Cameron Myers, the 20-year-old Australian middle-distance runner, shattered the national 1500m record in Paris on Sunday night, clocking 3:28.00. This is the fastest time in the world this year and the quickest ever run by an athlete under 21. Myers now sits 12th on the all-time 1500m list, two seconds off the world record.
Record-Breaking Performance in Paris
Myers admitted the Australian record was a key target. "I think having that exterior pressure on yourself to get a time, sort of takes away from the main part of the race and that's winning. So, yeah, clearing that up [the record], I think it's going to be huge going forward," he said. He won the race ahead of French runner Azeddine Habz and Britain's 2022 world champion Jake Wightman.
Next Stop: Commonwealth Games Mile
Myers' next major target is the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where he will compete in the mile—the first time this distance has been run at the Games in 60 years. He will face fellow Australian Olli Hoare, whose national record he just broke, as well as Wightman and 2023 world champion Josh Kerr, both Scots competing on home soil.
"I want to win and I want to put up a good fight," Myers said in Paris. "So, even if I don't win, I want to make sure that I make the other guys work as hard as possible."
Path to LA 2028 Olympics
Whatever happens in Glasgow, Myers has positioned himself as a medal contender for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. His journey began at Belconnen Little Athletics Club when he was six. He told Australian Athletics that at age 10, "I did my first cross-country nationals and I just got smashed. I finished 17th or something and I went, 'argh, I don't want this to happen again, I really hate losing.'"
Coached by Lee Bobbin at 10 and renowned sports scientist Dick Telford at 14, Myers has always had someone to chase. Bobbin said: "Cameron has been lucky all his career because he has had someone better than him to chase." Now Myers is becoming the runner leading and dictating races.
Breakout Years and Olympic Snub
Since graduating from Lake Ginninderra College in 2024, Myers has raced relentlessly across 800m, 1500m, mile, 3000m, and even 5000m, winning at each distance. In 2023, he burst onto the scene as the second-youngest to break the four-minute mile and later clocked 3:33.26 for 1500m—the fastest ever by an under-18 athlete.
He met the qualification standard for the 1500m at the 2024 Paris Olympics as a teenager, but the Australian squad was limited to three runners, and he finished fifth, losing out to Hoare, Stewart McSweyn, and Adam Spencer. He told GQ earlier this year that the Olympic snub "was a tough pill to swallow initially, but I think beyond that, it gave me the fire."
Comparisons with Jakob Ingebrigtsen
Earlier this year, Myers ran 800m in 1:44.05 in Karlsruhe, Germany—a time faster than Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Cole Hocker, or Josh Kerr have ever managed. His 1500m time in Paris was 0.32 seconds faster than Ingebrigtsen's winning time at the Tokyo Olympics when the Norwegian was the same age.
Myers has been transparent in his admiration for Ingebrigtsen. "I love watching him win races and he looks like he does it with ease." With both seemingly committing to the 1500m, the boy from Canberra who idolised the Olympic gold medallist may yet challenge him for gold in Los Angeles.
