{"id":749633,"date":"2026-06-20T22:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749633\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T22:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T22:30:15","slug":"athletics-news-2026-australian-sprint-star-lachlan-kennedys-bold-call-in-race-against-gout-gout-eddie-nketia-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/749633\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletics news 2026: Australian sprint star Lachlan Kennedy\u2019s bold call in race against Gout Gout, Eddie Nketia | Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lachlan Kennedy<\/a> has made a bold call in the race to shatter Patrick Johnson\u2019s long-standing 100-metre Australian record, declaring if he\u2019s beaten to breaking it he will simply knock off the new mark.<\/p>\n

The coach of Eddie Nketia fired a warning back, declaring \u201cThe Incredible Hulk\u201d, as he likes to call him<\/a>, is capable of clocking 9.85 seconds in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Australian sprint powerhouse Lachlan Kennedy.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Johnson clocked 9.93 seconds in Japan in 2003 to pinch the national record off Olympic<\/a> and Commonwealth Games<\/a> teammate Matt Shirvington.<\/p>\n

No athlete has gone closer to erasing Johnson\u2019s record than Kennedy, who put down two wind-legal 9.96-second runs<\/a> at the national athletics<\/a> championships in Sydney in April.<\/p>\n

Nketia has had a barnstorming start to his time as an Australian athlete since defecting from New Zealand in December, rattling off a 9.84, a 9.74, a 9.95 and a 9.99 \u2013 but on each occasion the wind reading was too strong to be legal.<\/p>\n

The race to take down Johnson\u2019s record is realistically a race in three, between Kennedy, Nketia and 18-year-old sensation Gout Gout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teen phenom twice clocked 9.99 at the national titles<\/a> in Perth last year but in illegal wind conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s always a bit competitive to see who\u2019s going to break it first,\u201d Kennedy told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, I\u2019m just gonna break it by more. If someone beats me to it, that\u2019s fine \u2013 I\u2019ll just break it again. I\u2019m not stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy will get his next crack at Johnson\u2019s record when he suits up at the prestigious Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on July 5 (AEST).<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old will then race a 200m at the Hungarian Grand Prix in mid-July, and possibly a 100m at the London Diamond League<\/a> four days later, before tackling the 100m and 200m at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

Nketia will run one or two 100m races ahead of the Commonwealth Games, then contest the 100m in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eddie Nketia running for the University of Southern California.\u00a0University of Southern California.<\/p>\n

Gout is scheduled to run a series of 200m races in the coming weeks but no 100m races. He will miss the Commonwealth Games<\/a> to focus on winning gold in the 200m at the world under-20 championships in Oregon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s me versus the clock at the end of the day,\u201d Kennedy added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how I think about it, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy are Nketia are both eyeing off 9.8 territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was to go 9.8 at some point this year and I am more than confident that\u2019s still on the cards,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully in my next 100m I can do that. Body feels good.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning 9.7 would be the dream. I\u2019ve got plenty of time in my career to move on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nketia has been making headlines on the NCAA scene, running for the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s hot, he\u2019s hot,\u201d the 25-year-old\u2019s coach, Brenton Emmanuel, told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not fully peaked yet this year and he\u2019s not burnt out. He still has some juice in his legs, especially because he\u2019s running faster in the 200m, which tells me his strength and speed are really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got about another six weeks of it before he needs to shut it down, but he has a 9.85 in those legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When told of Kennedy\u2019s bold call, Nketia\u2019s coach loved what he heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s great for track and field … Iron sharpens iron. That\u2019s a great rivalry for the future of those guys,\u201d Emmanuel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing personal; it\u2019s just being a highly competitive athlete. Any coach wants their athlete to say what Lachlan said, and I would say the same thing. If Lachlan beats the record, I want Eddie to go beat that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEddie is going to make you guys very proud, and I hope Lachlan continues to do well, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachlan Kennedy has made a bold call in the race to shatter Patrick Johnson\u2019s long-standing 100-metre Australian record,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-749633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749633","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=749633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}