Treharne on mission to become true Olympian
WALES Sevens skipper Luke Treharne’s Olympic dreams are alive again and his New Year’s resolution was to do all he can to get to Tokyo.
Five years ago his Olympic experience was bitter-sweet. He was one of two travelling reserves for Team GB in Rio and was very much an outsider – the dreaded 13th man!
Along with the three other reserves for the men’s and women’s teams he had to stay in a flat in Rio outside the athlete’s village, take taxis to training and wasn’t allowed to go pitchside on game days.
While Ruaridh McConnachie got called up, Treharne didn’t. There was no medal for him after the squad won silver and he was sent home the day after the tournament ended, while the team stayed on for an extra few days.
To top it all off, when he got back to the Lensbury Club to pick up his car it had been damaged. It left him wondering whether or not he would go through it all again, but here he is five years on hoping to finally convince the selectors he is worth a slot.
“The fact the National Lottery has agreed to fund the Team GB build up to Tokyo was the first bit of positive news since the last round of the World Series in Vancouver,” said Treharne.
“The Sevens programmes were all ditched in the UK which was disappointing, rather than staying on furlough. But at least now we will get the chance to show what we are capable of.
“I’m not looking too far ahead. Everyone is saying they want the Olympics to go ahead, but you just don’t know what is going to happen. It has been mad to see how the virus has impacted on so many aspects of people’s lives around the world.
“My father came out of retirement as a GP to help out, my mother is also a doctor and my sister has been on the frontline as a doctor in ICU in Bristol.
“I put my name forward to help having qualified as a doctor myself, but I haven’t yet undertaken my foundation years, so I wasn’t called up. That has meant I’ve had time to maintain my fitness and do a few other things.”
Among those things have been producing a YouTube channel called ‘This is Sevens’, working towards earning a professional drone licence and working out with his brother to maintain peak fitness.
He even managed to fit in some rugby before Christmas when he was part of a South African side that won the Bermuda 10s. Now he is raring to begin the battle for a place in the Team GB squad.
“World Rugby have arranged a few tournaments in the build up to Tokyo and I don’t think it will take long for the Team GB squad to bond. Every team in the world will be in a similar situation because of Covid,” said Treharne.
“I’m confident the squad will be able to perform at a high level quite quickly.
“It had been four years hard work to try to get to Tokyo, so another 12 months won’t hurt. I’d love to make it and to become a true Olympian.”