Kennedy breaks 10-second barrier at national championships

Australian sprinter Lachie Kennedy made history at the national championships in Sydney, becoming the first local to run under 10 seconds for the 100 meters on home soil.

Kennedy leaves rivals in his wake with record-breaking 9.96sec heat

The 22-year-old Queenslander stormed to victory in the opening heat of the 100m on Friday night, stopping the clock at an astonishing 9.96 seconds with a legal wind assistance of +0.3m/s.

It was a monumental achievement and a personal best for Kennedy, who slashed two hundredths of a second off his previous record set in Nairobi last year.

The milestone marked the first time an Australian athlete has broken the 10-second barrier in a competitive event held on domestic soil. Even more impressively, Kennedy's time was just 0.09 seconds shy of the national record of 9.93 seconds, set by Patrick Johnson in Japan in 2003.

When asked if he expected to dip under the 10-second mark, Kennedy admitted he was pleasantly surprised, attributing his success to being