Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Australian athletics might have a new cult hero, but it’s not who you think.
You can call him the Quakers Hill Kid.
Others know him as Isaac Beacroft, the under-20 world record holder and new Commonwealth Games 10,000m race walk champion.
The 19-year-old was involved in a gripping battle with Kenya’s Stephen Kihu in Glasgow, eventually breaking his chirpy rival with a pair of strong moves on the final lap.
“I knew he’d be there waiting for me to kick because he was taunting me the entire race, telling me to go around and lead it,” Beacroft said.
“I was just saying, ‘in your dreams, champ, this is not happening today’.
“I knew he’d come back around me and then as soon as he did I thought I’d really drop the hammer and see if I could break him, and I did.”
In a tactical win, Beacroft stuck to his guns despite the Kenyan repeatedly urging him to take the lead.
He later described it as a “friendly” rivalry – though it appeared more heated at times.
“We were moving pretty quick at some stage and he was just telling me, ‘go around, go around’,” Beacroft recalled.
“I wasn’t going to go around. I wanted it to be slow.
“You saw the kick that I had at the end so I guess he backed himself at the end and so did I.
“If someone’s going to give it to you, I’m going to give it back.”
Beacroft won in 38 minutes 45.51 seconds from Kihu and Canada’s decorated Evan Dunfee.
Fellow Australians Declan Tingay and Tim Fraser both spent time in the penalty box, with Tingay finishing fourth and Fraser disqualified.
Kennedy smashed the under-20 world record last December and is eyeing the junior world title in the United States next week, ahead of planned tilts at the senior world championships and Olympics.
“Ideally we can get on top of that podium at the home Olympics in Brisbane – that’s the main career goal,” he said.
“I’ll just keep it consistent from here and keep getting on top of that podium and see how many medals we can rack up.”
Coached by his father David in Sydney’s west, Beacroft regularly trains around the streets of Quakers Hill and on the track at Blacktown.
Beacroft was a member of Greater Western Sydney’s junior academy until the age of 16, but said it would be “pretty generous” to suggest an AFL career had been on the cards.
“I probably wasn’t going anywhere in AFL, but I like to claim it,” he said.
“I like to think I’ve made the right choice, especially when I’m about four-foot tall.
“I was usually just a step-ladder playing AFL.”
