Australian Athletics Championships: 10 events to watch

6 April 2026

Australian Athletics Championships: 10 events to watch

There are so many good NSW athletes in action later this week at the Australian Athletics Championships, here are just 10 events with NSW interest to watch:

MEN 400m

Luke van Ratingen has run just three races in 2026 and clocked three PBs (45.21, 45.10, 45.03), does he have a limit? Where will he finish amongst the other big four 400m names - Aidan Murphy, Cooper Sherman, Thomas Reynolds and Reece Holder. Van Ratingen’s club mate at UTS Norths, former AFL player Brenton Kerr, is making his own history taking his PB down from 47.84 to 46.09 this summer. Can he force his way onto the Australian 4x400m relay squad?

MEN 800m

NSW duo, teenager Daniel Williams and Maurie Plant meet winner Luke Boyes, are not afraid to mix it with national record holder Peter Bol and internationals Bob Abdelrahim and Peyton Craig. In what is currently the highest standard event in Australia, we already have four Commonwealth Games qualifiers and Peyton Craig set to join them, making it five battling for the Commonwealth Games team.

MEN 400m Hurdles

Matthew Hunt has this summer clocked the fastest 400m hurdles time by an Aussie for 14 years – since 2012. He has surpassed his younger brother Tom, who has been injured this summer and is battling to defend his National title. Matthew, a teenager, looks to be capable of going much faster.

MEN Hammer Throw

Tim Heyes is locked in a close battle for this National title against Victorian James Joycey. In their only clash, Heyes won at the Adelaide Invitational. Joycey had recently improved his PB to 71.21m in America, to move into the Australian all-time top-10, while Heyes, coached by former Australian record holder Peter Farmer, recently broke his 4-year-old PB with a throw of 69.86m.

WOMEN 400m

Newcastle’s Jemma Pollard arrives at the championships as the National leader with her 51.73 time from Perth. However at the Maurie Plant Meet, 3-time National champion, Ellie Beer, ran a much improved time of 52.29 in very cool and windy conditions. But she may not be the toughest competition, as Mia Gross slashed her PB to 51.88 at the Victorian Championships. Joining Pollard is UTS Norths’ Alice Dixon whose great summer form (two seconds PB, now down to 52.64), was rewarded with selection in the Australian squad for the 2026 World Relays.

WOMEN 1500m

What an incredible race this should be. Arriving home from the World indoors with two medals, Jessica Hull will be out to defend her national title, but she has amazing competition. She has raced on nine occasions at the Senior National Championships and never been defeated. The fastest ever athlete on Australia soil, Claudia Hollingsworth, has warmup last week with a win over World Indoor 1500m champion Georgia Hunnter-Bell at the Maurie Plant Meet. As the first middle-distance event at the Australian championships most of this very talented cohort are expected to race here, ahead of split up and running the 800m and 5000m over the last two days of the championships. Those include: Olympic semi-finalist Abbey Caldwell, Australian 3000m record holder Georgia Griffith, Olympic semi-finalist Linden Hall, World Championships competitor Sarah Billings and Australian 10,000m champion Lauren Ryan. NSW interest also centres on South Coast’s Jaylah Hancock-Cameron, who ran a PB 4:06.92 last month.

WOMEN High Jump

Nicola Olyslagers is chasing a seventh consecutive Australian high jump title, but could the current world champion be defeated by rising teenage star Izzy Louison-Roe? In their most recent competition at the Maurie Plant meet, in cool conditions, Louison-Roe and Olyslagers both cleared the same excellent height of 1.95m.

WOMEN Long Jump

Teenager Delta Amidzovski is enjoying a great season in her two events – the 100m hurdles and long jump. She has set a number of PBs, but the depth in the 100m hurdles will see her in a battle for a podium finish. But her long jump form, the event she contested at the 2025 World Championships, has been superb. In Hobart in February, she broke her near 2-year-old PB, leaping 6.62m. Then in March she leapt 6.60m (& 6.55m) in the NSW Championships. However, she does face top competition fromNational record holder, Brooke Buschkuehl, who is returning from a maternity break. Buschkuehl, a 6-time Australian long jump champion, has been rounding into excellent form with recent competitions of 6.48m, 6.53m and 6.52m over two weeks in March. After starting the season also triple jumping, Buschkuehl, has not entered that event at the Nationals.

WOMEN Shot Put

Behind standout Victorian Emma Berg, two NSW athletes will be battling to fill the podium. NSW champion Kaitlyn Coulter, won with a PB of 14.83m and arrives at the Australian championships seeded number two. Hot on her heels is Inverell’s Sina Wildraut who has put 14.71m this year. Also of interest will be Kaitlyn Coulter’s younger sister Manaia Coulter who has a PB of 14.29m, and just needs to improve 21cm to 14.50m to achieve a World U20 Championships qualifier.

WOMEN Javelin Throw

This will be a most intriguing show down with two NSW athletes favourite to fill the podium. 2025 World Championships bronze medallist, Mackenzie Little, opens her season here. Flying in from America, is her 2025 World Championships teammate, Lianna Davidson has started her 2026 campaign with a solid throw of 59.66m in Florida. Also moving into good form is Australian #8 all-time, Victorian Mackenzie Mielczarek who has thrown 57.71m this year.

The championships run from Thursday 9 April to Sunday 12 April.

Details for tickets, timetable, entry lists etc are here: https://www.athletics.com.au/event/2026-australian-athletics-championships/

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Sina Wildraut (image courtesy of Stephane Thomas)