Lachlan Kennedy becomes first Australian to run 100m in under 10 seconds on home soil

In a historic evening for athletics at the national championships at Sydney Olympic Park, Lachie Kennedy became the first Australian 100m sprinter to break the 10-second barrier on home soil.

The 22-year-old stormed out of the blocks and surged through the finish line in the first heat of the 100m on Friday night, stopping the clock at 9.96sec with only a modest – and legal – tailwind of +0.2.

It lowered the personal best he set last year in Nairobi by two hundredths of a second, and was the first time a local has run under 10 seconds for 100 metres in an event on home soil.

“Honestly, I didn’t really even expect it. I was just super relaxed, super – not cruisey, I was definitely pushing it – but it just felt easy,” Kennedy said. “So I think I’ve got a bit more in the tank.”

The fastest anyone has run in Australia is Maurice Greene’s 9.87sec, set in 2000 during the Sydney 2000 final at the Olympic Stadium, barely more than a stone’s throw from the Athletic Centre where Kennedy made history on Friday.

The Queenslander feels he could go under 9.9sec as soon as this year.

“This is still only my second hundred [race of the season], so I’ve got so much more to give, but we’re off to a cracking start.”

Having now gone under 10 seconds twice, Kennedy said he wants to make a habit of it.

“Doing it once is good, but doing it twice – I want to make a bit of a pattern of it, I want to make it routine, I want to make it the standard.”

Kennedy will race 100m semi-finals and likely the final on Saturday night, before he takes on the 200m on Sunday against Gout Gout.

Rohan Browning, the defending 100m national champion who beat Kennedy in Perth last year, also won his heat.

The national record is 9.93sec, set by Patrick Johnson in Japan in 2003. Johnson and Kennedy are the only Australians to have run 100m under 10 seconds in legal wind conditions. Browning and Gout have also run under the mark, but with excessive tailwinds.

Kennedy said he was honoured to be the first Australian to run a legal sub-10sec run in Australia.

“I sure we’ll have way more in the future, [but I am] definitely honoured to be the first. No one can ever take that away from you.”

Usain Bolt set the world record of 9.58sec in 2009.