CATCH HIM IF YOU CAN

IN THE MASTERPIECE Chariots of Fire, athletics coach Sam Mussabini tells an ambitious young flyer: “You can’t put in what God left out”. Translation: speed is a gift you’re born with and no amount of tuition can turn a good sprinter into a champion.

But in the case of Rohan Browning, this observation seems only half true.

At school athletics carnivals he was untouchable. “But I could never perform at state,” Browning recalls. Recently, his mum sent him a photo from way back when he ran last in a 200m final. “All those guys who finished ahead of me, I don’t think they’re even running anymore,” he says.

Browning’s story is a lesson in patience and dedication. That teenager who ate the dust of his rivals is now 23 and Australia’s fastest man. In Tokyo, he’ll line up in the sport’s purest