Teen running prodigy Cameron Myers is ready to soak fresh ink into the Aussie athletics record books — but this time as one of the big boys.
So precociously talented is the youngster from Canberra that even at 16 and 17 he was a schoolboy racing men, although he is yet to pick up his first national record as a senior runner.
That could change when Myers, now 18, races a mile on an indoor track in New York City on Sunday morning (AEDT).
He's quietly confident he's in shape to qualify for this year's world championships, to be held in Tokyo, and he will have to break the Australian indoor mile record if he is to nail the qualification mark.
Fellow Aussie Adam Spencer will also race at the Dr Sander Scorcher meet at the Nike Track and Field Centre, so Myers could break Oliver Hoare's 3:50.83 benchmark but lose to Spencer and therefore not collect his first senior national record.
Aussie teen running prodigy Cameron Myers. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
But the biggest carrot dangling in front of the Nike-sponsored wonderkid is clocking the 3:50.00 required to qualify for September's world championships, where he's hoping to run in green and gold as a senior athlete for the first time.
"I'm definitely going over to America to run the [world championship] standard, and I think the Australian [indoor] record might be 3:50.8 in the mile," Myers, whose personal best in the mile is 3:50.15, told Wide World of Sports last week.
"I actually wrote down some goals after last season and I made it a lot simpler. The goal is to run the standard … and get in the top two positions at nationals [in April] just to be selected right then and there. And from there it's about reassessing my goals as I go."
Cameron Myers in action. Daniel Pockett/Getty Images
When Myers stopped the clock at 3:55.44 to become the fastest 16-year-old miler in history, the athletics world suddenly knew of a freakish running talent hailing from the Australian capital.
When he whizzed through a 1500m in 3:33.26 later in 2023 — in a run that shattered the under-18 world record — he again lit up social media on a global scale.
He then beat world champion Brit Jake Wightman at a low-key Sydney meet early last year, and the plaudits were again coming thick and fast.
He was qualified to be selected in the 1500m for the Paris Olympics, but only three could go and the three picked by Athletics Australia selectors were Hoare, Spencer and Stewart McSweyn.
At the world under-20 championships in Peru in August, Myers took silver in the 1500m. The winner of that race, Abdisa Fayisa of Ethiopia, is a year older.
Since then, Myers has finished Year 12 at Canberra's Lake Ginninderra College, smashed his own Australian under-20 record in the 3000m with a time of 7:41.11, and spent a total of six weeks racking up high-altitude miles in the Snowy Mountains.
Cameron Myers biding his time. Getty
"Training's been going well. We've changed a few things; we bumped my overall volume up a little bit more and I've been doing some faster stuff, as well. So I'm covering both sides of the spectrum," said Myers, who's coached by the highly respected Dick Telford.
"I'm feeling quite good and I'm in a good position to have a crack at running the world championship standard over in the US."
Myers' manager, James Templeton, has pencilled him in for two races in the US: the mile at the Dr Sander Scorcher meet, and another mile at the Millrose Games, to be held on the same indoor track on February 9 (AEDT).
Cameron Myers leading a train. Sarah Reed/Getty Images
"I hope the races are as fast as possible," Myers said.
"There's a good chance that [Josh] Kerr and [Yared] Nuguse [who both medalled at the Paris Olympics] are going to attack the world record in the mile at the Millrose Games, and honestly, that suits me, the faster pace. I'm always pretty comfortable and happy in that position. So if I can hang on for as long as I can in a race like that it'd be awesome."
Myers entered 2024 as the hottest teen prospect in Aussie athletics, but that tag now belongs to 17-year-old sprinter Gout Gout, who's gone so viral that Usain Bolt remarked on Instagram: "He looks like young me".
Delta Amidzovski, Torrie Lewis and Claudia Hollingsworth are among the other Aussie teens who've recently popped up in headlines, at least Down Under, on the back of glittering feats in track and field.
"It just shows how competitive junior running has gotten in Australia and that the standard in Australia is lifting, which is a great thing for the sport here," Myers said.
"I'm looking to achieve a lot higher in the future and that comes with the spotlight, so I guess in the next 12 months I'm probably looking to get back into that spotlight," he added with a laugh.
"… The team around me helps keep me grounded, and I guess it [media coverage] comes with the results that you're putting on the board."
