Australian Men’s 100 yards Record Progression from 1864 to 2021
Breaking: Rohan Browning has reduced the Australian 100 yards best to 9.41s (wind +0.2m/s) on 6 March 2021. The new mark was set on route to a 10.20 100m to take out the NSW State title.
This article was first published after Hale’s best in January.
Jack Hale set a new Australian 100 yards record on 9 January 2021, bettering Bob Lay’s mark that had stood for almost 56 years.
The Tasmanian’s time of 9.43s improved on Lay’s 9.2s hand-timed mark set in 1965. The athletics world has changed significantly since that time, not the least being the move to electronic timing. The Victorian’s former record was equivalent to 9.44s with the addition of the accepted conversion of 0.24s. So, more than half a century later, the record improved by the barest of margins.
The 100 yards is rarely run nowadays, save for some special meets both here and abroad as well as a few state championships. Still, Lay’s mark has survived attempts by most of Australia’s best sprinters, which is surprising considering modern training methods, spikes and synthetic surfaces.
Looking back into the history books, beyond Lay’s era, there is barely 10 yards between the first time an Australian recorded “even time” 150 years ago and Hale’s performance this year. Astounding really.
The chronological history of Australia’s record-holders over 100 yards shows how revered our fastest men were by the Australian public and such curiosities as the state of tracks, conditions and physical makeup of the men, not to mention the great coverage by journalists of yesteryear.
10.0s | John Gilmore | 10 November 1864
Wadham College Sports, Wadham College Cricket Ground Oxford
10.0s | Robert Vidal | 10 March 1865
St John’s College Sports, Cowley Marsh, Oxford
10.0s | J.G. Harris | 11 November 1866
Melbourne Cricket Ground
J.G. Harris equalled the best time on record for an Australian over 100 yards at the competition organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club. It attracted a crowd of around 3,000 ( one paper noted that this included some female spectators too!). At the time the event was heralded by some as a demonstration of “muscular christianity” which was a belief in the physical and moral virtue of athleticism.
In a “magnificent race” Harris won the 100 yards in 10.0s, only the third time that an Australian had recorded such figures. In second place was H.C. Harrison who “at the report of the pistol went away in the lead” but was caught by Harris who won by a short foot.
For his efforts, Harris collected just over 4 guineas (£4 4s). Competition at the meeting was a mix of scratch and handicap races which was quite common in this period. On the same day, running with a 5 yards start, Harris won the 440 yards steeplechase (yes, steeplechase) despite falling at the water jump. Victory earned him the “Australasian Cup” valued at six guineas.
The 100 yards was part of a Challenge Cup, a points score event won by Harrison to decide the best all-round runner, which included the 440 yards and half-mile.
The race was held in great conditions with the turf not too hard nor too soft and the “freshness of the day made to order”.
9 ⅘s | William Macpherson | NSW | 7 February 1891
Auckland Domain, NZL Championships Grass Track
Sydneysider William Macpherson was a legend in Australia for his sprinting ability. His 9 ⅘s at the New Zealand Championships in Auckland was only the second time someone had broken 10.0s after American John Owen did the same in Washington, the previous October. Early stopwatches recorded times to the fifth of a second.
He was arguably the best sprinter in the world at the time, with his best time coming on a grass and slightly uphill track.
He was a “well built” young man and “splendidly proportioned”.
Macpherson was well-liked and described in The Referee newspaper as “an idol of our amateur athletes”, and “that a no more popular and at the same time more unassuming young fellow ever breathed”.
Luther Cary (UK), another runner laying claim to the title of world’s fastest man, along with Owen (USA) recorded their fastest times on cinder tracks.
Macpherson’s fastest time for 250 yards was 24 ⅗ s, which was the best known time over the distance in the world by either amateurs or professionals.
Despite being ratified by officials, a columnist at time suggested that Macpherson’s performance was questionable saying that either the timekeepers got the “shivers” or “the family dog got hold of the measuring chain and chewed up a chunk of it”.
Macpherson would go onto to become the inaugural Australian 100 yards champion in 1894 with a winning time of 9.9s.
9 ⅘s | E W Carr | NSW | 27 January 1923
Sydney Cricket Ground
East Sydney runner Edwin William Carr equalled the Australian record at the Sheffield Shield cricket match between NSW and Victoria at the Sydney Cricket Ground. A crowd of 19,000 watched the “special and delectable tit bit served up for their edification” during the tea break. It was a handicap race with Carr running off scratch and giving up to 5 yards to the other competitors.
