The hype train around Aussie sprinting is well and truly rolling, and fair enough. Lachie Kennedy is posting times never seen before by an Aussie on home soil, and teenage star Gout Gout puts his name in the junior record books almost every time he runs.
But can we interest you in a teenager who is doing both of those things, right now? Thatโs him, over in the shadows.
Cameron Myers, 19, is the other teen star of Australian athletics whose consistently incredible feats have earned him recognition globally as one of the hottest middle distance runners on the planet. But Myersโ stellar performances, even as recently as last weekend at the Australian national titles, struggle to push Gout and co off the front and back pages.
โAnd you know what? He just doesnโt care. He doesnโt mind being under the radar,โ Myersโ agent James Templeton says. โCam is all about performance.โ
In utterly dominant runs, Myers won two national titles โ the 1500m and 5000m โ in Sydney last week. In a high-quality 1500m field where half the athletes had run 3.36 or lower, Myers led from wire to wire and had broken them all with a lap to run โ finishing in 3.29.85. The time was just outside Ollie Hoareโs national record. It was also the first time anyone had ever run under 3.30.0s in Australia โ including world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj.
One analyst assessed it as the fastest 1500m time run outside a major championship, and without the help of pacers, this century. Anywhere.
โI knew I was going to run quick,โ Myers said post-race. โFunnily enough I think my shape is far better than I was able to show because I didnโt have pacers. I was really hoping to get under 3.29 but thatโs obviously a difficult task to do on your own.โ
One night later Myers slashed 20 seconds off his PB to win the 5000m national title as well. The bouncy new track in Sydney likely played a part but not as much as some sceptics contend, given Myers has been burning up tracks around the world all year. He ran the fastest mile in January ever in Seattle, and posted a 3.30.42 to win the 1500m at the Maurie Plant meeting in Melbourne last month.
For global athletics watchers, the performances further confirm what has been said about Myers for a few years: he is a future contender for Olympic and world championship medals. Myers has built his year around running the mile at the Commonwealth Games in July.
The Canberra-raised runner, who is coached by the legendary Dick Telford, first made headlines in 2023 at the age of 16, when he joined Olympic star Jakob Ingebrigtsen as the only two boys under-16 to run under four minutes for the mile (but in a faster time).
Like Gout, Myers has since made a habit of breaking the underage records of not only Australia, but of the biggest names globally as well.
In 2023, he set new worldโs best under-18 times for the mile and 1500m, and by the end of it, had bettered all the best under-18 times of Ingebritsen. In 2024 and 2025, Myers then announced himself with outstanding runs at senior level and won an under-20s world championship silver medal in the 1500m in 2024. Illness saw him exit in a slow heat at the senior world championship in Tokyo last year.
This year Myers has returned with a bang, showing dominant form in mile and indoor racing โ breaking the Australian 3000m record โ in the US before returning to race at home.
Myers currently holds three under-20 world records (indoors and outdoors) and all but one of the five Australian under-20 records between 1000m and 3000m.
Templeton said he was struck by Myersโ physical transformation this year when he pulled off his tracksuit top ahead of the race in Seattle.
โI thought, Jesus, he looks physically imposing,โ Templeton said. โI said to him over dinner, hey mate, you look like a f—ing beast.โ
Myers revealed heโd grown and added five kilograms of muscle in the last year, and with no side effects: all other key metrics are improved, too.
โHe said โIโm running those faster with less effortโ and itโs funny, I look back at photos of him three years ago, two years ago, and he looks like a boy,โ Templeton said. โAnd I said, youโre now a man. So itโs like a natural evolution.
โThe connection to Gout is Lance Brauman, the great sprint coach, who said to Gout last year, โjust be patientโ. It takes a while to develop grown man strength, he calls it. That is what is coming to Cam now.โ
Templeton also manages Gout and Peter Bol.
Myers, currently ranked eighth in the world in the 1500m, will race in several Diamond League meetings ahead of the Commonwealth Games, where he will run in one of the strongest races of the meet, the mile. British stars Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr will be there, and likely Kenyan top-10 trio Reynold Cheruiyot, Timothy Cheruiyot and Phanuel Koech as well.
โThatโs the focus of this year,โ Templeton said. โCam is coming on beautifully.โ
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
