Osei-Nketia within 0.01sec of NZ record after huge run
Edward Osei-Nketia moved to within just 0.01 second off his father’s New Zealand 100 metres record after producing the run of his life in Australia.
The 19-year-old sprint sensation clocked a huge new personal best of 10.12sec to finish second behind Australian Rohan Browning (10.05sec) in the men’s final of the Queensland Track Classic on Saturday night.
The scorching time moved OseiNketia up to second on New Zealand’s all-time 100m rankings list, one spot behind his father, Gus
Nketia, who ran 10.11sec in Canada in 1994.
Osei-Nketia elected to skip the postponed New Zealand track and field championships in Hastings at the weekend to return to Australia, where he grew up, to compete against better competition in more favourable conditions in the hope of meeting the automatic qualifying time for the Tokyo Olympics (10.05sec).
‘‘Last year was quite hard because there was no real competition and he is an athlete that needs competition to get the best out of him, and it’s pretty remarkable how he can lift his performance, which is what you want for a sprinter,’’ said OseiNketia’s Wellington-based coach, Gary HenleySmith.
‘‘He had really good opportunities in 2019 but in 2020 he didn’t really have that unfortunately with Covid-19 and he’s been waiting a wee while to get to where he wants to, but it’s just reassuring that he has got the potential.
‘‘The hardest thing for me to get through to him is that he does have the potential and I think finally he started to get it a couple of weeks ago that he could get there and that’s what made it quite special for him, even though he got beaten, that it showed he’s right there. He’s so close.’’
The Auckland-born Osei-Nketia signalled his intent by running a wind-assisted 10.14sec to comfortably win his heat before bettering his personal best by 0.07sec to finish runner-up to Browning.
Browning’s PB of 10.05sec was the fastest time posted by an Australian on home soil and saw the 23-year-old clinch the automatic spot for the Tokyo Olympics.
‘‘We obviously had been looking to this race to really make a statement for Eddie and I think he’s done that but it would’ve been nice if he had broken the record, that was what he was really wanting,’’ HenleySmith said.
‘‘Gus was so excited last night after he ran his 10.14 and he didn’t know the time when he rang me after his race and he said ‘do you know his time, do you know his time?’ and when I said it was 10.12 he said ‘oh my God’. It was so close but hopefully he can do that in three weeks’ time.’’
Osei-Nketia’s next race will be the Australian track and field championships in Sydney on April 16-17. If he is unable to meet the automatic qualifier for the Olympics, he will need to be within the top 32-ranked men’s sprinters to book his ticket for Tokyo. He was ranked 43rd prior to Saturday’s run.