Joshua Azzopardi (born 27 November 1999) is an Australian sprinter. In 2024, he became Oceania champion in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

Early life

From

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, he started athletics when he was six years-old. He also played

Australian Rules Football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

as a youngster and played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

for Camden Rams. He was offered a Rugby Sevens contract by Rugby Australia in 2019, but declined in order to focus on athletics. He received a New South Wales Institute of Sport scholarship.

Career

Azzopardi ran as part of the Australian 4x100m relay team at the 2024 World Relays Championships in

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of ...

, where they qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In June 2024, he won gold in the 100 metres at the

2024 Oceania Athletics Championships The 17th Oceania Athletics Championships were held from 1 to 7 June 2024 at the HFC Bank Stadium in Suva, Fiji. It was the third time Fiji had staged the sporting event after hosting the inaugural 1990 edition, and the 2017 edition both at the H ...

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

, ahead of Australian champion Sebastian Sultana. He competed in the 100 metres and in the men's 4x100m relay at the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

, being part of the team which set a new Australian and Oceania Area record of 38.12 s in the heats. Azzopardi surpassed the

2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships The 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 21 to 23 March 2025 in Nanjing, People's Republic of China, at the newly built Nanjing's Cube gymnasium in the Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park. Nanjing was originally due to host the ...

60 metres 60 metres, or 60-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At indoor events, the 60 metres is run on lanes set out in the mi ...

qualifying mark with 6.52 s at the ACT Open Athletics Championships on 25 January 2025. He was runner-up to Lachlan Kennedy over 60 metres at the Australian short track national championships in

on 1 February 2025. He ran a personal best 10.09 seconds for the 100 metres at the Perth Classic on 1 March 2025. He was selected for the

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

in March 2025. He competed for Australia at the

2025 World Athletics Relays The 2025 World Athletics Relays was held at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou, China on 10 and 11 May 2025. It was the 7th edition of the World Athletics Relays and the first time the event was held in China. The 2025 edition was the ...

in China, helping the Australian men's 4x100m team qualify for the 2025 World Championships.

References

External links

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Joshua Azzopardi
at

Australian Athletics Australian Athletics is the national sporting organisation (NSO) recognised by Australian Sports Commission for the sport of athletics in Australia. Founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 reg ...

Joshua Azzopardi
at Australian Athletics Historical Results * * * * 1999 births Living people Australian male sprinters Oceanian Athletics Championships winners Olympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Athletes from Sydney 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-athletics-bio-stub