‘I expected to go under, but not that far under’: Teen Cameron Myers savours the sub four-minute mile
Canberra teenager Cameron Myers loves to run and loves to win, so when he crossed the line in third place in the mile race at the Maurie Plant Meet at Albert Park in Melbourne on Thursday night, he didn’t realise he had made history.
The 16-year-old had expected he would drop under the celebrated four-minute mark. But Myers announced himself a future star in Australian running with a time of three minutes, 55.44 seconds, which was a world record for 16-year-olds, beating the time held by Tokyo Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who was nine days younger than Myers when he ran 3:58.07 in May 2017.
Cameron Myers upstaged with his performance on Thursday night.Credit:Justin McManus
“I didn’t have any idea,” Myers told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on Friday.
“It wasn’t until someone came up to me and told me the time that I got to understand what had happened.
“It was cool, but I expected to go under, but not that far under.”
That time is being talked about around the world as Ingebrigtsen is now one of the sport’s most celebrated runners, but Myers was refusing to let himself be distracted.
“I don’t think it changes much for me,” Myers said.
“It is about how you progress to the open ranks.
“It’s only an age world record. It’s cool to have, but it’s not the be-all and end-all.”
Myers was more impressed by the opportunity to test himself against the likes of Commonwealth champion Ollie Hoare, who won Thursday night’s race in 3:52.24.
“It’s really cool to toe the line with people you respect. It’s a great opportunity. You are racing your inspirations,” Myers said.
“You look up to him as someone who just stays relaxed and runs fast. He looks good when he is running and that’s something I want to take away from racing against him.”
Respected athletics coach and academic professor Dick Telford saw key traits in Myers two years ago as a 14-year-old and invited him to Telford’s group of five top-level runners. The group included Tokyo Olympic 1500-metre runner Jye Edwards.
Telford said he had not expected Myers would improve this fast.
“I’m used to dealing with youngsters and I never, ever like to make predictions about 14-year-olds because lots of things happen between 14 and 18 in terms of maturity and improvement,” Telford said on Friday.
“He’s been running with guys a lot better than him, including Jye Edwards, who ran in the last Olympics in the 1500 metres. Cam sort of lifted himself then.”
Myers, who runs for Bankstown Athletics Club in Sydney, aimed to stay at the front of the pack and use his natural speed and the endurance built through longer-distance training with coach Lee Bobbin, to break away in the last lap.
Bobbin has coached Myers since he was 10, and said the runner had embraced training with older, faster athletes.
“He’s always had elite runners that he’s been training with,” Bobbin said.
“He just aspires to be as good as them.”
Myers said he loved all parts of the sport.
“I don’t know how I got into it, but when you are winning you are going to like something and that’s why I do it – because I like winning, and it’s cool in a social aspect, and you get to travel as well,” Myers said.
“The community in running is like no other.”
Bobbin had no doubt Myers would smash the record, and he did it all with an Achilles complaint that forced Bobbin to slow down the teenager’s training before the race.
“He didn’t like it. He wants to be able to train like a legend every time he runs onto the track,” Bobbin said.
Myers shrugged off talk about his injury and said it was part of running to manage injuries.
Myers has improved his 1500-metre personal best by 12 seconds since January.
He also won the Albie Thomas 1 Mile Australian championship last December, beating a field of open-age runners including Australian representative Joseph Deng in a slow, tactical race, where his winning time was 4:07.04.
He is planning to run in the Sydney Track Classic in March and the Australian track and field championships in Brisbane at the end of March.
Myers has a personal best of 8:05 in the 3000 metres, and he could run that event in Sydney. Bobbin said Myers only needed to improve by five seconds to break the Australian under-18 record for that event.
Telford said scores of US colleges were trying to attract Myers, and it would be a challenge to keep him in Australia.
But Myers loved the atmosphere made by 6600 fans at Albert Park on Thursday night, and he plans to keep his options open. Representing Australia at the highest level is his main goal.
“Ultimately, that is the goal – most runners grow up and see people at the Olympics or Comm Games and say they want to do that with their careers,” Myers said.
“We will have to see how we go.”
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