Jacob Despard

Hailing from Tasmania, Jacob Despard is an explosive sprinter who was selected to make his senior Australian debut at the Commonwealth Games at Birmingham in 2022.

As a promising junior fast bowler, in Year 7 Jacob began his sprinting career as a way to improve his run-up speed. However, the “thrill of running fast” took over as he began to focus solely on sprinting, competing across both track and grass. By 2013, he was a regular on the Victorian Athletic League circuit and in 2014 he made his junior international debut at the world U20 championships.

In 2018 he collected professional sashes at Avondale Heights, Burnie, Devonport and Euroa among others, ahead of his crowning moment at the 2018 Stawell Gift, winning the blue riband 120m event off the back mark of 4.5m and earning himself $40,000 in prize money.

Jacob’s ability to translate his specialist grass-sprinting ability across to the synthetic track has come in leaps and bounds in 2022, running his personal best of 10.24 at the Oceania Championships in June.

In March, he produced a statement performance at the 2022 Melbourne Track Classic placing him on the watchlist of national selectors, running a wind assisted 10.11 (+3.4). A month later in his first national final, he finished sixth in the 100m at the 2022 Australian Championships in Sydney.

2023 was another busy year of racing for Jacob, clocking PBs of 10.21 (100m) and 20.59 (200m) and being a regular on the national relay team. In 2024 he moved his 100m best to 10.15 in Canberra in January. He had become the equal ninth-fastest in Australian history. At season’s end he was third at the nationals in the 100m.

During the summer he was a regular on the national relay team, running usually the second leg. The team clocked a series of mid-38 second times and ran brilliantly at the World Relays in May 2024, where they secured a Paris Olympic berth for the Australian 4x100m relay team.

Jacob was named in the Australian 4x100m relay team to make his Olympic debut in Paris. Running the second leg in the 4x100m heat in Paris, he helped the National team to 6th place missing the final by just 0.05 seconds. They would have won the other heat. The upside was they clocked 38.12 – an Australian record, that was first set in 1995 and equalled in 2012.