Torrie Lewis and Cara Feain-Ryan posted personal bests in the 200m and Steeplechase respectively on a morning of positive performances for Australia at the track.

Ten Australians competed and while none automatically progressed to the next round, athletes in the Men’s and Women’s Hurdles and the Women’s Hammer posted encouraging results.

Torrie lived up to her title as the rising star of Australian sprinting, clocking 22.89 in her 200m heat. The 19-year-old was fourth and narrowly missed an automatic advance to the women’s 200m semi-finals.

She burst from the blocks in lane nine, unable to see her competitors until the closing stages. The national 100m record holder will now refocus for her repechage round tomorrow with her sights set on a start in the penultimate round.

“It felt cool [out there]. The crowd was so loud, I could hear them the whole way. It felt good to get a PB,” Lewis said.

“I was glad to have the French girl in my race, it made it a great experience for everyone.

“I’ve just got to go and run it [the repechage]. I’m pretty sure you have to win, so we’ll see.”

In heat four, Mia Gross ran 23.36 to place sixth and like Lewis looks ahead to the repechage.

“I thought I was going to produce a lot better than what I just produced out there. I had a good first 120 metres and then I just tightened up like no tomorrow,” Mia said. 

“I’m still experiencing it all and soaking it all in. The repechage is another chance to qualify and I know I can do it.”

There are four repechage heats, with first in each and and next two fastest to advance to Semi-Final.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Cara Feain-Ryan made up for the disappointment of missing Tokyo 2020 by running a personal best on Olympic debut.

Cara did not progress to the final, but her time of 9:28.72 gives her confidence that she’s headed in the right direction on the global stage, after also clocking a then best time at the World Athletics Championships last year.

“I can’t be disappointed with a personal best, but you can see that steeplechase has moved to another level this year,” Cara said.

“I have to keep rising with it. That is the long-term goal. I’ve spent eight weeks preparing in Europe and it’s going to take a few more races like this to see the outcomes of that progression. I’ll be taking as much as I can from this into the next Olympic cycle.”

Amy Cashin lined up in the third heat, stopping the clock at 9:32.93 to place 9th after hitting a steeple in the first lap and recovering to finish the race with an aching leg.

Tayleb Willis ran well in his first big international meet to finish fifth in the 110m Hurdles clocking 13.63s. He was racing his idol triple world champion Grant Halloway (USA) and Perth-born Sasha Zhoya (FRA) who helped him as a junior.

“I think I handled the pressure all right for my first big international. I just gotta bring it back in two days,” Tayleb said.

Tayleb’s personal best is 13.44 seconds and he has his sights set on Kyle Vander-Kuyp’s Australian record (13.29).  

“That's the goal. I know I'm ready. I know I can do it. I just want his record. That's all I want,” Tayleb said.

It's probably one of the longest Australian records there. I know I can do it. I want to do it.”
Making her Olympic debut, Steph Ratcliffe threw a best mark of 70.07m in the qualification round of the women’s Hammer Throw however did not advance to the battle for medals.

“I had a smile on my face walking out there, the crowd was amazing, the stadium was amazing, but I couldn’t stick those first two throws,” Ratcliffe said.

Alanah Yukich and Sarah Carli raced well in their Women’s 400m Hurdles heats but both were overtaken from the auto-qualification spots in the final 50 metres of their respective races. 

Alanah faded to seventh in 55.46s but entered the straight not far behind Dutch superstar Femke Bol. Sarah was sixth in her heat with 55.92s.

The Australians will race the repechage at 6:50 pm AEST on Monday 5 August. 

It was a disappointing day for Chris Mitrevski and Liam Adcock in long jump qualifying with both struggling to fly like they can when fully fit. Chris’s training had been restricted coming into the Games due to injury and Liam was also impacted with an injury today. 

Chris’s best was 7.79m and Liam 7.56m. A lot of jumpers were struggling with 7.90m enough to qualify for the Final.

“It was loud, it was a lot of fun. If you told me when I started athletics, I think I was like five years old, I was going to be at the Olympics someday, I would have done anything to have this experience, so I can't be too mad. I had pretty big goals and didn't quite achieve them.”

Andrew Reid and Cody Lynch