An American athletics commentator has branded Australia’s fastest runners “trash” following drama at the Athletics World Relays in Botswana on Sunday night.
The Aussie 4x100m men’s relay team finished fourth in the final, hitting the line with a time of 38.00 seconds, missing out on bronze by 0.24 seconds. The United States took gold and South Africa won silver ahead of Germany in third.
The quartet of Lachlan Kennedy, Joshua Azzopardi, Christopher Ius and Rohan Browning on Saturday night equalled the Australian record of 37.87 seconds, but Ius said the team is still “disappointed” to have missed out on a medal.
Former American college sprinter Erin Brown was scathing in his assessment of the Aussie team’s performance.
Brown has been Aussie teen sensation Gout Gout’s most outspoken critic and has repeatedly mocked Aussie track stars.
His commentary has flown in the face of recent performances from Kennedy, Gout and Eddie Nketia that have prompted claims Australia is heading into a “golden age” of sprinting.
Gout was unavailable for selection for the Botswana meet and Australia’s fastest ever runner Nketia also missed the trip because of prior commitments to compete in college events in the United States.
Brown on Monday morning shot down suggestions the Aussie 4x100m relay team will be challenging for gold medals in future meets.
He shared a TikTok clip that was captioned: “Australia 4×100 gets completely humiliated on the world stage once again”.
“I knew Australia was bad and I knew their sprinters were rolled, but I did not know it was to this magnitude,” he said.
“Now, this World Relays, it was tailor made and set up for Australia to finish top three.”
He went on to suggest South Africa and the United States had sent their third strength squads to the meet.
“These guys (Australia) still managed to go out there and lose to the USA team and lose to the South African team and somehow even lose to Germany,” he said.
“What the f***. If you can’t even beat a C-Team. A shell of themselves and South Africa and Germany and you think when all the killers show up, y’all are going to be up a helluva team to beat?”
He singled out Browning’s final leg of the race.
“This ninja got the top end speed of a Popeye’s chicken sandwich,” he said.
“This s*** crazy. Like after 60m he’s running in place like he’s on the treadmill.
“Man, if they getting fourth place at some s*** like this, imagine when all the top killers show up.”
He said Australia will be lucky to make the final of any major meet coming up.
“Trash going to be trash, man,” he said.
Brown also posted a photo of Aussie runners on X, writing: “Best team got injured, USA has a c team, Tebogo didn’t run, SA second best guy pulled out… ninjas still couldn’t get top 3,” he posted on X.
“These ninjas are horrible lol.”
In making the final, the Aussie team qualified for next year’s World Athletics Championships in China.
All six of the Aussie teams managed to qualify.
“We wanted to make the final and came wanting a medal, so to get so close is disappointing,” Ius told Athletics Australia.
“But to show the rest of the world we can do is such a good thing, and I think we are improving every year which is exciting.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s mixed 4x400m team of Cooper Sherman, Mia Gross, Matthew Hunt and Alexia Loizou finished seventh in their final.
The meet ended in wild scenes as Botswana took gold in the men’s 4x400m race where the Aussie team finished third.
