London or bust for Moore, Lynch
Mike Hurst
From: The Daily Telegraph
January 28, 2011 7:00PM
Hard slog … Matt Lynch (left) and Kevin Moore. Picture: Mike Hurst Source: The Daily Telegraph
Last man standing … Kevin Moore finishes training in pain. Picture: Mike Hurst Source: The Daily Telegraph
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MATT Lynch and Kevin Moore are names you will hear rarely.
They are unlikely to make their fortune out of competing in athletics, but for the love of it they just might represent Australia at next year’s London Olympics.
But the prospect of quadrennial attention hasn’t put either young man off sticking to his highly professional training routine even though both are cash-strapped as they sprint through pain barriers in a bid to explore their talent.
At Newcastle’s Glendale track on Saturday night (29 Jan) Lynch will test himself against West Australian Ben Offereins, the national 400m titleholder, in The Hunter Track Classic - first of the elite meets on the domestic circuit.
Lynch, Moore, Lisa Spencer and others who compete for Mingara Athletics Club on the Central Coast have put financial aspirations on hold as they defy the odds against fulfilling Athletics Australia’s tough selection criteria. Yet Moore, 20, is already a Commonwealth gold medallist having run in the 4x400m relay final in Delhi last October.
Spencer is the Oceania 400m hurdles gold medallist. Lynch so far has nothing to show for the pain he has endured in training with their excellent personal coach, Larry Spencer, and with strong backing from the NSW Institute of Sport’s 400m Fast Track coaching project and project sponsor Melissa Babbage, a 1988 Olympic trials 400m finalist.
Even on his own best time (46.13sec) Moore ranked only sixth nationally in 2010. That’s a far cry from the qualifying time of 45.25sec needed to compete in the world championships 400m in Daegu, South Korea, in August.
This is such a fast time that only 14 men in Australian history have clocked it and since the last Olympics only Sean Wroe, once in 2009, and Ben Offereins, twice in 2010, have run the time.
It is faster than the gold medal time in Delhi.
“I haven’t even medalled at State yet,” Lynch, 24, admitted. “But all my sessions have been awesome lately, so I just have to make sure I don’t get injured again.”
Moore, who trains every day alongside Lynch, agreed: "Although sometimes bloody painful, I believe the training will help put me ahead of my competitors.
“I stopped my apprenticeship because I was just too fatigued to train hard and become better. I go to university now but there is such a small window in which to do anything in athletics and I believe I can do something big. I want to give myself the opportunity to do something great on the track.”