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BIOGRAPHY |
Logan Janetzki, the winner of the junior men’s race at the Australian trials for the World Cross Country team, was a very late bloomer in the sport, which was additionally delayed by COVID. But he is making up for missed opportunities and over cross country in the last 12 months no junior has been able to match him.
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Logan Janetzki started his journey in athletics alongside his family.
“I started jogging with my dad and grandpa when I was about nine and did that for a few years but never taking it too seriously. I began competing in little athletics when I was 11 but never showed much talent until I was much older.”
At the start of high school he was no star athlete and it took many years for him to emerge.
“I competed at my first national cross country championships when I was in year 7 in 2017 and came close to last. I didn’t qualify for another national championship until 2020 on the track but it was cancelled due to COVID. This is when I started training more seriously and started to slowly improve.”
Post COVID lockdowns in Melbourne, in 2021 Logan really started to impressive with a 3:57 1500m and 8:29 3000m when aged 16. Over the next two years, he continued to progress clocking times of 8:12 (3000m) and 14:22 (5000m), but in April 2022 would just miss World U20 Championships selection.
He was terrific during the 2022 winter season, winning his Victorian State schools XC by nearly two minutes, going on to take the National U20 Cross Country title in Adelaide. Then when he ran 14:20 for 5000m in November he was ready for the Australian team World XC trial in January 2023, which he duly won by 26 seconds.
Why does he think he has made such good progress in the last two years?
“I think most of my good performances are due to my consistent, uninterrupted training. I have been focusing a lot on recovering between sessions allowing me to be able to stack lots of training weeks together and gradually get fitter.”
Hero: I look up to Brett Robinson a lot as we are in the same training group and he has been a good mentor to me. His successes over the marathon are really inspirational and one day I would like to be as good as him…Most influential person in your career: My coach Tim O’Shannessy has been the most influential person in my running journey. He has supported me for years through the good and bad times and is always so selfless and generous …Advice to your young self? Be patient in training, enjoy every moment and be grateful and appreciative of all the people that help you along the way…Hobbies: Video games…High School: completed year 12 at Wesley college in 2022… Biggest challenge faced: Being short and underdeveloped as a teenager. I feel like it gave me a disadvantage in racing especially and other areas of life…Famous relative: second cousin to NSW Federal Senator Andrew Bragg.
@ 20 Jan 2023 David.tarbotton@athletics.org.au