Teen sensation Claudia Hollingsworth has lit up the Canberra Track Classic, smashing her 800m personal best and bettering the Olympic qualifying standard for the first time.
Shaving a full second off her personal best time, the 18-year-old finished in one minute 58.81 seconds on Saturday, comfortably going below the Olympic mark by nearly half a second.
Hollingsworth's time makes her the third-fastest Australian woman ever over 800m, behind fellow Olympic aspirants Abbey Caldwell and Catriona Bisset.
Tokyo Games competitor Bendere Oboya gave training partner Hollingsworth a genuine scare as she stuck right on her heels into the straight while posting her own Olympic benchmark.
Remarkably, Oboya stripped nearly three seconds off her personal best and broke the two-minute mark for the first time at 1:59.01.
Australia now has four competitors under the 800m qualifier, the duo joining Caldwell and Bisset.
April’s national championships will play a huge part in shaping the three-athlete team for the Paris Games.
Hollingsworth was adamant she wasn’t expecting such a quick time in Canberra, but certainly wasn’t complaining about having hit the mark.
“I've been training pretty hard, so it's nice to see that paying off, but definitely not at all (did I expect to run the Olympic time),” she said.
“It's just really exciting to see I've still got so much time in the season to see what we can do.
“It's obviously everyone's dream for this Australian season to get it ticked off ... and for it to happen so early.
“I went in quite relaxed and just thought on emotions it was going to be a fast pace.
"(It was) an exciting time hearing I'd run the qualifying time over the speaker.”
In other events, Torrie Lewis took out the women’s 100m but couldn’t get near her Australian record of 11.10 seconds, posting a time of 11.31.
She is also looking to shave 0.03 seconds off her personal best to run an Olympic standard time.
“It wasn't the time I wanted, but you come to these things to win the race, and I won the race so I'm happy with that,” Lewis said.
“I'm gaining confidence in all of my wins ... every classic I've done except for Melbourne I've won, and it just gives me a lot of confidence.”
Josh Azzopardi won the men's 100m in 10.53 seconds, but needed a late burst to hold off Sierra Leone's Ismail Kamara.
Australian-born Frenchman Sasha Zhoya won the men’s 100m hurdles, but wasn’t satisfied with his time of 13.50 seconds.
Two-time Australian champion Liz Clay continued her strong form, winning the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.09 seconds.
Canada’s Michelle Harrison (13.17) and Australian Danielle Shaw (13.21) completed the podium.
Teenager Peyton Craig rounded out the meet by winning the men’s 800m, needing to dig deep to see off Luke Boyes, who posted a personal-best time.
Australian under-20 record-holder Craig ran one minute 45.91 seconds, more than a second outside the Olympic mark.
