TWO national champions and a throwing legend who looks to have secured a ticket to another Olympic Games were the takeaway from a remarkable five minutes of athletics for Ballarat at the National Athletics Championships in Adelaide on Saturday night.
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In a crazy five minutes, both 400m runner Cooper Sherman and high jumper Yual Reath became national champions, while legendary javelin thrower Kathryn Mitchell won a silver medal with a throw above 60m.
Sherman stared down the best 400m runners in the country, winning in a time of 45.89 seconds, to all-but-confirm his selection in the Australian 400m relay team which will compete in the Bahamas in May.
Australia will send a team of six to the World Relay Championships with the goal of a top-16 position to earn qualification to the Paris Olympics.
At just 20, Sherman is now a national champion in a sport where athletes don't tend to reach their peak until the mid to late 20s.
Speaking with The Courier after the race, Sherman said it was a dream come true to take home the national title.
"I started the year aiming to make a final over 200m, and now I'm a national champion at 400m, it's incredible," he said. "It's pretty special, it feels awesome, I don't think I've processed it all yet.
"I executed the plan better. When I raced in Sydney Luke (Van Ratingen) and Alex (Beck) were out in front of me in Sydney, but this time I was out in front of them at the 300m, so I thought, 'I think I can run away from there here'."
Sherman's time of 45.89 seconds was slightly outside his personal best of 45.71 seconds, but after three big races in three days, and a swirling wind along the track, he said he was happy with the result.
The 20-year-old remains outside Olympic qualification and will need to compete in some high-level races between now and July in order to have a chance of getting a solo run in Paris, however his focus is now firmly on the relay championships.
Reath, 23, took home his second national title with a jump of 2.29m, a rise of 9cm on his 2022 win.
"I was struggling at the start, I found it tough at 2.24m, but it was just rhythm, but on my third attempt I found it, then at 2.27m, I got over it first jump, 2.29m, I cleared that first jump," Reath said.
"I was the only one left, so I went to 2.33m. I almost made it, my second attempt was the best one, I made it over, but the side of my hip just grazed it, but besides that, all of my jumps were terrific."
The national championship success should move Reath into the top-25 in the world. He is now on stand-by for a major meeting in Japan at the end of the month and also for Diamond League events.
He said he hoped to get some high-level competition in over the next two months prior to the Oceania Championships in June which will be his next major event.
Mitchell finished second in the javelin with a throw of 60.28m, just behind Mackenzie Little who produced her season-best performance of 61.85m to take gold.
It is Mitchell's second throw above 60m this season and should be enough to ensure she is in another Olympic team later in the year.