The Referee report from the day…
“Conditions were almost ideal. A very fine set of tracks had been prepared, the weather was warm, and the eastnor' east wind in evidence blew across the ground”, and did not advantage the runners”
“The field got away to a dead even start, but Carr was the slowest, to get into his running. Murphy held his lead, closely attended by Hodgkinson, and with the others closing in, for three-quarters of the journey, when Carr came through in great style and going away, won by some three -yards in 9.4/5s. All three watchholders agreed. “
“Slip” as he was well-known, was described as being quick off the mark and though “not a stylish runner” had a “wonderful stride”.
Later the same year, the well-travelled Carr set a new world record for 60m in 6 7/16s) in Prague and equalled the world 100m record (10 ⅗) in Copenhagen.
9 ⅘s L C Parker | QLD | 14 August 1926
Brisbane Exhibition Grounds
Before a crowd of 25,000 in Brisbane, Les Parker, a “Bananalander”, won the Australian and New Zealand Track and Field Games Championships.
“Bundy” Parker dominated early with an excellent start and won handsomely to equal the Australian record, despite a strong finishing burst from Burns (NSW).
It was the first time Burns had tasted defeat over 100 yards in 19 starts.
Burns was thought to be a shoe-in for the title and was heavily backed at the bookies. One paper reported that the Queenslander’s win had “infected the pocket wallets of the visiting Sydneysiders with waiting disease, for they were clamorously enthusiastic about the chance of their man and supported him to the limit.”
9.6s | Jim Carlton | NSW | 29 December 1930
Sydney Cricket Ground
Jim Carlton made a well publicised attempt on the Australian 100 yards record during the tea interval of the second elevens match at Sydney Cricket Ground. A special grass track had been prepared for the attempt and ran from east to west as previous runs weren't recognised as official as they were run on a sloping north to south ground.
A fierce cross wind blew and Carlton won the race by less than a yard from McCaffrey. There were six timekeepers and referees decided that the wind did not assist the runners and therefore declared the time an official Australian record.
9.6s | D.B. Dunn | NSW | 4 February 1939
Sydney Sports Ground
The young university runner Brian Dunn equalled the 9-year old Carlton mark of 9.6 to win the NSW Championships.
The “record-breaking colt”, as one pundit described the 17-year-old, was a schoolboy champion from St Aloysius Milson’s Point and later St Ignatius College Riverview.
As fast as Dunn ran, one athlete asked what sort of times would be posted on a “real track”.
As was common at the time, the state of the track was always a topic of conversation. The grass field here described as a “university track often trampled by boxing crowds and or mutilated by midget-car mechanics [Ed: as in go-carts] who often drop tools, grease, and motor parts upon it.”
At the same competition compatriot Joyce Walker equalled the world record of 11.0s for the women’s 100 yards held by Barbara Burke of South Africa but the time was never ratified.
9.6s | J.F. Treloar | NSW | 7 December 1946
Sydney University Oval, New South Wales
Following on from teenager Dunn, 18-year-old John Treloar equalled the Australian record on a waterlogged track at the NSW selection trials for the Australian championship. The Daily Telegraph reported that “only enough rain had fallen to make the track fast and springy”. Treloar’s father was one of the timekeepers.
9.6s. | J.F. Treloar (NSW) | 25 January 1947
Leederville Oval, Western Australia
Treloar equalled the national record in the heats despite newspapers in the lead up to the Australian championships reporting that he had “gone a bit stale” due to a surprising recent loss. Nevertheless, the New South Welshman ran 9.6s for the second time and went on to win the final in 9.8s.
9.6s | J.F. Treloar | NSW | 29 January 1948
Manly Oval, New South Wales
Treloar equal the national record for the third time witnessed by a crowd of 7,500. An overflow of the crowd had to be cleared from the finish before the race could be started. Treloar beat Jamaican start Herb McKinley, silver medallist in the 100m at the 1952 Olympic Games.
Officials reported that there was a slight rise in the track and it was “neither closely cut or well-rolled” indicating this was quite possibly Treloar’s best run.
9.6s | J Bartram | VIC | 12 March 1949
York Park, Launceston, Tasmania
Approximately 3,000 people were in attendance to see John Bartram equal the record on the first day of the Tasmanian Amateur Track and Field Games championships.
