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Nicole Hackett Shrine | A
page about Aussie Triathlete Nicole Hackett
LUKE HARROP MEMORIAL
BURSARY
The Luke Harrop Memorial Bursary is designed to
not only keep the memory of Luke alive, but to assits
up-and-coming triathletes as they try to crack it into the
big time of professional triathlon racing.
At two of his favourite triathlons, Mooloolaba
and Noosa, a $1000 grant will be presented to the winners of
the U-23 elite category with a point score system calculated
those two events, as well as an event set down for 2003, the
Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon, to be raced in Queensland.
The highest point scorers, both male and female,
will then be awarded a $2,500 grant.
Russell Harrop presented the first Luke Harrop
Memorial Bursary to Jennifer Erskine and Paul Matthews, the
winners of the U-23 category at the Mooloolaba race, which
doubled as the 2002 Australian Triathlon Championships.
LUKE HARROP MEMORIAL
TRIATHLON
To to be raced in Queensland in 2003.
TRIATHLON TROPHY TO HONOUR
LUKE HARROP
The male athelete who wins the National Sprint
Titles - will also be presented with the perpetual Luke
Harrop Memorial Trophy.
Harrop, 24, died on January 13, one day after he was hit by
a car while on a training ride on Queensland's Gold
Coast.
Triathlon Australia president David Burt said Harrop's
father, Russell, would present the inaugural trophy to the
winner after Sunday's race in St Kilda.
"Luke will never be forgotten, he was part of our triathlon
family, and a close close friend of many of our leading
athletes," Mr Burt said.
"But this trophy will honour Luke, his great talent, his
zest for life and his passion for his sport.
The first recipiant was Queensland's Courtney Atkinson, a
friend and member Luke Harrop's training squad (coached by
Col Stewart up on the Gold Coast).
***
What the Bulletin says
[The Gold Coast Bulletin --14Jan02]
THE achievement of young sports men and women has
become the healthy fixation of our time; we love to watch
the intensity of their work, to share the thrill of their
triumphs and to marvel at their individual skills.
There is a wholesomeness in what they do. It's
clean, uncomplicated and very engaging for the legion of
sports fans throughout the nation.
So when one of these young heroes loses his or
her life or is injured in the course of sport, it is no
small thing. There is a sense that someone that we all know
has suffered.
In this respect, the past weekend has been a time
of deep sorrow for the Gold Coast with the death of
triathlete Luke Harrop and the terrible injuries suffered by
jockey Alan Cowie.
Both these young men gave the world their best
service in the sports they represented - Luke as a talented
world-class athlete almost certainly headed for Commonwealth
Games selection and Alan as a committed and popular jockey.
Each in their own way made a difference.
The followers of sport all too often forget that
perils abound for the participants and that top level sport
often comes at a huge price.
Luke Harrop's death has left his family and
sporting colleagues with a huge loss to comprehend and has
dealt a blow to the triathlon fraternity. The added tragedy
is that this talented young man's death is not the first and
will not be the last in a long line of roadside mishaps
connected with training and competing.
The risks are forever present.
Similarly, jockey Alan Cowie pursued a career
that included glamour and excitement but also presented him
with great peril. How often do cheering crowds forget this
fact when a cluster of horses rounds a bend with explosive
power; the riders are often just one slip from disaster.
Although there are those who would have us
believe that professional sport has become just another job,
no price tag can be put on what athletes give to the world
and the sacrifices they often make.
The honest struggle of sports men and women
strikes a chord with the general public. So when there is
tragedy, we all feel some of the pain.
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