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AAP
AAP
Sport
John Salvado

Olli Hoare switches focus back to the track

Olli Hoare is fast becoming track and field's equivalent of the three-format international cricketer.

In the space of less than a fortnight, the middle-distance star will have strutted his stuff on two continents at the most storied indoor meet on the globe in New York, the world cross country championships in Bathurst and at Australia's leading outdoor event in Melbourne.

It makes the efforts of Pat Cummins and Steve Smith switching between Tests, ODIs and T20s look like child's play.

The third and final leg for Hoare will be the Maurie Plant Meet at Lakeside Stadium on Thursday evening, where he will take on 2016 Olympic 1500m champion Matt Centrowitz from the US and gun New Zealander Sam Tanner in the John Landy Mile.

At first glance, Hoare said his coach Dathan Ritzenhein would have said that program was ridiculous.

"But I'm fortunate that I travel pretty well and it's a good time of year, particularly with the world championships in Budapest being later than usual, that I have the time to recover and reset," Hoare told AAP at Wednesday's On Athletics Club's Oceania launch in Melbourne.

"When you have the opportunities we've had, with the world cross country being at home and the amount of talent we have in Australia right now in middle distance running, you can't pass up the opportunity to win a medal in the relay, which we did against the big African nations.

"And obviously the Maurie Plant Meet is also an amazing tribute to a great man in Australian athletics.

"When I finally get to hang up the spikes after another 10 years or whatever, and I look like a melted candle, I'll be able to look back and say I got to do all this, I've been able to have all these experiences and exposure as an athlete.

"It's been a privilege to compete in those settings."

The first leg of Hoare's running trifecta came on February 11 at the Millrose Games in New York, when he equalled his own Australian indoor record in the celebrated Wanamaker Mile.

The 25-year-old will head straight home to Colorado on the weekend and would love to return to defend his national 1500m title in Brisbane in early April.

"But that will be a matter of discussion between me and Dathan," said the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 1500m champ.

"It's a lot more travel, a lot of back and forth and we need to figure out the best way forward for me this year where the main goal is chasing that gold medal in Budapest."

Hoare's cross country mixed relay teammate Stewart McSweyn will step up in distance to the 3000m at Lakeside Stadium on Thursday night.

The biggest star on show will be American 100m world champion and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Fred Kerley, who will take on Australia's best sprinter Rohan Browning in the 200m.

Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers is targeting a 2m clearance in the women's high jump.

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