Lachie Kennedy has cemented his status as Australia\u2019s fastest man, outpointing teenage sensation Gout Gout for a second straight year to snare the 200m title at Melbourne\u2019s Maurie Plant Meet.<\/p>\n
The marquee event in driving rain at Lakeside Stadium lived up to the billing, with 18-year-old Gout unable to flip the script after being beaten by Kennedy in last year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
Kennedy got out of the blocks quickly in contrast to Gout, who appeared to suffer a minor slip in the early stages.<\/p>\n
Gout closed quickly down the straight but ran out of track to hunt down Kennedy, whose time of 20.38sec was 0.05sec ahead of his rival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty fried… I knew I had to hit it hard (at the start) and just pray,\u201d Kennedy said after the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you can tell, I\u2019m pretty cooked.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result capped a dream night for Kennedy, who earlier romped to victory in the men\u2019s 100m, with his time of 10.03sec – a meet record – 0.22sec ahead of Rohan Browning.<\/p>\n
Kennedy said he was thoroughly enjoying his rivalry with Gout.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we race, it\u2019s like cinema,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"MELBOURNE,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/93d6cb204055249df6868588208294783caff59d.jpg\")
Camera IconMELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 28: Lachlan Kennedy wins the Men’s 200m during the 2026 Maurie Plant Meet at Lakeside Stadium on March 28, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina\/Getty Images) Kelly Defina Credit: Kelly Defina\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bruce McAvaney said Kennedy made a super start to lay the groundwork for the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he did in that first 100 metres is just absolutely breathtaking,\u201d he said on Channel 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Gout acknowledges the fact that at the moment, Lachie is the No.1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so similar, in so many ways, from what we saw last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tamsyn Lewis-Manou added: \u201cUnbelievable bend by Lachie Kennedy, we knew he was going to bring that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Gout Gout looked like he stumbled at about five metres, it\u2019d be interesting to see that replay, because he was so far down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could have been the weather \u2014 he just looked like he slipped on the track when he was trying to put his power down out of the blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ebony Lane (11.51sec) held off Chloe Mannix-Power and Olivia Dodds (both 11.56sec) to take out the women\u2019s 100m.<\/p>\n
WA Olympic champion Nina Kennedy proved far too strong in the women\u2019s pole vault, with her top jump of 4.72m significantly ahead of Hana Moll (4.56m) in second.<\/p>\n
![\"Nina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/baf5fdc07f638e5acf56586d6f2e64ee891ba332.jpg\")
Camera IconNina Kennedy competes in the Women’s Pole Vault Final during the Maurie Plant Meet at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AAP Image\/Joel Carrett) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY JOEL CARRETT Credit: JOEL CARRETT\/AAPIMAGE<\/p>\n
Fellow Olympic medallist Matt Denny (67.51) won the men\u2019s discus.<\/p>\n
Two-time Olympian Michelle Jenneke won a tight women\u2019s 100m hurdles in 13.05 (+1.2) ahead of Emily Britton (13.07) and Celeste Mucci (13.08).<\/p>\n
Seth O\u2019Donnell put a huge early gap on the field in an extraordinary men\u2019s 3000m race, breaking at least 50m clear of his rivals, but was eventually hauled in by Jackson Sharp (7:41.02) on the line.<\/p>\n
Sharp\u2019s blistering finish meant he shaved 0.36 secs off the previous meet record and relegated O\u2019Donnell (7:41.11) to second, with Melbourne-based Irishman Brian Fay (7:42.85) third.<\/p>\n
American star Jacory Patterson also set a meet record by winning the men\u2019s 400m in 44.41, ahead of locals Luke van Ratingen (45.03) and Tom Reynolds (45.13).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Kennedy has cemented his status as Australia\u2019s fastest man, outpointing teenage sensation Gout Gout for a second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5654,64,63,44,27505,588],"class_list":["post-570121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-athletics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-other-sports","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}