For those that know me already, you will know if the extensive sporting history I've had. I was a track & field athlete for 20 years, that is I competed at open/senior level for 20 years. My first successes in athletics was at the 1989 Bay Sheffield Carnival on the historic and iconic Colley Reserve on the foreshore of Glenelg in Adelaide. I won the junior Bay Sheffield that day and placed 2nd in the Restricted event. Later that season I won my first open 120m race, still at age 16. The following season really saw me start to take off, winning all the lead up events to the Bay Sheffield in December of 1990. I eventually was the runner up to Dean Capobianco, winner of the 1990 Stawell Gift. This was pretty exciting as a 17 year old. We regrouped and began preparing for the next Bay Sheffield in 1991. All was going pretty smooth, then upon reaching the final, I again was runner up, this time to Steve Brimacombe, 1991 Stawell Gift winner. 2nd again! Later in the season I went on the win the state junior titles in the 100m & 200m. I also made the national U/20 100m final, placing 2nd. This saw me gain selection in the National team for the World junior Championships. I then raised the funds to travel to Japan and Korea as a member of the 4x100m relay team. I withdrew due to injury, so sadly I don't have any success stories from that event. 

From here I moved to Melbourne for the 1st time, as a 19 year old. I lived in Ascot Vale with my training partner and friend, David Robertson. We used to be members of the same club in Adelaide (Adelaide Harriers), and it was him who convinced me to move to Melbourne to further my athletic career. I had mixed success, ran a pb at State League in 1994 for the 100m, running 10.56, but training inconsistencies didn’t' really see me capitalize on this time. I did become a little lost for a while, moving to Sydney, trying to train in Sydney with no success, then made the move back to Adelaide. I joined up with Hal Thomas and began to resurrect my athletic career, winning a backmarkers 120m at the Bay Sheffield and a few other races along the way. When I moved from Hal's group to Toby Schreier at Flinders, I continued to improve, building fitness, speed & strength and winning the Mt Gambier Gift, then Bendigo Thousand. I won state 100m titles under Toby's guidance too. 

Toby suggested I seek more specialized and specific training when I came to him one day (after the Keilor Gift in 2002) informing him that I was invited to try out for the Australian Bobsleigh Team. This is where my life really began to change. I tore my hamstring pretty bad at the 2003 National Champs in Brisbane, and this is where I met Vasilly. A Russian coach now residing in Australia. He understood athletics better than anyone I ever knew before. We joined forces and began rehabilitation on my injured hamstring and prepared for the 2003/2004 bobsleigh season. I was fitter and faster than I had ever been before. I was ready to take on the challenge. Robyn Calleja and myself headed over to Austria to begin our work together.

It was this journey that saw me represent Australia at World Cup level in Bobsleigh. Learning this new sport was accelerated by spending time around some highly experienced and knowledgeable people, who later became good friends, many of which I am still in continual contact with. By the time the 2005/2006 Season came around, I headed to Europe for the 3rd time in an effort to further my sporting ambitions, this time it was to secure a berth in the Aussie Olympic Team for the 2 man and 4 man Bobsleigh. Piloted by my now very good friend, Jeremy Rolleston, we had instant success. Push times were the fastest he had in training to that date and our first race showed a significant improvement on what he'd been doing up until that point. The trials came round to try out for the final selection of teams to be put forward for selection, should the team criteria be met.

Trials were very fruitful, winning the push starts easily and convincingly. The final hurdle arrived for Jeremy and myself. We had to finish in either the top 3 European Cup Teams, or the top 2 North American Cup Teams to automatically qualify for Torino 2006. Not only were our push times even faster than the previous competitions, we managed to finish top of the North American Cup competition. That result also saw us better the times of ALL teams competing, so no matter what competition we chose to compete in, we won overall. Our tickets for Torino were booked in the 2 man bobsleigh.

Unfortunately, we both missed qualifying the 4 man sled as the field was just too hot, but we were off to the Olympics! We eventually finished in 22nd place out of a field of 30 sleds, very narrowly missing the top 20 cut off, due to very heavy snow falling on the track. We were both very satisfied that we had equalled the best ever result by an Australian 2 man bobsleigh team at Olympic level. We came home, dreams realised.

I returned home having achieved a personal goal. I had lots of family and friends behind me supporting me, both morally and financially. It took some time for life to return to normal. But I continued with the sliding and the athletics, until the 2009/2010 season, I thought I'd give it another go, this time to make the 2010 Olympic team for Vancouver. In a nutshell  I missed out on the team by 1 place. I finished off the athletics season and happily retired from all competitive sport after the 2010 Stawell Gift.

This is where I have now ended up, with this large component of my life now completed, it's time to direct by focus and attention to putting back into sport. I have attained a great deal of experience from all my years as a competitive athlete and learned from all my coaches. I attained Athletics Australia Coaching accreditation and Australian Strength & Conditioning Association accreditation. I operate a team of motivated and determined athletes out of the Ringwood Athletics Club in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. My life towards a successful career in coaching is slowly being realised as the dreams of athletes I now coach, are beginning to be realised.

Thanks