Congratulations to Declan Tingay (15-16), who has been selected for Australia’s athletics team for the Tokyo Olympic Games. He is one of five West Australians who are a part of the 63-member athletics squad and will make his debut in the 20km racewalk.
We caught up with him to see how he is feeling after finding out the amazing news.
What have you been up to since graduating from Wesley?
Since graduating from Wesley, I have undertaken my undergraduate degree in Sports Science at UWA, with hopes of moving onto an Honours degree next year.
I have also continued with my athletics career, representing Australia four times between 2018 and 2019 at the World Racewalking Team Championships, World u20 Athletics Championships, Oceania Athletics Championships and World University Games.
How are you feeling about being selected?
I’m relieved, but not surprised. I had been monitoring the world rankings since my last race in early June and was confident of my chances of selection.
I had dedicated most of this year to training and racing, and had a good understanding of what sort of performances were required. I took a very methodical approach to planning my performances for the season, and even with cancellations and postponements due to COVID-19, I hit the times I had to.
What are you looking forward to most about the Olympics?
Unfortunately, these will be very unique games due to the pandemic. We are expecting to spend a total of five to six days in Japan, before flying home immediately after racing. With this in mind, I’m still looking forward to my first race against an international field since July 2019!
How have you been preparing?
I was fortunate enough to spend six months on the east coast this year, with funding from the Western Australian Institute of Sport and Athletics Australia. This time was spent training with my Victorian counterparts (and now teammates) in Thredbo, Melbourne and Cairns, as part of the domestic racing season. I don’t think I would have been to get to the same level of fitness without surrounding myself with some of Australia’s best.
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