News Archive

Racewalker and UWA student athlete Declan Tingay was named Australia’s 10,000m race walking champion for 2018 in Canberra last weekend (14/01).

Declan took first place following a 60-second penalty on Victoria’s Rhydian Cowley, a result of three penalties from judges during the course of the race.

Speaking after the race, Declan explained that it was a surprise that he had been named the champion.

“After five kilometres in, Rhydian had picked up two reports, so he was kind of on edge going into that final stretch,” he explained. “Rhydian crossed the finish line about 50 seconds ahead of me and I was quite happy to come in after him, my time was still really good. I’m just disappointed for him. He worked quite hard to pull away from me early on in the race. It’s disappointing for both of us.

“I was talking to him as soon as we finished – I didn’t know that he had the time penalty,” Tingay continued. “I was congratulating him and about five minutes later, someone told me he had the time penalty.”

Declan previously won gold in the under 20 10,000m walk at the 2017 Australian Athletics Championships in March, clocking 42:09.52.

The next step for the young UWA student is to break the Australian Under-20 5000m record, and he looks to do so at the ACT state championships in two weeks.

Media references

Louis Humberstone

Graduate Officer, UWA Sport Marketing, Communication and Events

[email protected]

6488 3768