Local Sports Star: 16-year-old travels from Dubbo to Greenacre to play lawn bowls
Jono Davis is going the distance in lawn bowls, quite literally. Every week the 16-year-old makes a nine-hour round trip from Dubbo to Greenacre to play for his club, the Mt Lewis Lions.
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Jono Davis is going the distance in lawn bowls, quite literally.
Every week the 16-year-old makes a nine-hour round trip from Dubbo to Greenacre to play for his club, the Mt Lewis Lions.
The 800-kilometre round trip, he says, is justified by the exposure he gets as a lawn bowler to the best bowlers in NSW.
“There are a lot of good bowlers, but there’s not as many of them in Dubbo,” the powder coater said.
“In Sydney there’s hundreds.
“There’s a much stronger competition.”
The decision is certainly paying off for Jono, who is steadily collecting a swath of titles and medals.
He took home two gold medals from the Youth Commonwealth Games in 2015 and was named Australian Open under 18s champion in 2013 and 2016.
Last week, Jono was named in the NSW under 25s team to play off in a State of Origin-style lawn bowls comp against Queensland.
While he knows there’s a stereotype that as a lawn bowler he should be grey-haired and retired, Jono says the sport actually takes age out of the equation.
“When I was nine I played against a 96-year-old bloke,” he said. “That’s the good thing about bowls, anyone can play and there’s plenty of luck. If luck’s going your way, anything can happen.”
While lawn bowls is not yet recognised as an Olympic sport, Jono has his sights set on the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
In the meantime, he has been nominated in this week’s Local Sports Star for the Junior Sports Star Individual category.
LSS has five categories: Junior Sports Star Individual, Junior Sports Stars Team, Young Sporting Spirit Individual, Young Sporting Spirit Team and Service to Sport.
Nominate someone at localsportsstars.com.au
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