Brody Oliver can run the 100m sprint in 11.38 seconds. Photo: Athletics West.
At 13 years of age Brody Oliver has become WA’s fastest male in the under 15s 100m sprint.
He is running faster than boys two years older than him, but Oliver said his main competition is with himself.
In January, Oliver ran 100m in 11.74 seconds at the WA Country Athletics championships, breaking his personal record at the time.
He needed to run 0.03 seconds faster at the WA state track and field Championships last weekend to secure his ticket to the Nationals.
Running a time of 11.38 seconds, Oliver’s mum Kristy Linden said he didn’t just achieve his goal, he “totally smashed it”.
“He blew it out of the water pretty much,” she said.
With his genuine love of the sport, Oliver said walking away with the gold medal for the 100m sprint had been “amazing”.
He said he had been confident going into state championships because he knew how a little competition could work in his favour.
“To be honest when there’s no competition it’s pretty easy,” he said, “but once there’s competition right next to me running, I’ll push harder and push better and normally I’ll flog my PB if someone’s right next to me.”
Before the gun is fired at the starting line, Oliver said there was only one thing going through his mind.
“Just try to run like the wind,” he said
“That’s all I think about.”
Oliver has qualified for 100m sprint, 200m sprint, triple jump and long jump for the 2025 Australian Junior Athletics Championships taking place in Perth in April.
“That’s when I verse the best of the best of Australia,” Oliver said.
“If I win that then I’m best in Australia.”
Now that he has achieved his goal of having the fastest 100m in his age group in WA, Oliver said his ongoing goal was to keep getting faster and eventually get a time within 10 seconds.
He has a few training methods he uses in Esperance like running on the beach or running laps of Ports oval, but Oliver said his favourite was running up the stairs at West Beach.
“It’s hard but it definitely works,” he said.
Kristy Linden said he could run up the stairs in around twelve seconds.
She said with his skill, she thought Oliver was completely capable of Olympic prospects but that he was more invested in AFL.
“One of his main goals since he was younger was to use his speed and agility for football,” she said.
“So, the Olympics might be in the mix, but his passion would be more leaning towards football and then use that speed to get into a well-known AFL team.
“I think that would be his main goal.”
Being a well-rounded sportsman, Oliver also plays team sports while training for athletics.
Ms Linden said two of his local basketball teams were looking promising heading into the final games of the season, and if they made it to the grand final the game would clash with Oliver’s national triple jump championship.
“It’s within an hour of each other so he needs to be in Esperance, or he needs to be in Perth,” she said.
“It’s up to him, but we can still make the other three events if he does get into his basketball grand finals.”
Both Oliver and Ms Linden were very grateful to the Esperance community for supporting the success of “an Esperance kid”.
“It is difficult living this far away from competitions, and your family and friends in the community just makes all that much better,” Ms Linden said.
