{"id":600174,"date":"2026-04-11T14:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600174\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T14:18:11","slug":"lachlan-kennedy-breaks-10-seconds-again-to-claim-first-national-title-in-mens-100m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600174\/","title":{"rendered":"Lachlan Kennedy breaks 10 seconds again to claim first national title in men&#8217;s 100m"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">There was a time not long ago, say even yesterday, when seeing an Australian man break 10 seconds in the 100 metres was an enthralling anomaly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">After doing it for the third time in his career, and the second time in two days, Lachlan Kennedy is starting to make it a given.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;That&#8217;s just the standard we&#8217;ve set now. So hopefully next time go a bit quicker than that. And we&#8217;ll see where it takes us,&#8221; he said after winning the final at the Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">As the last thunderous roars of the Sydney Royal Easter Show&#8217;s nightly fireworks rang through the cool air at the neighbouring Athletic Centre, the field for the men&#8217;s 100m final was poised on the starting blocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">An appropriately dramatic backdrop for the most anticipated theatrical event of the meet so far, and like any champion sprinter, Kennedy proved he&#8217;s as big-time as you can get.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 22-year-old Queenslander <a class=\"Link_link__kR0xA Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-04-10\/australian-athletics-championships-lachlan-kennedy-10-seconds\/106553292\" data-component=\"Link\" data-uri=\"coremedia:\/\/article\/106553292\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">became the first Australian man to run under 10 seconds on home soil<\/a> in the heats, and did it again when much more was at stake, incredibly running the exact same time of 9.96 seconds to win the final.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">More importantly though, it gave him what he craved even more \u2014 his first national crown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I needed the win, I needed to be national champ, I needed to say I had it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Big relief to be able to finally do it in front of an awesome crowd and against great competitors, my teammates in the relay.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">In reality, it was Kennedy against the clock, as he finished well clear of Joshua Azzopardi and Rohan Browning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Kennedy&#8217;s victory was especially sweet after Browning pipped him on the line at last year&#8217;s Nationals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;It was definitely disappointing. I went in there expecting to win, didn&#8217;t run nine (seconds) or win, which are my two goals,&#8221; Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;And this year I was able to do both those things. I got beat fair and square last year and was able to get back and beat him this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Come full circle and hopefully I want to be two-time national champ next year, three times, as long as I can.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-04-10\/australian-athletics-championships-lachlan-kennedy-10-seconds\/106553292\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kennedy breaks 10-second barrier at home<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Lachlan Kennedy has scorched to a sub-10 second run in the heats of the 100 metres at the Australian Athletics Championships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Kennedy still found ways to critique his performance, once again eyeing off the increasingly tantalising prospect of breaking Patrick Johnson&#8217;s 23-year-old national record of 9.93 seconds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I still feel like I haven&#8217;t put together the perfect race yet, so I think I&#8217;ve definitely got more in the tank,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I was gassed a little bit after the semi, but the fact I was able to come out after that and run that time just shows I&#8217;ve got so many more things to work on. The sky&#8217;s the limit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Kennedy is scheduled to run the heats of the 200m tomorrow, in a huge showdown with fellow young sprint sensation Gout Gout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">But he has cast doubt over his participation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I can&#8217;t give you a 100 per cent yes or no,&#8221; Kennedy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to promise anything and then not deliver. We&#8217;ll see how it goes, just gonna see how the body pulls up.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a time not long ago, say even yesterday, when seeing an Australian man break 10 seconds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,291953,8916,89785,292618,291957,280397,291954,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australian-athletics-championships","11":"tag-cam-myers","12":"tag-cameron-myers","13":"tag-georgia-harris","14":"tag-lachie-kennedy","15":"tag-lachlan-kennedy","16":"tag-national-athletics-championships","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600174","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=600174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}