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He was briefly the face of Australian athletics, whose heroics at the Tokyo Olympics inspired a nation. Ash Moloney secured the country’s first Olympic decathlon medal in dramatic circumstances in 2021, when he surged home in the 1500m, egged on by a screaming Cedric Dubler at his side.
Now Moloney has taken his biggest leap yet, abandoning the event that brought him glory to start a new phase of his career in a bold and risky transformation. The 26-year-old will compete for the Oceania title on Friday in his new event, the 400m hurdles.
“It’s just fun, it’s a completely different challenge,” Moloney says.
Before the emergence of Gout Gout, Lachie Kennedy and the new generation of athletes leading Australia’s charge towards Brisbane 2032, Moloney represented the future of the sport. Yet his life now would have been impossibles to foresee: his years of injury recovery, a new coach, the end of his friendship with Dubler, and new ambitions.
The decathlon teammates’ relationship was tested in the aftermath of Tokyo, and Moloney has previously said he sometimes felt the public’s interest in Dubler’s contribution overshadowed his own achievement. Moloney offers a simple “no comment” when asked to elaborate on their relationship now.
The Olympic bronze medallist is now focused on selection for this year’s Commonwealth Games, after he ended his decade-long career in the 10-discipline event due to a succession of injuries and, he admits, sheer boredom.
The hurdles specialty allows him a newfound focus. “I’m used to just absolutely flogging myself,” he says. “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 400m hurdles event in February, when he eased across the line in Brisbane in 57 seconds. Two weeks later in Hobart he ran sub-53s, before recording two times under 52s before nationals in April.
“I’ve been ambidextrous my whole life, I can sprint hurdle on both legs,” he says. “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 Maloney ran under 50s for the first time, when he finished third in the final, only narrowly behind Matthew Hunt – a 19-year-old who is one of the country’s most promising young athletes – 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 says. “I believe I can go 48 [seconds].”
Moloney backed up his Tokyo bronze with another podium at the world indoor championships in 2022, in a period of four years when he remained his country’s top decathlete. But he could not repeat his early success on the international stage, failing to finish in successive outdoor worlds as well as 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 says. “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.”
Moloney says 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 a 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.”
Maloney 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 says. “It’s just a change of situation, a change of coaches and perspective.”
Dubler, still only 31 himself, continues to compete in decathlon, although he missed competition at the nationals in April with an adductor strain. He hopes to win selection for the Commonwealth Games with a strong performance overseas in coming months.
The aspiring content creator still went to 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 says. “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 if they are no longer close, Dubler still sees Moloney around athletics events. He remains a believer in the talent of his fellow Queenslander, though his support now comes from further away.
“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 says. “It’s always a risk changing event, but hopefully it pays off.”
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