Host of Aussie track and field stars chasing Oly medals

High jump queens Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are among the best medal hopes in the deepest track and field squad Australia has sent to an Olympics in nearly 70 years.

But like several of the other green and gold athletes with serious designs on a gold medal in Paris, they will come up against an all-time great.

It makes for an enthralling 11 days of competition, kicking off at the Trocadero on Thursday when Jemima Montag leads the Australian charge in the 20km walks.

Silver medalist Montag got the momentum rolling at last year’s world championships in Budapest.

The Australians ended up with a world titles record haul of six medals, a tally which could even be exceeded in the French capital.

Olyslagers (bronze) and Patterson (silver) were among the half dozen.

But if either is to go a step better and claim top spot on the Olympic podium they will need to topple the great Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who broke a 37-year-old world record when she cleared 2.10m in Paris in early July.

Only months earlier, Olyslagers had predicted the mark was going to be bettered.

“Seeing Yaroslava do 2.10 was amazing – I could see in her face that she was going to make it,” Olyslagers told AAP.

“There was a confidence there that was hard to describe.

“I recognized the same jump at 2.03, the same jump at 2.07 and the same jump at 2.10 – it was just the consistency.

“For years, 2.10m has been my goal and it still is my goal but seeing how it is done, it’s like seeing the whole picture for the first time when you’re trying to put a puzzle together.

“It has just filled me with so much hope and expectation.”

The scenario is remarkably similar for middle-distance runner Jessica Hull, who has taken giant strides forward this year.

Hull smashed the 2000m world record in Monaco in early July, only days after slashing a remarkable five seconds off her Australian 1500m record at the Paris Diamond League meet to move to fifth spot on the all-time list.

The only rider on that flying 1500m time of three minutes 50.83 seconds was it came in a race where the incomparable Kenyan Faith Kipyegon lowered her own world record to 3:49.04.

“Faith is the greatest 1500m runner in our sport,” Hull acknowledged to AAP.

“Yes we put her on a pedestal, but what she has also done is dragged us along with her.

“It’s like she was saying ‘ladies, if you want to win a gold medal, this is how fast you’re going to have to start running’.

“It was pretty intimidating when I started racing her, it felt like there was no way I could get anywhere near her.

“But something changed last year.

“You need to be able to race to win.

“You can’t just sit back and think ‘I’m going to run for third or fourth’ because where’s the fun in that?”

Hull is best placed to become the first Australian since superstar hurdler Sally Pearson in 2017 to win a medal on the track at Olympic or world championships level.

She’s also at the vanguard of a boon in Australian middle-distance running, which includes Commonwealth men’s 1500m champ Olli Hoare and a host of 800m runners including Tokyo Olympics fourth place-getter Peter Bol and rising stars Claudia Hollingsworth, Abbey Caldwell and Peyton Craig.

Like Olyslagers, Patterson and Hull, big Matt Denny has a generational talent standing in his way in the men’s discus in the form of new world record holder Mykolas Alekna from Lithuania.

But Denny’s remkarkable consistency has him well placed for a top-three finish.

Pole vaulter Nina Kennedy was the only one of the six Australians who medaled at last year’s world titles to claim top spot on the podium.

Back then, she famously shared the gold with American Katie Moon.

This time she wants it all to herself.

Kennedy’s training partner Kurtis Marschall, 2023 world championships bronze medalist Mackenzie Little (javelin) and the mixed marathon relay pairing headed by Montag also boast legitimate medal credentials.

The high-water mark for Australian athletics on the global stage remains the 12 medals, including four golds, won on home soil in Melbourne in 1956.

Best Australian Olympic track and field total medal hauls:

G S B Total

Melbourne 1956 4 2 6 12

Mexico City 1968 2 3 1 6

London 1948 1 3 2 6

Tokyo 1964 1 1 4 6

Best Australian world championships track and field total medal haul

Budapest 2023 1 2 3 6