World Athletics Championships: Essendon fan Luke Mathews determined to make mark in 800m
AFL fan Luke Mathews was hungover, injured and on the couch watching the AFL Grand Final this time last year. Twelve months on and he is planning a way to make his mark at the world championships.
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This time last year Luke Mathews was on the couch at home with his mates nursing a sizeable hangover and watching the AFL Grand Final.
Australia’s best middle-distance runner is an AFL nut, he loves Essendon and one his best mates is Western Bulldogs star Lachie Hunter.
This AFL grand final promises to be a very different story.
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Mathews is not even sure how he’ll get to watch the game which will take a backseat in his thoughts given a few hours after the final siren sounds at the MCG he’ll be running against the world’s best in the heats of the 800m at the world championships.
“I do love footy and I do love having a beer so it’s a bit abnormal being in the middle of nowhere for the AFL grand final,” Mathews says.
“Last year on the Friday I had the famous Gregson-LaCaze wedding and probably had five too many beers. Then on Saturday I ventured home and watched the grand final with all my mates and carried on into the night time.
“I was just coming back from injury then so running wasn’t my priority. The grand final was certainly a little bit different to what it is this year.”
Mathews made a career breakthrough last year when he won bronze in the 800m at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
It confirmed to him, and the athletics world, that he was now capable of fulfilling the potential he’d shown since he burst onto the scene in 2016.
“For me personally, everyone kind of chases medals and it was the first time in athletics where it was like, “Ok this is what a medal is like, this is what having a bit of success on an international scene is like’,” he said.
“It was also kind of weird because in 2018 I got my first-ever major injury, I broke my foot so I was on a bit of a high but it was kind of, crushed I suppose for the rest of the 2018 season.
“I had plans to use that medal at Comm Games to get PBs and hopefully break records and win races in Europe. It was almost short-lived but I look back at it now and it shows that I am capable of competing at a high level and capable of beating good athletes.
“It showed there is hope and I do have a bit of talent to go well at an international level.”
While some events at the Commonwealth Games may suffer in standard, the men’s 800m wasn’t one of those with Olympic silver medallist Botswana’s Nigel Amos - who has run the fastest time for 2019,- in the Gold Coast field.
He faded badly over the final stages to finish last as Mathews surged onto the podium to win Australia’s first medal in the event for 36 years..
The 24-year-old, who is coached by his mother Elizabeth, had aimed to also run the 1500m in Doha but missed qualifying by just .03sec.
“The goal was the 1500 but I’m happy in a way because I think I’m just as competitive over 800 as I am 1500,” Mathews said.
“I said originally the focus was 1500 but the event I am running at world champs is the one I won a bronze medal in at the Comm Games so I’m still pretty confident, it’s not a terrible trade-off.”
Originally published as World Athletics Championships: Essendon fan Luke Mathews determined to make mark in 800m