Canberra schoolboy Cameron Myer smashes the four-minute mile

How big was the celebration? "There wasn't really one, it was pretty quiet," said coach Lee Bobbin.

Why not? "The thing is he definitely hasn't reached his peak by any means. So he was pretty calm about it.

"Actually, he had slight Achilles soreness for the last two or three weeks and we modified training. It's not like it's a business for him, but he's got his goals and he thought he was capable of doing what he did."

Talented Canberra teen Myers shocked the Australian athletics world in Melbourne on Thursday night.

His astonishing three minutes 55.44 seconds saw him finish third behind Australia's Commonwealth Games 1500m champion Ollie Hoare at the Maurie Plant Classic.

At 16 years and 259 days, his time was faster than that run by the reigning Olympic Games gold-medal winner Jakob Ingebrigsten.

Norwegian superstar Ingebrigtsen was only nine days younger when he first broke the magical four-minute barrier, clocking 3:58.07 in May 2017.

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Myers stripped a massive 12 seconds off his personal best and upstaged US sprint superstar Fred Kerley.

"It's a really big confidence booster but I've got to stay humble and keep working hard," Myers said.

"I mean to come in and do it in a meet like this in front of the biggest crowd you can get at an athletics meet in Australia is pretty unreal."

But it didn't come as a surprise to Bobbin, who has been working with Myers for years. Myers, who's in Year 11 at Lake Ginninderra College, slashed three seconds off Ryan Gregson's Australian under-18 1500m record last year and was just 0.64 seconds off the age-group world record.

Bobbin's phone ran hot as he drove back to Canberra on Friday after one of Australia's newest track stars made a name for himself.

"I expected him to go sub four minutes. But when he pulled out 3:55.44 I was pretty impressed," Bobbin said.

"He's shown the promise for a while. The reason I know he was going to do this was because he trains with Jye Edwards, a 1500m Olympian ... he's always had elite runners to train with and trained well.

"He's gone from following them to now leading a lot of the reps. He fits right in with the elite guys."

Hoare crossed the line first in 3:52.34 and New Zealander Sam Tanner was second in 3:53.83.

"At 3:55 [Myers] is probably running at 16 years of age better than most people in college in the US," said Hoare.

"It's amazing talent for Australia moving forward and I'm excited for him.

"That's why we have these meets, why we have the hype, why we have people come back, to give our youth an opportunity to run fast and compete well with some of the best.

"He was able to get that opportunity and he seized it."

Myers will now turn his attention to the Sydney Track Classic in March. Bobbin expects Myers to improve his three kilometre time by five seconds to break the national record.

Myers is also considering his options for next year. Australia has depth in the 1500 metre event ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris next year, so he may instead chase a world title at the world junior championships.

"He's had a pretty good year of chasing records and getting them," Bobbin said.

Reigning 100m world champion and Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Kerley was the biggest star on show at Lakeside Stadium and he duly delivered with a dominant win in the men's 200m.

The American raised his right hand in triumph 20 metres from the line and coasted to victory in 20.32 seconds.

"That would have been easy to to have broken 20 but the W (win) is all that matters," said Kerley.

"The crowd loved it, so it's all good."

Australian Rohan Browning hung tough to finish second in 20.71 and then backed up 90 minutes later to win his pet event, the 100m, in 10.26.

Jessica Hull just held off the challenge of her world cross country relay bronze medal teammate Abbey Caldwell to win the 1500m in 4:07.11.

Naa Anang won the women's 100m in 11.20 and fellow Australian Ella Connolly saluted in the 200m in 23.28.

Kenya's Under-20 world cross country champion Ishmail Kipkurui upstaged Australian Stewart McSweyn in the 3000m.

Kipkurui surged away in the final lap to win in 7:41.38. with McSweyn second in 7:44.36.

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