Look, we get it. Canberra is fast and everything and people like going there and it’s a Mondo surface and blah blah blah, but if you look a little deeper, you’ll find a cosy little 48,000 seat stadium and its warm-up track on the southside of Brisbane might have something to say about that.

Home of the equal fastest 100m performances by Australians in Australia, QSAC stadium has a rich history of speed and this weekend should be no different.

You could throw it back to the dual performances from Paul Narracott in the early days of the stadium. In 1978, as a 19yr old, he stopped the clock at 10.0 and again in 1984 with a phenomenal 9.9. I understand hand timing is foreign concept these days, but back then it was everything and the officials on the clock were some of the sharpest minds in the sport.

Shooting forward into the future, and the 2007 Australian Athletics Championships, Joshua Ross rolled through the semi-finals in 10.10 and then backed it up with a 10.08 in the final. Making him the third fastest Australian of all-time.

Twelve years later at the 2019 QLD Track Classic, Rohan Browning went toe to toe with Yoshihide Kiryu as they both clocked 10.08, with the nod being given to the Japanese cult hero.

Now in 2021, with limited international presence, the Men’s 100 will still be a feature event of the QLD Track Classic, with our domestic stars building up to something special tomorrow night.

Leading the field again will be Rohan Browning who hasn’t been beaten since February in 2020 over the 100m. In January he became the second ever Australian to run sub 10s with a 9.96 at Kerryn McCann Athletics Centre (a new addition to the fastest track in Aus debate?) and has since moved his seasons best to 10.20 whilst winning the NSW Championships.

Browning has a history with running PBs in Queensland, having set his last two bests at this track and, funnily enough, in odd years. Late 2017 he sped to 10.19 and the aforementioned 2019 performance of 10.08.

Well, its 2021, Rohan is in QLD. I think the maths say we’re in store for something special.

This is not just the Browning show though, with an incredible line-up of stars in the blocks, with Browning longest serving track rival Jack Hale fired up for a win. Coming into the race with a season’s best of 10.21, Hale’s last trip to QLD came at the 2019 Track Classic where he set a then personal best of 10.19. He’s since then trimmed that down to 10.12s and sits as the sixth fastest Australian of all-time.

Making his way out of the New Zealand bubble and into Australia is Edward Osei-Nketia. The youngster who won the Australian 100m championships in 2019 has already run 10.28 in Hamilton in Feb and always steps up the meet the field thrown at him.

The depth doesn’t end there though, with consistent top 3 finisher and 10.35 man Jake Penny having a career year, Joshua Azzopardi having a brilliant transition into the senior ranks, Dhruv Rodrigues-Chico stepping out for his Track Classic debut (how has this taken so long?!), Zach Holdsworth, Jacob Despard, Jake Doran…it never ends.

Heat’s tomorrow night will give the athletes two bites of the cherry and the forecast for QSAC is high 20s and tailwinds. Can’t wait!

Full start lists, timetable and tickets can be found here