Tokyo Olympics decathlon hero and former member of the Jimboomba Little Athletics Ashley Moloney has been named the City of Logan’s 2021 Sportsperson and Sportsman of the Year.
Moloney was presented with the awards by Mayor Darren Power at last night’s City of Logan Sports Awards. Moloney says he is
honoured to receive the recognition in the City where his athletic career began.
“It’s hard to put into words… I wasn’t expecting it at all, especially two (awards), but I’m stoked,”
“Jimboomba Little Athletics was the starting point of my career, I reckon if I didn’t go to Jimboomba I wouldn’t be a decathlete (because) it’s where I started pole vault.”
Moloney’s gutsy run in the final event of the decathlon, the 1500m, secured him a bronze medal and a place in Australian sporting history as the country’s first Olympic decathlon medallist.
“Honestly, my mind was racing (during the 1500m),”.
“I thought ‘I could lose this’, even though I knew I had it. That’s the scariest thing about decathlon… you could lose it all in literally
milliseconds.”
His advice to aspiring sportspeople in the City of Logan was simple.
“When approaching anything in life, you’ve got to take the first step… (though) sometimes the first step is the hardest,”
Former Logan Brothers junior and NRL legend Cameron Smith was guest speaker at the event at the Logan Metro Sports & Events Centre on Saturday night. Smith told the 600-strong gathering it was an honour to return to the City of Logan and be among its talented sporting community.
“It’s great to see the strength of the athletes… in Logan City at the moment,”
“There’s so many great athletes.”
