AUSSIE JOHN
Meet the Pom athlete we can fair dinkum get behind
HE’S the Gold Coast’s great decathlon hope at next month’s Commonwealth Games. And he’s English.
Born in the US but raised on the Glitter Strip, John Lane will give Aussie fans one reason to cheer on the Poms at the Games when he fights to improve on his fourth-placed finish from Glasgow.
Now 28, Lane spent 18 of his first 20 years on the Coast before moving to Sheffield in 2010 to train alongside nowretired English track and field legend Jessica Ennis-Hill.
The son of British parents, he returns home to Southport each summer to compete in the Australian athletics season and continue studies for a Bachelor of Business at Griffith University.
While Brisbane decathlete Cedric Dubler will steal the vast majority of crowd support on his Games debut, Lane said he was feeling equally at home ahead of the April 4-15 event.
“I grew up here, went to school here, my mum and dad still live here and my sister still lives here so this is my home,” The Southport School product told the Bulletin in his mixed Aussie-English accent.
“Basically, my thought process was if I move to the UK, I compete for England. It was difficult at first but I kind of got used to it and got on with it really. It’s given me a lot of opportunities to travel around Europe competing every year.
“It will be weird (next month) because it’s like a home Games but I will be competing for England.
“It’s good in a way, that it’s a home Games but I haven’t got any of the expectations of an Australian athlete.
“It’s good to know you’ve got a lot of support in the crowd, even though you’re 10,000 miles away from where you should be. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Lane’s personal best of 7974 points, achieved in March last year, remains 308 shy of the total that delivered gold for Canada’s Damian Warner in Glasgow.
He expects the winning tally to be even greater this time around but is adamant he has room for improvement.
“A medal would be amazing but you can’t look at that so much. If I score a PB, you can’t be angry at that and that will be close to a medal,” he said.
“Decathlon this time is an event that’s stacked; people are coming out of the woodwork from all over the world.”
Lane was yesterday one of 20 current Griffith students, as well as eight alumni, farewelled at a special university event ahead of their participation in the Games.
That list also includes swim stars Emma and David McKeon and rising sprinter Riley Day.