9.5s | Hector Hogan | QLD | 14 February 1953
University of Queensland Oval, St Lucia, QLD Grass
Hogan equalled the Australian record in his heat with a wind assisted 9.6s. Officials delayed the final until the wind, which had been blowing at 90 degrees to the track, had dropped.
Hogan was a late starter to sprinting after a knee injury curtailed aspirations as a basketball player. He was a brilliant starter and coaches Joe Moylan and Graham Maclachlan improvised his conditioning to avoid fading late in his races.
7,500 were in attendance.
As a side note, John Treloar had bettered 9.6s six times but all were wind assisted.
9.3s | Hector Hogan QLD | 13 March 1954
Sydney Sports Ground Grass
(Now a carpark for the Sydney Cricket Ground)
As the fastest sprinter in Australia, Hector Hogan was well known but became a household name when he equalled the World 100 yards record. His time of 9.3s matched the time set by Mel Patton in California on May 5, 1948.
In a later race on the same day, he equalled the men’s 100 metres world record of 10.2s. The time was never ratified because he ran in a mixed gender race which prevented records from being ratified.
[Edit: A note to the man I spoke to at Rocky the Barber in Manly on 2 March 2021, I apologise that my recollection that Jim McCann held the Australian record was wrong. McCann ran 9.5 in 1958 but by that time Hector Hogan had already run 9.3]
9.2s | Bob Lay | NSW | 10 March 1965
Sydney Sports Ground, Grass
In 1964 Bob Lay narrowly missed a spot in the final of the Tokyo Olympic 100m final, with a fifth place in the semi-finals behind eventual winner Bob Hayes (USA).
Bob Hayes held the world record of 9.1s set at the AAU national track and field championships in St. Louis in 1963.
In 1965, at a mid-week competition in Sydney, Lay set a mark of 9.2s that would stand the test of time.
In contrast to previous records, not much detail appears in newspapers for the performance.
Lay won three Australian titles over 100 yards, the third of which in 1965 would be the last time the 100 yards decided Australia’s fastest man as imperial distances made way for metric events and the 100m became the blue-ribbon event on the championships program.
Australia’s fastest man has a crack
In December 2006, at the Zatopek meeting held in Melbourne on the Olympic Park track, Patrick Johnson made a much publicised attempt on the record but could manage only 9.72 seconds albeit into a 0.7 metres a second.
Record relegated to a “best”
The last time the 100 yards was listed as an Australian record was in the Athletics Australian 2003 Season Guide. The season guide for the following year - 2004 - the record was relegated to a footnote as a “Best on Record”.
9.43 | Jack Hale | TAS | 9 January 2021
Landy Field, Geelong
With a 100m personal best of 10.12 in 2020, Hale had all the right credentials to take down Lay’s record when he contested the David Baxter Memorial 100 yards (Victorian State Championships) in Geelong.
With a tailwind right on the maximum allowed (+2.0 m/s) the Tasmanian’s run of 9.43s was intrinsically superior to Lay’s mark by 0.01s.
Reports about Hale’s feat did not acknowledge Lay’s 9.2 as being the Australian record mark that was bettered. Instead they quoted an electronically-timed mark of 9.52 set by Gary Eddy at the 1966 Empire Games in Kingston Jamaica which incidentally at the time of the Games was reported as a 9.5. It may have come as a shock to Lay that Eddy had held the record for over 55 years despite never making it onto the record books!
Following Hale’s record run, stats guru David Tarbotton compiled a list of Australia’s fastest even men over the distance including electronic, hand-timed and wind-aided performances.
The 100 yards will continue to be contested in Australia and overseas on the odd occasion, and with good reason. It’s a great connection to the sport’s past and a constant reminder of who came before, how good they really were and how much more damn descriptive writing was before video and social media.
References: Athletics Australia Almanac, Trove, Sydney Morning Herald Archives, NSW State Library
Progression Summary
Footnote
On talk of electronic and hand-timed records. The last time Paul Narracott’s 9.9h 100 metres record from 1984 was (co)listed as the Australian record with Damien Marsh’s 10.19 (1993) was in the 1994 Almanac. Before that the 9.9h was always listed alongside Narracott’s own 10.26 (1984)and Gerard Keating’s 10.22 (1985). After 1994, Marsh’s performances stood alone when referenced in the Almanacs.
