Isaac Beacroft

They say his racewalking is poetry in motion, well that may well be because he is related to the great Australian poet Banjo Patterson. Since his teenage years Isaac Beacroft has been setting race walking records reaching a peak in December 2025 when he broke the World U20 10,000m walk record (& Australian open).

In April 2026 he was named on his fifth and sixth Australian teams, and will be the only Australian athlete who will compete at both the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and three days later at the World U20 Championships in Eugene. At age 19, he becomes the youngest Australian to compete in the race walking at the Commonwealth Games.

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Starting very young, Isaac Beacroft followed his family into athletics.

“There is a strong history of athletics in my family which saw me registered to start when I was 4 years old in the Tiny Tots. My Dad and his three brothers all went through the little athletics pathway with great amount of success. I always loved little As down at Quakers Hill from the very first Friday night, I continued to do Athletics and compete at Zone, Regional and State level carnivals all the way up until my last region in 2026.”

The naturally fit athlete would during his teens compete in running, race walking and steeplechase across at a State Championships across a weekend and often win or placed on the podium in all three disciplines.

Despite that long and successful junior career, it would be over a decade before he would start formal training.

“When I was in the U17s and year 12 at school is when I really started taking the Athletics seriously and training well.”

He also made the decision to leave a promising AFL (Australian Football League) career with the Greater Western Sydney Giants (GWS) for Athletics. He had been in the GWS academy.

“Athletics was the one I wanted to pursue a bit more for a couple of reasons; I’m better at athletics than I am football and I’m closer to the international stuff than I am to making the AFL … That was a big one for me. But it also comes down to the fact that it’s too much physically and it’s too much on my plate with year 12, as well, and trying to compete at the international level in athletics.”

In his debut in the green and gold at the 2024 World Race Walking Teams Championships, he won gold in the U20 10km walk. Later in the year, on the track and the World U20 Championships he placed fourth in the 10,000m walk, missing the podium by just five seconds. It was the equal second-best place in our history in the event.

Over the next two years Isaac has been on a barnstorming, record breaking, and gold medal winning, rampage.

Days after he turned 18, in August 2025 he made his senior debut at the World University Games, placing 10th in the longer 20km walk.

With the Commonwealth Games in his sights, in December 2025, he raced a top Australian line-up of Australian race walkers over 10,000m in Sydney. He not only defeated them; he broke the World U20 record and Australian open record with a time of 38:02.68. It put him in the box seat for Commonwealth Games selection, which he left to no chance when on 26 January 2026 he won the Commonwealth Games trial and secured automatic selection.

In April 2026 he travelled to Brazil and won silver in the U20 10km Walk at the World Race Walking Teams Championship.

While he was overseas, he was announced in the initial dozen Commonwealth Games selections and in May on the World U20 Championships team.

Biggest challenge faced: Deciding when to drop all of my other sports to focus on Athletics. My life revolved pretty heavily around sport and to this day I’m still a huge sports fan so having to pick and choose which one I wanted to dedicate myself to was hard…An interesting family fact: His Dad David Beacroft held the Australian Little Athletics U13 1500m record from 1993 until 2015 when future Olympian Adam Spencer broke it…Famous relatives: Poet Banjo Patterson, he is Isaac’s great grandmother’s second cousin…Memorable sporting achievement: Breaking the World U20 record on the Homebush warm up track where I have so many memories growing up…Hero: Steve Smith… Most influential person in career: Comfortably my Dad who is also my coach, a man who has been on every step of the journey with me and given up so much of his time for my benefit…Advice to your young self: Keep a close eye on the bigger picture, one race isn’t the be all and end all. Listen to the coach and train with intention…Hobbies: Cooking, particularly meat.. sporting ambition: Gold in the Commonwealth Games, world championships and importantly the Olympics…Occupation: Student, coach, athlete and support worker…Education: Griffith University, Bachelor of Business (2024-current)…Other sports played at a high level: AFL, Cricket; placed 26 th in the 2023 City to Surf race…Interesting fact: I can cook 2 minute noodles in 1 minute…What is your true home town: Quakers Hill in Western Sydney…Coach: David Beacroft

@ 20 July 2026 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au