HOARE WINS IT FOR HIS GREATEST FAN

GRANDAD WOULD BE LAUGHING IN HEAVEN

OLLIE Hoare ran a personal best time in winning the Commonwealth Games 1500m title, but it’s not official. It hasn’t been ticked off by his grandfather.

Fred Hoare was Ollie’s biggest fan and the reason he got into running. He was a life member of the Sutherland District Athletic Club in Sydney and his calling card was his antique stopwatch.

“He always had the same stopwatch, it was about 100 years old and he wouldn’t trust the timer, he would only go off the stopwatch,” Hoare explains. “All my PBs were on his stopwatch.”

Sadly, his greatest 1500m time isn’t on that stopwatch as Fred, a sergeant in World War II, passed away aged 96 a week ago.

“He is up there having a glass of red wine laughing his arse off,” Hoare said. “He would be saying, ‘I knew you could do it mate, but I unfortunately wasn’t around to see it’. He was a great lover of the sport, a lover of Herb

Elliott,

(Steve)

Moneghet ti, (Rob) de

Castella, he was the reason my Dad loves the sport, the reason why I love the sport.”

The funeral was two days before Hoare ran the race of his life in Birmingham, which is why his family, including his athletics-mad father Greg, a former world beach running champion, didn’t make the trip. “I’m sure my Mum made my Dad deaf and my Dad is probably calling everyone he knows,” Hoare said.

“My brother is very excited because I think he made a pretty good gamble on Sportsbet, so it’s happy days for the family.

“They are hoping to make it to Budapest (2023 world championships) or go to Paris (Olympics). I told them to save their pennies because we are just getting started.”

It was only after Fred’s urging that young Ollie got involved with athletics after initially heading down the swimming route.

“My Mum thought swimming was the way to go as most Australians do,” he said “Then I found out I was better on the track and was fortunate enough to keep going on it. My grandfather didn’t run because after the war his knees were a bit bung, but he ran with my Dad a lot. He trained me when I was young. I did a lot of 2k beach runs with the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving club, that was my first Australian title along with surf swimming.

“My Dad still tries to keep up (on runs) but then it’s about a minute or two in and he’s like ‘mate, just go’.”

It was at high school where his running career took off, although it wasn’t without

issues that forced him to change schools.

“I got bullied for being a skinny boy that runs,” he said. “I wasn’t a rugby league player or

anything like that, so I got it a bit tough especially in the area I was in, but then I was fortunate enough to go to Trinity Grammar.” A scholarship put him under the guidance of the school’s athletics coach, Olympic triple jumper Andrew Murphy, who is the coach of Australia’s fastest man Rohan Browning, who went to the same school.

At 17, he won the 2015 Australian under-20 crosscountry and got to know another handy runner, Morgan McDonald, who went to the neighbouring school. McDonald was a year older and he blazed the trail to the US, where he became a four-time NCAA champion. Hoare followed him to the University of Wisconsin.

In 2018 he replicated his friend’s achievement by winning the NCAA 1500m title and in 2019 dramatically reduced his personal bests across the board.

After graduating with a degree in economics in 2020, Hoare moved to Colorado to the On Athletics Club formed by three-time Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein.

He didn’t come on to the radar of Australia teams until the lead-in to the Tokyo Olympics. “I had never made an Australian team until Tokyo (in 2021), I was pretty unknown being in the States – not unknown but not a representative in Australia,” he said. People soon knew who he was when he made the Olympic 1500m final alongside Australian record holder Stewart McSweyn.

And they certainly were aware of him in June this year when he pushed Norway’s Olympic champion Jacob Ingebrigtsen, finishing second in Oslo’s Dream Mile and breaking the Australian record. That’s why Hoare was bullish about his chances at last month’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon. However, he melted in the semi-final, running what he later described as his “worst race for years”. He left with his tail between his legs, saying he’d mentally cooked himself in the race. Sadly, his greatest fan died a week later, with Hoare deciding to dedicate his Commonwealth Games campaign to his grandfather.

The result was one of the greatest races ever seen at a Commonwealth Games, with the Australian lunging on the line to defeat the past two world champions and claim a gold medal, which put him on

a pedestal next to Herb Elliott. Only Hoare, 25, and Elliott have won the middledistance race at the Commonwealth Games. (Elliott won the mile at the 1958 Games in Cardiff).

“I’ve heard all about him (Elliott), my Dad won’t shut up about him. You look up to them and you’d love to meet them. Steve Cram and Seb Coe, you look around and they’re my heroes, they’re my Michael Jordan.” He then smiled: “Herb, I’d love to meet you for a beer if you’re around.”