One of the hottest events right now in Australian Track and Field is the Men’s 800m and the Queensland Track Classic will host a star-studded line-up on the 27th of March. The field includes 8 of the 10 fastest athletes in Oceania for 2021. The two in the field that don’t currently feature in that 10 are the Australian record holder Joseph Deng and 1:46 man Mason Cohen.

Not only is the current depth mouth-watering, but the all-time depth is staggering, with four of the top eight fastest men in Australian history toeing the line.

The venue itself has a soft spot for 800m running, when 39 years ago at the 1982 Australian Championships, Peter Bourke stormed home to clock 1:44.78, the fastest time on Australian soil by an Australian soil.

Lately though, the event has been dominate by one man, Peter Bol. Three wins from three starts, including a 1:45.23 in Canberra put Bol head and shoulders above the rest. His Canberra run made Bol the third fastest Aussie on home soil and left him 0.03s off the Tokyo qualifying mark, but there’s a feeling they’ll be targeting something much fastest than just a qualifier.

Australian record holder Joseph Deng returns to his home state to race for the first time since the 2018 Commonwealth Games final after taking on pacing duties for stablemate Bol in Canberra and Sydney.

Youngster Jack Lunn will be looking to continue his meteoric rise in the 800m ranks, cutting his best by almost 8 seconds between 2019 and 2021. I’m not sure how many times and athlete can have a breakthrough race, but I feel like Lunn has already had multiple already and isn’t slowing down.

The Queensland Track Classic meet record is a swift 1:45.16 set in 2000 by Algerian 2003 800m World Champion and Sydney Olympics Bronze medallist Djabir Saïd-Guerni.

To purchase your tickets and check out the full entry lists, click here

Full 800m field below (as of March 20th)