Luke Farrell
Career highlight: Winning the ITU Age Group World Sprint Triathlon Championships, Beijing 2011
Favourite thing outside of triathlon: Watch movies, listen to music, hang with friends
Favourite PureSport flavours: Banana Berry
Website: www.lukefarrell.com.au
Luke’s story:
Luke Farrell was born on March 5, 1993 in Sunnybank, Qld, Australia. The eldest of three boys, Luke enjoyed an active sporting life in his child hood that involved pool and surf swimming, rugby union and cycling. Luke’s family moved to the Sunshine Coast and the Farrell boys were enrolled in The Immanuel Lutheran College.
At age 12, Luke discovered the sport of Triathlon utilising his current swimming and cycling skills. Through the senior schools system, Luke won the Triathlon Qld All Schools triathlon 3 times, medalled at the Qld Championships on 4 occasions, the latest being the 2011 Senior boys champion, and medalled in the National schools triathlon once in Devonport.
It was in 2009 when Luke stepped up and competed in the National Triathlon series culminating in Luke qualifying for the Australian U19 age group team for the ITU World Championships at the Gold Coast at age 15. Luke competed for Australia and came 11th and this result, in this environment was the catalyst for his dream of becoming an elite athlete.
Luke went on to represent Australia at 2 further ITU Age Group World Triathlon championships with a 4th placing in 2010 at ITU Budapest and finally winning the 2011 ITU Age Group World Sprint Triathlon Championships in Beijing in 2011.
Luke’s results have demanded attention culminating in Luke being invited to numerous Triathlon Australia Junior High Performance camps, State and national junior elite programs; but the most memorable performance for Luke was when he competed in the 2010 Hervey Bay Triathlon in the Elite male section against his idol Courtney Atkinson.
It’s one thing to meet your idols in life, it’s another to race them. He didn’t beat Courtney, didn’t care, he just loved being part of it.
Luke completed his Year 12 studies in 2011 as a full honours student at Immanuel Lutheran College to which he now embarks on his next chapter in life, an “apprenticeship” as a professional athlete.
Training for Luke has stepped up considerably, and with the assistance of PureSport, Luke wants to achieve his dream of one day representing Australia at an Olympic level.
In Luke’s spare time, he likes to watch movies, listen to music, suffering student of the guitar and hang with his friends.
Testimonial:
A well planned smooth transfer from the Sunshine Coast to my Beijing accommodation had been arranged to allow me to focus on the job ahead. Home to the airport in Brisbane by car was no problem. but after I sat down to wait for the call up to board our plane to Hong Kong. Things got a little haywire. After several “Flight delayed” calls we finally were able to board and takeoff some four hours late with no chance of making the Beijing connection. We managed to get on another flight for Beijing and landed at 7pm. All arrangements for being met and transferred to our accommodation were dislocated, in fact, they were nonexistent. Another three hours delay before we were able to leave the airport and one would agree it had been a total stuff-up. So much for the down side. The up side? I guess it was that surely things could only get better.
That didn’t happen right away, My bike case arrived with our luggage but unfortunately, while reassembling it I broke the screw at the top of the front stem. NO, I had not carried any spare screws, nuts or bolts from home. In a state of panic I contacted the Australian team mechanic “No Problem bring it over and we’ll look at it”. (Memo to self. Next time stay in the team Hotel).
Competing successfully at the World Sprint Triathlon age group U19 Championship in Beijing was to be an essential achievement as a step towards my planned progress to gain a license to fulfill my life’s ambition to be a professional triathlete. I had only one warm-up event at the Wivenhoe Dam triathlon north west of Brisbane, but due to the extremely savage weather conditions, IE: gale force winds, extreme cold and pelting rain I did not regard it as a satisfactory warm-up. None of this mattered now. Nothing could be changed because tomorrow morning, soon after 8am, it would all be over. I was pretty focused, I had closely followed the training program Dan Atkins had laid out for me as a lead up, and I had used the PureSport Workout protocols Duncan Inkster had advised on the day before the event. It remained only for me to get up tomorrow and do it!!
The day dawned bright and clear. Well it probably did “somewhere in the world” but not at Beijing. The lousy rain and windy conditions had got worse during the night and as we (my mum was acting as my Asst. manager) left for the course venue in the wee small hours, there was not much to cheer about. On arrival at the venue, we found the official centre unopened and event staff members not in attendance (even though they slept on site). This was a bit daunting as we were the first scheduled event. Eventually all was ready, but competitors were denied a warm up swim as there was no time available.
Most of the competitors were unhappy with the weather with such unpleasant conditions but things had taken a turn for the better for me. (Ah!, an UP SIDE) In 2010 in Budapest, we slogged it out in wind, rain and a potholed bike course, at Wivenhoe it was horrendous. I could not help thinking this weather was a “nothing” after Wivenhoe. So what I thought of as a poor warm up event was now looking like the perfect warm up.
We got the “GO” and swam around the buoys in the dam. I was first to emerge at the transition to the bike and first out on to the bike course. I slipped back one place (passed by a Kiwi rider) then another one, I concentrated on being careful not to even look like drafting. I was content that if I didn’t get a call for drafting, and I was close at the run start I would give as good as I got on the final leg.
Well into the last bike lap I slowly realized that I had been and still was being deliberately boxed in by a Kiwi rider, allowing his mate in front to get further ahead. I gave him some “friendly” verbal advice and he replied in kind. I was about to take matters in to my own hands when the technical officials arrived, saw what was happening and bluntly told the kiwi rider to ”let him out”.
I guess that incident won the race for me as I was so annoyed, that into the run, I quickly established control and was never headed, cruising down the final straight with daylight only behind me. My time 16.02 for the last 5k run leg was my PB by some 26 seconds. My triathlon time later proved to be the fastest time of all age groups over the sprint distance course and I was advised I was also the “overall” age group world champion. I whispered a silent “thank you” to Dan Atkins and his wife, Katie, who had been my specialist running coach. I thought of Duncan and Nicci at PureSport, my school class mates, Abby and other staff at Immanuel College, the RSL Queensland/Bond University youth development program with their cash grant and last but not least, my sponsor Lance Backer, from Ocean Tyres, Gladstone. I could at last feel I was giving them something in return.
I made a mental note to make sure I followed the PureSport protocols “to the letter” for all future events. I am sure it had “done its job“ keeping me hydrated throughout the run. Now I was at last ready for some sightseeing before heading home. No prize for guessing the first stopping point was the Great Wall of China. Other countries are great to visit but it’s good to come home to “OZ”.
