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Hale ready to take on the world at Nitro

Jack Hale will square off against American sensation Jarrion Lawson in the 100m at the second Nitro Athletics meet.

Jack Hale
Jack Hale will face slick opposition in the 100m at the second Nitro Athletics meet. (AAP)

Teenage sprint star Jack Hale will square off against American prodigy Jarrion Lawson in the 100m in the second Nitro Athletics meet on Thursday night.

Hale produced one of the standout moments of the first Nitro meet last Saturday with a storming anchor leg of the mixed 4x100m relay, lifting Australia from last spot to third.

Multiple world record holder and All Stars team captain-coach Usain Bolt had a host of options to face Hale in the blue-riband event at Lakeside Stadium.

Bolt could have run the individual 100m himself - although that was always a long shot so early in the season.

He could have gone with Asafa Powell, who succeeded Bolt as the 100m world record holder.

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Or he could have gone with yet another Jamaican member of the sub-10 second club in Michael Frater.

But in the end he decided to hand the gig to Lawson, who last year became the first man since the legendary Jesse Owens in 1936 to do the 100m-200m-long jump treble at the US collegiate championships.

Lawson, 22, was only denied the long jump gold medal at the Rio Olympics when officials ruled he had scraped a trailing finger in the sand on his final attempt.

He relegated Australia's 2015 world championships silver medallist Fabrice Lapierre to second spot in the long jump in the first Nitro meet and will showcase his versatility on Thursday night by switching focus to the 100m.

Lawson's official 100m PB of 10.04 seconds was set two years ago in Oregon, although he ran a sizzling time of 9.90 at the same meet with the aid of an illegal tailwind.

Hale is also set to run the second leg of the mixed 4x100m relay, the same leg which Bolt contested in the opening Nitro meet.

Hale's big target in the next 15 months is the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

But things could change quickly if Australia snare a spot in the men's 4x100m relay at August's world championships in London.

The individual 100m at the world titles isn't out of the question either for Hale, although the qualifying standard is a very slick 10.12, nine hundredths of a second off the PB he set last year.

"If I'm running well in a few months' time and I can pop that time out with some good competition and some good racing, it would be a real tough one to turn down," said Hale.

"It will be an interesting talk if it happens."


3 min read

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Source: AAP



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