The athletics members of the Australian Olympic Team have produced sensational performances that have enthralled millions across Australia and there is more to come to close out the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

High jump and 1500m finals close Olympic Stadium campaign

In the women’s high jump final, Nicola McDermott and Eleanor Patterson will compete for gold having sailed through their qualification round on Thursday.

McDermott entered the competition at 1.86m in the qualification and delivered first attempt clearances at 1.90m, 1.93m and the automatic qualification mark of 1.95m.

She will start in the final with a personal best and Australian record of 2.01m and has confidence in her preparation having mirrored her build-up to a very successful outcome at the Australian Championships in Sydney to earn her selection.

Patterson also cleared 1.86 upon her first attempt and went on to jump 1.90m and 1.93m with her first attempt before a second jump clearance at the qualifying mark of 1.95m.

She is competing at the Olympic Games having had a significant two years, moving to Sydney to train under Alex Stewart and alongside Tokyo fourth-place getter Brandon Starc while managing a stress fracture in her right foot.

The women’s high jump final commences at 8:35pm AEST.

On the track, Stewart McSweyn and Ollie Hoare will start in the men’s 1500m final having both automatically qualified to run via a top-five performance in the semi-final.

McSweyn is ranked fifth in the world for the event in 2021, having run a national record 3:29.51 at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July, while Hoare, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, qualified via a 3:33.19 run at the USATF Golden Games in May this year.

This is the first time Australia has had two men in 1500m Olympic final since 1956!

The men’s 1500m final commences at 9:40pm AEST and the tactics will be enthralling as athletes run to their strengths and position themselves for the best chance of standing on the podium.

The quartet will look to add to Australia’s track and field medal tally of two bronze, from Ash Moloney in the decathlon and Kelsey-Lee Barber in the javelin.

Marathon men and women take to Sapporo course

To be held in the picturesque surrounds of Sapporo on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, the men’s and women’s marathons bring to a close athletics competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Sinead Diver, Lisa Weightman and Ellie Pashley race first in the women’s event at 8:00am AEST on Saturday 7 August, before the trio of Brett Robinson, Jack Rayner and Liam Adams start in the men’s marathon on the final day of the Olympic Games.

The course begins at the Sapporo Odori Park before completing a single 21-kilometre loop that is followed by two shorter loops of the precinct before the run for home.

Weightman is competing at her fourth Olympic Games, while Brett Robinson and Liam Adams are returning for their second Olympics.

Ellie Pashley, Sinead Diver and Jack Rayner are making their Olympic debut.

The 42-year-old Weightman becomes just the eighth Australian to make four Games in Athletics, joining marathon legends Steve Moneghetti, Lisa Ondieki, Rob de Castella and Benita Willis as four-time Olympians.

Reflecting the recent strength in Australian distance running, it is the third consecutive Games Australia has qualified a full complement of three men and three women marathoners.

Diver, Weightman and Pashley combine as the strongest trio Australia has ever sent to a Games, with all three in the Australian top-8 all time, while Rio 5000m runner Brett Robinson and Olympic debutant Jack Rayner have notched the fastest marathon times by Australian men for over a dozen years.

Cody Lynch