FORMER Nowra Athletics Club athlete Jye Edwards is off to the Tokyo Olympic Games, after taking the win in the Opens 1500m at this week’s Australian Track and Field Championships.
Jye was a talented junior with Nowra Athletics Club for many years before moving away to Canberra.
In 2017 Jye took out the Frank McCaffrey Top Performance Award with the Club. Back then the report stated “Jye continues to excel in both track and cross country running. In the Sydney Invitational on Saturday 4th February 2017 Jye competed in the men’s 1500m event. In this race records were smashed, personal bests were shattered and all-time lists were re-written. Jordan Gusman stormed home winning the race but in second was Jye in a stunning 3:41.69 – the seventh fastest in Australian history. In one week, Jye took six seconds from his PB taking his place in history along with Ryan Gregson on the Australian U20 1500m All Time list.
In the 2017 National Championships in March once again Jye proved his outstanding talent by taking out the Under 20 1500m in a time of 3.50.02 minutes. Despite a strong field Jye was able to hold on to take out the win in his first track national title, and one very well deserved after consistently performing across the season”
On the weekend Jye (now with BANKSTOWN Club), contested the 1500m in one of the deepest 1500m National fields in decades, possibly ever. Jye matched it with the best in Australia including the national record holder Stewart McSweyn from Tasmania. From the start, McSweyn took off at a cracking pace and although the initial plan for Jye was to sit back, he decided to follow. That split-second decision to go after McSweyn paid off big time! By 600m the pair were 30m ahead of the field. Edwards was relentless, staying right on the heel of McSweyn. With 50m remaining Jye surged ahead, passing McSweyn for victory. Jye took the National Title, and clocked the fastest time by an Australian on home soil (3.33.99) and in doing so achieved an Olympic qualifier. The time fell below the Olympic qualification standard of 3:35.00, and secured his automatic spot on the Athletics Australia Olympic team, bound for Tokyo.
In January this year Matthew Ramsden ran 3:34.97 at a club meet in Perth. At that stage, the run was the fastest in Australia since Mike Hillardt (3:34.06) and Pat Scammell (3:34.61) set in Melbourne in March 1988. Now Jye has beaten that and taken his place in the history books. Whilst Stewart McSweyn still holds the Australian record of 3:30.51 set in Doha, Qatar in September 2020, Jye has certainly demonstrated he is a contender for that title too.
Jye is such a humble athlete. For those Nowra athletes who train with MNG, they were treated to a visit from Jye in December last year at their annual awards event. At that time, Jye provided some inspiring words and motivation for athletes, describing that hard work, persistence and positivity does pay off. His weekend results certainly prove that! It was an honour to have Jye visit his old Club and participate in the awards event and now that Jye has qualified for the Olympics we are sure there is much more success to come, and we look forward to inviting him back again to share the experience with us.
