Ballarat sprinter Cooper Sherman has finished third in his first run in Europe as he chases a solo berth in the 400m at the Paris Olympics.
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Sherman, running into what he described as a "hurricane," finished third in the Heusden-Zolder Night of Athletics in Belgium, but due to the conditions, the time was a lot slower than his personal best and will not count towards his top-five runs as he chases valuable ranking points.
The bronze-rated event had a host of sub-46-second runners entered, including Sherman, who has a best of 45.71 seconds, but the conditions meant no-one got close to their mark.
Sherman confided in coach Neville Down that despite the 47.17 second run, he was happy with the time.
"I was looking at the race and saw the 100m had some quick times and I thought, this could be terrific for us, but when I saw the 800m and the 400m women and realised how tough it was, it was always going to be a hard race," Down said.
"The 400m is an incredibly difficult race when it's windy. Going into the wind is not made up by the tail breeze section. Ideally you want it to be completely still.
"The time, he's been doing that in basic training runs and he can do that three times in a row, but he said he was quite happy given how tough it was.
"He's got a race in Spain this week, but the big one will be in Madrid at the weekend, that's a silver-standard event and that where the big points will be for him."
Sherman is currently ranked 54th in the world and needs to continue to earn points over the coming two weeks to have a chance of pressing into the top 48 in the world and possibly earning a solo run at the Olympics.
"Let's just call that a training run," Down said. "The big one is Madrid. He'll race again Wednesday Australian time, then another one after that.
"He's not only racing the clock now, but he's racing time as well. He can't afford to have time off now, we have to embrace every opportunity given to him, but even if it doesn't eventuate, what a fabulous experience it is for him and it puts him in great stead for the World Championships next year which we always saw as the realistic goal."
