Australian Olympic Decathlon Medalist Moloney Switches to 400m Hurdles

Ash Moloney, who briefly became the face of Australian athletics after his dramatic Tokyo Olympic decathlon bronze medal in 2021, has abandoned the event for a bold new career in the 400-meter hurdles.

The 26-year-old will compete for the Oceania title on Friday in his new event, marking what he described as his biggest leap yet in a risky transformation.

“It’s just fun, it’s a completely different challenge,” Moloney said.

Before the emergence of Gout Gout, Lachie Kennedy and a new generation of athletes leading Australia toward the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, Moloney represented the sport’s future. However, his current life is far from foreseeable: years of injury recovery, a new coach, the end of his friendship with decathlon teammate Cedric Dubler, and new ambitions.

The decathlon teammates’ relationship was tested after Tokyo, and Moloney has previously said he sometimes felt the public’s focus on Dubler’s on-track encouragement overshadowed his own achievement.

When asked to elaborate on their relationship now, Moloney offered a simple “no comment.”

The Olympic bronze medalist is now focused on selection for this year’s Commonwealth Games, having ended his decade-long decathlon career due to a succession of injuries and, he admitted, sheer boredom.

The hurdles specialty allows him a newfound focus. “I’m used to just absolutely flogging myself,” he said. “Now I have to work on form, which is all new to me, work on stride lengths.”

Moloney has made rapid improvement since his first competitive 400-meter hurdles event in February, when he eased across the line in Brisbane in 57 seconds. Two weeks later in Hobart he ran under 53 seconds, then recorded two times under 52 seconds before the national championships in April.

“I’ve been ambidextrous my whole life, I can sprint hurdle on both legs,” he said. “It almost just seemed like why not? Why not give it a try? Get that question out of my head.”

At the national athletics championships, Moloney ran under 50 seconds for the first time, finishing third in the final, narrowly behind 19-year-old Matthew Hunt and 22-year-old Kyle Bennett.

The trio are the top qualifiers for Friday’s Oceania championship showdown in Darwin. “I believe I can make Comm Games,” Moloney said. “I believe I can go 48 [seconds].”

Moloney backed up his Tokyo bronze with another podium at the world indoor championships in 2022, remaining Australia’s top decathlete for four years. But he could not repeat that success internationally, failing to finish in successive outdoor world championships and at the Paris Olympics.

His ailments included foot, hamstring, knee and adductor injuries, and he spent 2025 recuperating. “I was just struggling with injuries, 10 events is a lot of events,” he said. “I’m a big boy, I’m getting older, I just needed time off from the events.”

“Every time I high jumped I was in agony. Getting ready for events, I was more nervous about hurting myself again than I was just competing, having fun,” he added.

Moloney said the change of event and his new approach — he is now coached by Andrew Iselin, who also oversees sprint star Lachie Kennedy — has given him renewed enthusiasm. “Honestly, I was bored with decathlon, I just wanted a new challenge. I’ve been doing decathlon since I was 16, I’m 26 now.”

Moloney and Dubler chose different training environments after the Tokyo Games and went their separate ways. “I don’t think there’s any bad blood there,” Dubler said. “It’s just a change of situation, a change of coaches and perspective.”

Dubler, still 31, continues to compete in decathlon, though he missed the national championships in April with an adductor strain. He hopes to win Commonwealth Games selection with strong performances overseas in coming months.

The aspiring content creator attended the nationals in Sydney, but as a videographer working for the Queensland Academy of Sport. “I obviously really love athletics, so I asked them if I could come down, cover some stuff for them,” he said. “They gave me a budget to work with, so for me, it is work experience in a sense, which is a pretty cool work experience.”

Even without their close bond, Dubler still sees Moloney at athletics events and remains a believer in his fellow Queenslander’s talent, though his support now comes from a distance. “After his first [400m hurdles] race, there were a few question marks about how it would go, but every time he steps foot on the track, he continues to improve, and continues to impress,” Dubler said. “It’s always a risk changing event, but hopefully it pays off.”