Sascha eyes Olympics

By EMMA SUN
A MOUNT Evelyn Christian School student is putting a whole new meaning into the phrase ‘running for the hills’.
Budding sports star and competitive triathlete Sascha Bondarenko-Edwards was last week selected for the School Sport Victoria state cross country team and will compete in Adelaide at the end of August.
The teenager has only been running for four years, but this is already the third time he has been selected for the competition.
While his main event was triathlon, he participated in cross country events during the off season.
Mr Bondarenko-Edwards said he was very happy to be accepted as part of the team, especially after the selection process gave him a fair bit of grief.
“I was really happy with the selection because I actually had the flu the whole week prior to the selection race, so it was pretty hectic,” he said.
“I was coughing and that and I actually got a blood nose halfway through the race, so I was running with blood all over my hands, down my face and legs and trying to finish the race to make the team.
“Safe to say I was really glad when it was over.”
Sport has always run deep within his veins and he previously juggled football, tennis and soccer along with swimming.
But after discovering cross country and triathlon, Mr Bondarenko-Edwards dropped the other sports to focus on his true passion.
He now trains more than an hour and a half every day of the week, often getting up at 4am and heading into the city after school, all the while balancing school and trying to maintain a social life.
“After my first season of running and triathlon, that’s when I decided that’s the sport I want to pursue,” he said.
“It has its challenges and the biggest one this year is probably fitting in study and all my training, which pretty much means all of my social life is only at sport or school, but you’ve got to make some sacrifices if you like the sport enough.”
Mr Bondarenko-Edwards hopes to head to university next year and pursue a career as a professional athlete.
The pro runner has set his sights on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and hopes to compete in the prestigious competition.
“I always had the dream of going professional and the Olympics have always been my long-term dream,” he said.
“I train with Brendan Sexton a few times up a Falls Creek with the Victorian Institute of Sport and he’s in the Olympics team now, so I’m starting to get a real taste of what it’s like to be at that level.
“I’ve still got a little while to go in terms of triathlon – my mid-20s would be when I was looking at getting selected so Rio or the one after that would be fantastic.”