Ollie Hoare says his top goal is “competing with the best in the world with Australia on my chest”, but the distance runner also has a sweep of records in his sights.
The Tokyo Olympian will next don green and gold when he lines up in the men’s 1500m at the World Athletics indoor championships, tackling the first round on Saturday and, if he qualifies, the final on Monday.
A quirk in Hoare’s resume is five of his personal bests were set indoors, not outdoors, which could serve as a source of confidence in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
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The 25-year-old US-based athlete owns three of the five Australian men’s indoor records between 1000m and 5000m, having set national benchmarks over 1500m, the mile and the 5000m.
His face lit up when asked in an interview with Wide World of Sports if he had hopes of also clinching the 1000m and 3000m records.
“That would be a pretty cool resume to have, all the indoor records,” Hoare said with a laugh.
“I know the 3000m is probably the hardest … That would be a pretty amazing thing to do, as well. But, maybe, sometime in the near future it’d be a possibility.
“I know 1000m isn’t run too much … so if that did come up that’d be a good opportunity, as well, to break that record.”
The 3000m record belongs to Craig Mottram, who posted 7:34.50 in Boston in 2008. Hoare’s best is 7:48.81.
The 1000m record is owned by Ryan Foster, who registered 2:19.60 in Pennsylvania in 2010. Hoare is yet to run an indoor 1000m but has an outdoor personal best of 2:23.84.
Mottram was a threat to the most notable African runners of the 2000s and knew he’d earned their respect when they gave him the nickname ‘The Big Mazungo’, meaning big white man.
“For us it’s a great indication of where we are to be able to break records, particularly set by people like Craig Mottram, who are world medallists and amazing figures, particularly in my sport,” Hoare said.
“It’d be amazing to be up to that level because when you’re breaking records like that, when you’re competing against the best in the world, you can be very competitive.
“It’s a great indication of where we are and I know a lot of Australian records have been broken over the past few years. It’s a great testament to the athletes out there right now for Australia killing it.”
Australia’s leading male distance runner at the moment is Stewart McSweyn, who last week withdrew from the World Athletics indoor championships due to long COVID.
The Tasmanian has in the last two years collected the Australian men’s outdoor records over 1500m, the mile and 3000m.
McSweyn and Hoare both featured in the men’s 1500m final at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing seventh and 11th respectively.
Not since John Landy and Merv Lincoln at the 1956 Melbourne Games had two Australian men advanced to the same Olympic 1500m final.
“Stewy’s been a great impact on the sport for distance running on the men’s side,” Hoare said.
“He’s been a great indication of what you can do and what you can achieve when you put a lot of hard work in.
“The way he races and the way he goes out there and competes for Australia is a very, very cool thing.
“I just want to be a part of that and to be a part of a wave of Australians that will come through and hopefully be very competitive.”
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