Ben Offereins (born 12 March 1986) is an Australian track & field athlete. He became national 400 m champion and also represented Australia internationally.

Biography

Born in Sydney, Offereins' family moved to

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

in 1987. He has been running from a young age, starting out in little athletics and has progressed through to the senior ranks. His first National title came in winning the 200m at the 2003 Under 18 Australian Championships where he also won the silver medal in the 100m. He had his first major 400m win the next year at the Under 20 Australian Championships, which earned him a position on the Australian team for the

IAAF World Junior Championships The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the yea ...

, in

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is the ...

, Italy in July 2004. He participated in the individual 400m as well as the 4 × 400 m relay. In 2005 still as a junior he entered the open Australian National Championships for the 400m where he won the gold medal defeating 3 members of the Australian 4 × 400 m relay team which won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The next few seasons saw Offereins plagued by injuries until June 2009 when he set a new personal best for the 400m of 45.69s, a World Championships B qualifier, which earned him the final position on the Australian 4 × 400 m relay team for Berlin 2009. Running a sensational third leg during the heat (44.78s) Offereins forced his way into the team for the final where the Australian team of John Steffensen, Ben Offereins, Tristan Thomas, and

Sean Wroe Sean Wroe (born 19 March 1985) is an Australian sprint (running), sprinter. He was born in Melbourne to a Japanese Australians, Japanese Australian mother and is a fluent Japanese language, Japanese speaker. Wroe competed at the 2008 Summer Olym ...

, won the bronze medal for Australia. In 2010 Offereins started his season by winning the Australia Cup held in Canberra in a new PB of 45.32 sec, he then broke his PB again at the Sydney Track Classic running 44.86sec and becoming only the eighth Australian to break the 45.00 sec barrier and the seventh fastest Australian of all time. He continued his form, winning the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic in 45.73sec, and then the Australian National Championships in 45.17 sec. This gained him automatic selection for the individual 400m and the 4x400 relay at the 2010

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 ...

in Delhi, India. At the

Athletics Australia Athletics Australia is the national sporting organisation (NSO) recognised by Sport Australia for the sport of athletics in Australia. First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 registered ...

annual end of season awards night he was named the Male athlete of the year for the 2010 Australian Domestic season. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as part of the men's 4 x 400-metre relay team.

References

External links

* * * * * * * 1986 births Living people Australian male sprinters Olympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships medalists World Athletics Championships athletes for Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Sportsmen from Western Australia Track and field athletes from Western Australia {{Australia-athletics-bio-stub