An eventful morning at Melbourne’s Albert Park saw Olympians Olivia Sandery and Rhydian Cowley all but punch their tickets to the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, claiming Australian 35km Race Walking titles.
Olivia Sandery (coached by Jared Tallent) blasted a new Australian record of 2:45:31 to eclipse Rebecca Henderson’s mark of 2:47:34, but the context of a 3.5-minute penalty before the halfway point of the race only adds to the Olympian’s feat. Leading the charge with Elizabeth McMillen in the early stages, Sandery received her third card and was forced to serve the penalty, before mounting a historic comeback - with both athletes qualifying for the 2025 World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo.
“As soon as I left the box, my one goal was to catch up to Lizzie [McMillen]. Once I got there, I was feeling good and thought why not go for it. If my coach Jared [Tallent] yelled at me to slow down then I probably would have,” Sandery said “That’s what I’m proudest of, not getting too in my own head about it. It would have been easy to pull out or give up, but I knew how fit I was and really didn’t want to waste the opportunity.” Sandery beat home McMillen who clocked 2:47:26 to sneak under the 2:48:00 World Championships standard, while Allanah Pitcher (NSW, Frank Overton) rounded out the podium in 2:57:51.
Three-time Olympian Rhydian Cowley (VIC, Brent Vallance) made it three Australian 35km Championship wins from three starts, as he stamped his authority on the longer distance of the walks.
Taking the lead from the gun, Cowley kept the pace alongside rising stars Will Thompson (VIC, Brent Vallance) and Mitchell Baker (ACT, Jared Tallent) but in typical Cowley fashion, waited patiently until the final laps of the race to stretch his legs and finish in 2:32:33 - a 1-minute, 17 second lead ahead of his closest rivals.
“Especially now that World Athletics has announced the change, I thought it would be good to be the only male Australian 35km Race Walk Champion we’ve ever had!,” Cowley said.“ It was great to walk together with Thommo and Mitch most of the way and drag them through to some good times. It would be good to have three Aussies on the start line in Tokyo next year, so I reckon they’re sitting pretty good for that but I think a bit of that old-man strength broke the back of them.”
Thompson and Baker finished the course at Albert Park in 2:34:15 and 2:35:06 respectively, with the Olympic medallist crediting the next generation of talent for keeping him motivated.
By Lachlan Moorhouse and Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia