Superstars of Australian athletics will take on the world’s best at the Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne from 7:00pm at Lakeside Stadium on February 23, with reigning 100m world champion Fred Kerley and Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz headlining athlete announcements to date.
Taking place in the heart of Australia’s sporting capital, the action-packed meet is set to be a celebration of the sport in honour of the late athletics stalwart Maurie Plant. With plans in place for it to become the highest profile annual track and field event in the southern hemisphere, the Continental Tour Gold Level Meet has attracted both local and international stars.
Offering over $200,000 in prize money and substantial world ranking points which assist athletes in their quest for World Championships and Olympic Games qualification, the event is not to be missed. Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers and national icons Rohan Browning, Oliver Hoare and more set to bring the heat to their global competitors.
Returning down under after his Commonwealth Games 1500m title, Hoare will be challenged by 2016 Olympic 1500m champion Centrowitz who has carved his name into athletics immortality throughout the years. The two will race in the John Landy Memorial Mile alongside New Zealand’s Samuel Tanner, a race named in honour of the Australian athletics legend who passed away last year.
There will be fireworks in the 200m as Browning steps up in distance to take on Kerley who has earned the title of the fastest man in the world, while rising talents Aidan Murphy and Calab Law will join their countryman in picking up the gauntlet thrown down by the big American.
Olyslagers has already jumped 1.98m this year and the equal Australian record holder at 2.02m will be out to return over the two-metre barrier, embracing the competition of Kiwi competitors Keeley O’Hagan and Imogen Skelton. 18-year-old Australian Erin Shaw was fourth at last year’s World Under 20 Championships and appears set to take off in 2023.
“The Maurie Plant Meet will bring excitement, passion and pure talent to Melbourne and best of all, we will be able to showcase all that Australian athletics has to offer. If you have been touched by athletics in one way or another – whether it’s through school athletics, watching the Olympics or Paralympics at home, or you’re a weekend warrior like many of us – there will be something for you at the Maurie Plant Meet,” Athletics Australia Chief Executive Officer Peter Bromley said.
The meet has been named after the late Maurie Plant, a doyen of Australian athletics, who contributed significantly to the golden era of the sport ahead of the Sydney 2000 Games. Plant developed enduring relationships with international stars, bringing them down under and was instrumental to the success of many of Australia’s best ever track and field athletes including Olympic gold medallists and household names Catherine Freeman, Steve Hooker and Sally Pearson.
Larger-than-life, Plant became a central figure in the sport internationally and the meet will become an annual event in his honour, celebrating his legacy of bringing the world’s best talent to Melbourne to train and compete against our home-grown heroes.
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