Browning exerts his dominance as NSWIS athletes shine in Melbourne

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship athlete Rohan Browning exerted his standing as Australia’s sprint king by dominating the Maurie Plant Meet’s 100 and 200m fields in front of an enthusiastic crowd at Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium on Thursday night.

In cold, blustery conditions, Browning stormed to victory in the 100m with a time of 10.34. NSWIS’s Sebastian Sultana followed his slipstream to place second in 10.37, while Josh Azzopardi completed the NSWIS trifecta by finishing third in 10.40.

The 26-year-old Browning then backed that effort up by seizing the Peter Norman Memorial 200m. He stretched away from the field in a time of 20.80 to enjoy a good win over Asian Champion, Towa Uzawa of Japan (21.07). Fellow NSWIS athlete Christopher Ius finished fourth (21.32)

Browning – pictured above – told the media that he’d enjoyed feeding off the crowd’s energy.

“The times weren’t anything crash hot, but I just get a lot of confidence getting a few wins,” he said. “I was saying this before, I just wanted to feel the energy of the crowd – you can hear these kids . . . they’re insane . . . they’re incessant.”

Tokyo Olympic Games silver medallist and Australian record holder, Nicola Olyslagers, performed superbly. She cleared 1.99m to win the women’s high jump event and create a meet record. The NSWIS athlete said she was also inspired by the appreciative crowd.

“There were signs with ‘Luv U Nicola’ and I’m like ‘oh, you know my name?’” she said. “It’s really beautiful to have an Australian crowd that’s so encouraging. Even over the height [when] I did a warmup and I’m getting applause like it’s an Olympic height – so it’s cool.”

After her victory – with NSWIS’s teenaged Erin Shaw, who competed at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, finishing in second place with 1.84– Olyslagers said her performance was another important step ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“Tonight, I think I won the battle, I was really excited to do 1.99m,” she enthused. “Today was like a stake in the ground, the 2.03m wasn’t a fluke, that was the beginning and we’re building.”

Olympian Rose Davies triumphed in a memorable 5000m race by becoming only the fourth Australian woman to crash through the 15-minute barrier.

Davies, a NSWIS athlete from Newcastle, waited until the final lap to cut free from her opponents to win the race in a new meet record time of 14.57.54. Testimony to the quality of the race, fellow Aussie Isobel Batt-Doyle finished second in 14.59.18. Ethiopia’s Aynadis Mebratu rounded off the place getters. (15:04.84).

Triple jumper Connor Murphy excelled in Melbourne with the NSWIS scholarship athlete setting a personal best with a mighty jump of 16.87m. He defeated Victoria’s Aiden Hinson [who recently beat Murphy by one centimetre in Adelaide] who jumped 16.20m, and NSWIS stablemate, Julian Konle, 15.86.

NSWIS’s Senior Athletics Coordinator Michael Perry – a former national triple jump champion – made special mention of Murphy’s effort.

“For Connor to back up from competing in Adelaide [last weekend] to execute a Personal Best last night was awesome,” enthused Perry. “It says so much, including that Connor has it in him to cement his spot on the Olympic team.

“It was also very special to see Rose Davies and Nicola Olyslagers create meet records.”

Mali Lovell, who last month was presented the Amy Winters Female Para Athlete of the Year Award for her world championships silver medal in the T36 200m event, came first overall in the 100m Para sprint after clocking 14.79.

In a competitive duel long jumper Samantha Dale, of NSWIS, was pipped by just one centimetre for first place by Victorian Brooke Buschkuehl. The result was a reversal of fortune from last year’s meet when Dale stunned onlookers by producing a 6.71m jump to defeat Buschkuehl and American hot shot, Tara Davis-Woodhall.

In other performances by NSWIS athletes:

Ella Connolly, a World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games representative, finished fourth in the women’s 100m race after crossing the line in 11.59; Liana Davidson finished in fifth place of the women’s javelin after throwing 56.09; and long jumper Liam Adcock finished his event in fourth place after leaping 7.70m.

Daniel Lane, NSWIS