Australian teenage sensation Daniel Williams has lit up the Adelaide Invitational with victory in the 800m by just 0.01 seconds.
The 18-year-old continued his rise to stardom as he clocked 1:44.37 to take down former national champion Luke Boyes, who also set a personal best but fell short of a lunging win.
Williams, eyeing off the under-20 world championships in August, is closing in on Peyton Craig’s Australian under-20 record of 1:44.11 — but he has for now already put himself in elite company.
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Only 12 men in history have run faster than Williams at his current age or younger.
“I can’t believe it, I actually can’t believe it,” Williams said.
“Coming into this I had a massive disappointment in Perth a month ago, I ran about 1:52.
“To come back and run 1:44 today is just unbelievable. It’s insane, I’m stoked.”
Hometown sprinter Aidan Murphy stole the show later with a statement triumph in the 200m featuring Reece Holder and American Diamond League champion Jacory Patterson.
The South Australian won easily and set a new meet record as he clocked 20.43 into a -1.3 headwind.
“My coach and I just went all in the last couple of months, the last year or so,” Murphy said.
“It’s been really good to find some consistency in training, I’m happy to see it all paying off finally.”
Murphy will move up to 400m at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne in a fortnight, hoping to unlock “untapped potential” over the one-lap race.
Elsewhere in Adelaide, Abbey Caldwell bettered her own meet record in the 800m to win in 2:00.04.
The versatile 24-year-old said the first lap was a “wake-up call” to her body after recently focusing on the 3000m.
“I think that’s what I need, I need to shock the body to be able to develop and know where I need to put my improvements in to sharpen up for nationals,” Caldwell said.
Paralympian Angus Hincksman (T38) lowered his personal best to 3:48.52 to take down domestic rival Reece Langdon in 3:50.59.
“I’m stoked to get the PB and I love winning, it hasn’t happened that often against Reece, he is such a quality runner,” Hincksman said.
“I knew how good Reece was in that last lap and I was so thankful to pull it off.”
It was smooth sailing for Olympic discus bronze medallist Matthew Denny, who claimed another meet record on his Australian tour, taking the crown with a 67.99m to defeat British training partner Lawrence Okoye.
Returning to the top of the podium after the birth of her first child, Brooke Buschkuehl reigned supreme in the long jump when leaping 6.48m (0.0) to take down world under-20 champion Delta Amidzovski (6.46m, +0.5) effort.
“I feel really excited to get the win tonight, it’s a step in the right direction for me,” Buschkuehl said.
“I’m just enjoying being back competing after having little Bobby, so it’s going to be exciting to see what’s to come.”
Australia’s quarter-milers capitalised on the settling conditions over 400m as Jemma Pollard and Luke van Ratingen clinched wins in times of 52.22 and 45.21 respectively, while in the 400m hurdles Matthew Hunt ran himself into the top-10 Australians of all time with a 49.48 performance — jumping 10 positions in just one race.
Earlier in the night, Australia’s fastest men and women went to battle with Joshua Azzopardi and Chloe Mannix-Power asserting their presence in times of 10.27 (+0.3) and 11.45 (-0.3) respectively.
On Friday night the 4×100 men’s relay team of Lachlan Kennedy, Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Jacob Despard set a meet record of 38.34 to take out the win.
Ebony Lane, Monique Hanlon, Olivia Rose Inkster and Chloe Mannix-Power came away with a meet record in the women’s with a time of 43.37.
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