How an Origin great Trevor Gillmeister helped our bronzed Olympian Ashley Moloney
Ashley Moloney’s step-by-step journey to becoming a bronze Aussie and how a State of Origin great helped on the road to becoming a Tokyo Olympic Games bronzed medallist.
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The young bull of Australian athletics, Ashley Moloney, last night scripted one of the great stories in our Olympic history with a stunning bronze medal effort on debut in Tokyo.
Moloney, 21, snared a cherished bronze medal after a herculean effort in the gruelling 10 event decathlon according to our reporter in Tokyo, Erin Smith.
It is Australia’s only medal of track and field competition to date and evoked memories of Tatiana Grigorieva coming from nowhere to snare a pole vault silver medal 21 years earlier at the Sydney Olympic Games.
It was Australia’s first ever Olympic decathlon medal, and appropriately Moloney’s training partner at UQ Sport, Cedric Dubler, was side-by-side him in a dramatic finale, bellowing at him in the back straight to start his sprint to the line in the 1500m.
“I was that happy, I reckon I smiled in my sleep all night,’’ said his mother Alyson.
But Moloney’s road to a podium finish at the Games is merely the end point of a myriad of little steps taken along the way, and one of those checkpoints to Australian Olympic history saw him pass by Queensland State of Origin legend Trevor Gillmeister.
In 2018 Gillmeister helped Moloney attend the world junior championships in Finland, an event which announced Moloney’s arrival on the world stage after he claimed a gold medal in a record breaking performance.
Knowing Moloney was struggling to finance the trip abroad, Gillmeister organised a frame jersey and pic of every Queensland State of Origin captain to be auctioned.
“He is a good young kid and the last thing I wanted him to worry about were finances,’’ Gillmeister said.
It was a gesture which left Moloney speechless. “I didn’t know what to say,’’ he said.
Gillmeister had met Moloney at UQ Athletics where his daughter, Brooke, was a training mate in coach Eric Brown’s stable.
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DUBLER - “LIKE MY BIG BROTHER’
OCEANIA CONGRESS AWARDS FOR MOLONEY AND COACH BROWN
Moloney step-by-step path to Tokyo.
+ attends Regent’s Park State School
+ joined Browns Plains Little Athletics Club
+ attends Browns Plains SHS
+ moves to Jimboomba Little Athletics Club to increase his exposure to jumps training. There Peta and Ralph Newton-Smith took him under their wing
+ meets world renowned jumps coach Eric Brown
+ wins a scholarship at Brisbane Boys College for year 11-12 where he helps BBC to back-to-back GPS track and field championships
+ while at BBC, he breaks the under 18 decathlon Australian record
+ is introduced to athletics coach Tokuko Pitt who provides the sprint work while Brown continues working on his jumping skills
+ in 2018 he wins a gold medal at the world junior track and field championships, breaking the competition record.
+ in 2019 beats his training partner, Rio Olympian and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Cedric Dubler, at the Oceania Championships
+ wins a place on the 2019 Australian team bound for the world junior athletics championships where he wins with a record breaking performance
+ December 2020 he breaks the Australian national record, thus generating an Olympic qualifying effort
+ January 2021 and his coach Eric Brown declares “the cat is out of the bag’’ as the world decathlon athletes look over the shoulder and see a 20-year-old from Logan in Queensland coming
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MOLONEY QUALIFIES FOR TOKYO OLYMPICS
IN 2018 COACH BROWN TIPPED MOLONEY WOULD MAKE 2020 GAMES
Moloney had high praise for his coach, Brown, whom he said “basically raised me’’ as an athlete while also taling his training partner Dubler from a “pup’’ to a Rio Olympian.
“They (Eric and Ashley) are like two peas in a pod. He (Eric) would be so proud of him,’’ mum Alyson said.
She said the three little athletics clubs, Browns Plains, Springwood and Jimboomba were fantastic, with Jimboomba parents Peta and Ralph Newton-Smith helpful in guiding hmim into jumps.
Moloney also said Brisbane Boys College had played its role in his successful journey to the Olympics.
“They did play a role,’’ he said. “They gave me a platform as I did not really have access to gyms and things like that.
“They gave me an opportunity to use their facilities and do my first ever really big comp (GPS track and field championships).
“If anything it helped me with my decathlon because I did 10 or 11 events on one day and it was exhausting and nothing was harder than that.’’
Until now.
With two-time Olympic and training partner Cedric Dubler assuming the role as captain-coach, Moloney worked his way through the 10 events, ticking off number personal bests before doing just enough to get over the line in a gutsy 1500m sprint to the line.
Moloney once described Dubler as being “like my Big Brother’’ and his contribution can never be underestimated.
Dubler was there both as a mentor and a mate to offer advice or relax the rookie.
He contributed to this great Australian story by a young man from working class Logan City who has lived from pay cheque to pay cheque in quest of a dream that came true - an historic Olympic medal in his Games debut.
Originally published as How an Origin great Trevor Gillmeister helped our bronzed Olympian Ashley Moloney
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