Kenneth ("Ken") John Lorraway (6 February 1956 – 4 January 2007) was an Australian

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

er, who represented his native country twice at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

: 1980 and 1984 and

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

: 1978 and 1982. His best Olympic result was finishing in 8th place in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

with a leap of 16.44 metres. He was born in

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's la ...

. He attended Watson High School in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

and participated in junior athletics with the North Canberra Athletic Club. Between 1974 and 1978, he attended the

Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...

in the United States on an athletic scholarship. In 1978, he was selected as an All American. He won the silver medal at the

1982 Commonwealth Games The 1982 Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane, Australia, from 30 September to 9 October 1982. The Opening Ceremony was held at the QEII Stadium (named after Elizabeth II), in the Brisbane suburb of Nathan. The QEII Stadium was also the a ...

after an epic battle with

Keith Connor Keith Leroy Connor (born 16 September 1957 in Anguilla, an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom) is a male retired athlete who represented Great Britain and England. Athletics career Connor migrated with his parents to Great Britain in 1964 ...

. He won Australian national senior triple jump title five times between 1979/80 to 1984/84. He was also a successful long jumper. He was an inaugural athletics scholarship holder at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

(AIS) where he was coached by Kelvin Giles. He married AIS long jumper Robyn Strong, a silver medallist at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. They had three children - two boys Alex and Sebastian and a daughter Madeline. Alex has followed in his father's footsteps as a triple jumper. In 1997, he was inducted into the ACT Sports Hall of Fame. Lorraway died in Canberra, aged fifty, of a suspected heart attack.

Achievements

References

* 1956 births 2007 deaths Australian male triple jumpers Olympic athletes of Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Australia Sportspeople from Wagga Wagga Australian Institute of Sport track and field athletes Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics 20th-century Australian people 21st-century Australian people Medallists at the 1982 Commonwealth Games {{Australia-athletics-bio-stub