Ben Thomas, Bailey Habler & Archie Noakes.
In the Div II finals, Bec Bennett is ranked #3 in the 400m and Harrison Boyd #4 in the mile (adjusted for altitude time). Flynn Pumpa will run the mile and likey the DMR. Good to see some field athletes qualifying with Amber Lawless in the Shot Put and Isabella Davie in the Pentathlon.
Australian Half Marathon Race Walking Championships
These Championships are the main selection trials for the World Race Walking Team Championships to be held in Brasilia, 12th April.
In the U20 events up to three athletes can be selected. For the junior men, 10000m race walk world record holder Isaac Beacroft would be expected to take the title, with the next two spots to be fought out amongst Owen Toyne, John Ronan and Riley Coughlan who all have the time standard.
In the junior women's Zoe Woods will go in as favourite but Sienna Pitcher and Milly Sharpe will push hard, and all three have the standard.
In the senior events up to five athletes can be selected (with three scoring in the teams event). While Jemima Montag is absent, the women have strong representation with Rebecca Henderson, Elizabeth McMillen, Olivia Sandery and Allanah Pitcher all under the time standard. Sandery has the edge over the longer distances, and won the Marathon Championship in November, while McMillen and Henderson have tended to battle out the shorter races. This will be a fascinating contest.
As to will be the men's half marathon. Rhydian Cowley comfortably won the Marathon Championship, but over the shorter distance Timothy Fraser and Declan Tingay make it more competitive. Will Thompson and Kyle Swan will be in the mix and also have the standard.
The third event of the Summer Series sees some fascinating head-to-heads and an important hit-out for many athletes in the lead up to the Maurie Plant Meet and then National Championships.
On the track …
We’ll start with the end of the program feature event, the men’s 200m, with an exciting match-up between Australia’s two fastest men currently over the 400m: Reece Holder (44.53) and Aidan Murphy (44.81). Murphy has a faster PB than Holder over 200m (20.41 to 20.48), although to be fair Holder has likely never raced a ‘feature’ 200m event where there’s added incentive to perform. They’ll be joined by World Championship 400m finalist, Jacory Patterson (USA), as well as recent National 200m record-breaker, Tommy Te Puni (NZL).
In the 100m races, a number of athletes are backing up after the relay teams competed on Friday. Jacob Despard, Christopher Ius and Josh Azzopardi from the winning Green team (in 38.34) face off against Connor Bond & Joseph Ayoade from the Gold team which unfortunately was a dnf.
In the women’s 100m, Ebony Lane, Olivia Rose Inkster & Chloe Mannix-Power from the winning Green team (43.37) encounter the fastest woman in Australia this year, Zara Hagan (11.16), along with Olivia Hastings and Georgia Harris from the Gold team (44.06)
Exciting to see Jemma Pollard and Ellie Beer have their second head-to-head this year over 400m, with the last one in Perth resulting in Pollard being pushed to a new PB in order to take the win.
In the men’s 400m, Luke van Ratingen will take the start-line for the first time this season, bolstering the talent pool before the World Relay Championships. He has some stiff international competition from Kyle Gale (BAH) and National record-holder Lex Revell-Lewis (NZL).
Also taking the start-line for the first time this season is sub-2 minutes athlete, Carley Thomas in the women’s 800m, where she faces two athletes who have seen many start-lines this season in Abbey Caldwell and Jaylah Hancock-Cameron. Also watch the match-up in this race between the juniors, with Ivy Boothroyd who had a breakthrough PB in Hobart and will race again against her main junior challenger in Emma Fryga.
In the men’s 800m, Australian 2024 Champion Luke Boyes takes on the leading junior talent Daniel Williams, who has his eyes set on the World U20 Championships. Williams also has his eyes on a stint in the NCAA with Penn State University, to be coached by former Australian record-holder in the middle-distance events, Ryan Foster.
Speaking of the NCAA, there’s an alumni match-up in the men’s 1500m, between Alexander Stitt, Jackson Sharp, Jesse Hunt and Toby Gillen, the lead contenders. Again there’s the race within the race with a host of quick juniors competing. Charles Barrett has recently been successful in staying ahead of Alexander Cameron-Smith and Lucas Chis, but will this continue?
Another NCAA alumni, Klara Dess, starts favourite in the women’s 1500m and faces a number of junior women including New Zealand’s Scarlett Robb, and Australian juniors Milla Roberts and Sarah Baker, with local Hannah Tourneur in the mix. Another local to watch is 15-year-old Amelia Sheridan, too young to qualify for this year’s World U20 Championships, but running under the standards anyway.
Last night saw the women’s 3000m Steeplechase with a win to Cara Feain-Ryan (9:34.89) and Tessa Ebert grab a PB and another World U20 qualifier (10:05.26). In the men's race today a strong Japanese contingent are likely to maintain a fast pace which Ed Trippas and Ben Buckingham will look to benefit from.
Ashley Moloney takes on his second 400m hurdles event, after the Hobart debut where he showed how difficult it is to get the pacing right between hurdles. Despite this he still ran a very respectabke 52.70, and sub-50 second man Matthew Hunt will know if Moloney’s close after the last hurdle he’ll be storming home fast.
To the field …
Those in Adelaide get to the meet early, because you’ll see that 70 metre mark in the discus get well and truly peppered. Matthew Denny of course will be partly responsible but he’s joined by two international throwers who can get the disc out there, regular visitor to Adelaide, Lawrence Okoye (GBR) and Claudio Romero (CHI). Darcy Miller and Etienne Rousseau will look to use this strong competition to crack the 60 metre mark.
Taryn Gollshewsky also has international company, Nanaka Kori (JPN) and Nora Monie (CMR), who have both thrown over 60 metres and will provide strong competition for Gollshewsky. There will be a close competition between the juniors, with Chelsy Wayne, Jessica Johnston and Lauren Kelly all boasting PBs around the 52 metres mark.
A classic match-up in the women's long jump with Australian record-holder Brooke Buschkuehl on the come-back trail, up against the World U20 Champion Delta Amidzovski. In Melbourne last month, Amidzovski took an early lead but Buschkuehl was gaining in her last few jumps – keep an eye on this contest as it unfolds.
In men's pole vault, while they have the same PB (5.53m), the last time Aiden Princena-White beat Dalton di Medio was in Adelaide two years ago. Could history repeat?
Shemaiah James has made it his quest this year to break his long-standing triple jump PB of 16.42m – will today be the day? He’ll have Connor Murphy to provide strong competition, along with fellow 16 metre jumpers, Liam Glew and Awan Akuen. In the women’s triple jump on Friday, Desleigh Owusu recorded another solid win (13.43m +1.1).
Other meetings
That's a solid offering of athletics for this weekend. We also have the FISU World Cross Country with a 16-member team competing (will link the livestream if we find one). There's also the Queensland State Championships with some interest in the sprint events (results can be found here)
Enjoy!
