Jon Stephensen savages Rohan Browning in ‘amateur hour’ relay debacle: Commonwealth Games 2022

Australia seemed to be on track to qualify for the 4x100m final, but it all fell apart in the final change when Rohan Browning tripped his leg and hit the deck.

It was a disappointing result after the team of Josh Azopardi, Jacob Despard, Jack Hale and Browning crashed out.

After an impressive show, commentators were stunned by the moment.

“The last change has to be clean,” McAvaney began to say before Tamsin Manu yelled in the commentary box as Browning hit the deck.

“Oh, he fell. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.”

“It’s a disaster for Australians.

“I have never seen anything so truthful.”

“It was terrible,” added Manu.

“He looks beaten up. Lohan wouldn’t have been able to do much of this workout. He would have been focused on getting his body right. He really stumbled when he came in.”

In looking for the reason behind his stumble, Browning struggled not to start from a block, or from the belief that he was unsure about starting on a curve instead of a straight.

Not looking for excuses was John Stephensen, 2006 Commonwealth Games 400m gold medalist and Olympic 4x400m relay silver medalist.

“If it was the finals, you really want to push the relay change zone passover, so I’ll take it,” he said on Channel 7.

“You really want to get them out a little bit. You’re fighting some of the best in the Commonwealth, or some of the best in the world, so you want to take a little more risk.

“But it was amateur hour last night. I don’t know what was going on in his brain to see what happened to Lohan.

“In athletics accidents happen, mistakes happen. Yes, I understand.

“But it’s one of them, and I’ve done it[many times]in training. Sometimes you want to push, sometimes you really push the barriers, push the angles you want out of the drive. I have.

“In training, go lower and lower and try to get back up. Then find a comfortable position from which you can take off.”

Former Olympic 100m sprinter turned Channel 7 presenter Matt Shirvington says he knows how Browning feels, having been in a similar position during the 4x100m final at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. rice field.

In that final, Australia appeared to be gunning for a medal, but Shervington let go of an early touch and Adam Miller was unable to catch him to pass the baton.

Shervington said Browning would be “hungry”.

“Lohan was more than most of them because the other boys were waiting to compete,” Shervington told Channel 7.

“Rohan knew he was going to have a lot of speed going into this and he’s in good shape.

“I have been there before and have been several times.

“I went to a packed MCG at the Commonwealth Games and the same changes were made in the finals, but they didn’t make it.”

Browning apologized to his teammates who had been on the team specifically for the relay, admitting he was immediately “frustrated”.

“I’m sorry. I know these boys put in a lot of work. I’ve never had anything like this in my time in track and field.”

“I grabbed my toe and slipped. It’s never happened before in training or racing.”

teammate Jack Hale was quick to console Browning both in the post-race and post-match interviews.

“It’s a relay. There are so many variables and these things happen. That’s exactly what it is,” Hale told Channel 7.

Browning finished sixth in the individual 100m finaljust 0.06 seconds short of the bronze medal at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

At the 1998 Olympics, Matt Shervington’s lightning time of 10.03 was not enough to win a medal, so it was the closest Australia came to winning a medal in the men’s Blue Ribbon event.

Australia have not won a medal in the men’s event since the Commonwealth Games changed the distance to 100m in 1970. At least he has to wait another four years.

first published as Great Australian barbarian Rohan Browning over ‘Amateur Hour’ debacle