New home to ambition
Triathlon young gun Redmond relocates to Coast
FUTURE Olympic hopeful Lorcan Redmond always knew he would end up forging his path to the top of the world on the Gold Coast.
Redmond is one of the most exciting triathletes coming through Triathlon Australia’s development system and is five weeks into his move from Newcastle to the Gold Coast where he has linked with coach Dan Atkins and the governing body’s high performance squad.
“This year was my final year in the junior circuit and really it was about me sitting down and seeing if I’m going to pursue this as an elite athlete and if I want to go to the Olympics and achieve all these big things I have to be in the best place for that,” the 19-year-old said.
“I have known Dan for many years and I have always known in the back of my mind I was going to end up here, it was a matter of when.
“I picked up the phone and gave him a buzz and said this is my plan, can you take me on and he did.”
Redmond started training under Atkins in June while he was overseas and the coach prepared him for the ITU World Triathlon grand final in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he finished second in the junior men’s category despite being involved in a car crash two weeks prior.
Redmond is a five-time Triathlon Australian all schools champion, has national cross country and track running titles to his name and also won last year’s Junior Oceania Championship.
Redmond said he already had a gauge on what he needed to improve to match it with the world’s best in the coming years and was feeling the benefits of training with a group that includes Commonwealth Games gold medallist Matt Hauser.
“It’s all about the technical side of things,” Redmond said.
“We are training a lot here on the Gold Coast, putting in hours on the bike, in the pool and on the run.
“Being consistent is the big thing, eating plenty of good food and training a lot.
“I have a few technical things we are working on like dropping my heel in the pedal stroke on the bike and things like that.
“Dan is really picking up a lot of things like that, he has an eye for it.”