Olympics Hockey final: Lachlan Sharp goes from mining to golden tilt

They make them tough in Lithgow. The town in New South Wales has spawned former squash world champion David Palmer – nicknamed ‘The Marine’ for his unerring fitness and never-say-die attitude – and now Lachlan Sharpe, who only three years ago was combining his job as a coal miner with breaking into the Australia side.

The two went hand in hand before he moved to the Kookaburras training base in Perth at the end of 2017. Three times a week he and father Richard, a former player and coach at Ryde HC in Sydney, would drive from the family home to Sydney for training. More often than not it would come after hours down the mines.