Luke Boyes

Following a quality junior career, which saw Luke Boyes make the 800m semi-final on his international debut at the 2022 World U20 Championships. As a senior athlete he has improved all four years, including two large jumps in the first two years. He made his senior Australian team debut in 2023, just missed the Paris Olympics, overcame a major injury to be selected for the 2025 world championships. In 2026 he has been named on the Commonwealth Games team.

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Luke Boyes enjoyed running cross country at school, leading to him joining Little Athletics aged eight. But for this very talented all-round sports person, athletics would certainly not be his only focus. Aged 13 he started playing cricket. The opening bowler played for Sydney University and Sydney Premier Grade cricket for Penrith as recently as 2022. He also played football from age five, reaching his local first division and continues to play to this day. He was also successful in athletics, winning the National U13 1500m in 2017, ahead of Charlie Jeffreson.

His athletics was drifting and then COVID hit, however during this time he became inspired by the performances of one of his mates, Dan Kelly, and what followed was a tremendous 2020/21 season.

“Dan and I played soccer together when we were 10. We have grown up together through primary and high school,”

During COVID, and seeing Dan Kelly’s success, were factors in Luke’s refocusing on athletics.

“I felt bored in lockdown and I thought I’ll get back into it,” recalled Luke. In a low-key season opener at Narrabeen in late 2021 he smashed his PB.

“This made me realise that I wasn’t too far away from the U20 World Juniors qualification time, so I set that as my major goal for the rest of the season.”

In December 2021 he clocked 1:51.88, less than one second from the standard – he was well on track. In late February 2022 at the NSW U20 Championships, he won silver in the 400m on Saturday, then on Sunday in a highly competitive field, he won the 800m with a time of 1:50.62 – his first World U20 Championships qualifier.

In March at the Australian U20 Championships, which doubled as the trials, he clocked another qualifier in the heat, ahead of claiming silver in the final in a new PB of 1:50.12. It would be sufficient for him to receive the discretionary place in the Australian team, behind his old rival, Charlie Jeffreson, from Little Athletics five years earlier.

In Cali on his international debut, he would be one of a few Australian distance runners to progress out of the heats at the 2022 World U20 Championships. For Luke, he made the semi-final. He reflected: “World Juniors gave me my first taste for competing and training in a high performance

environment. I came away from this extremely motivated to close the gap between myself and some of the better athletes in the team.”

Confidence from training and work in the gym was heling build Luke. “I have taken this confidence from training and applied it to my racing.”

In 2023 he was selected for the World University Games, where he was again competitive, progressing to the semi-finals. Things didn’t go to plan early in 2024, ahead of an incredible campaign where he improved from 1:46.69 to 1:44.73, and won the national 800m title in the fastest time ever by an Aussie at the championships. But alas he was still 0.03 seconds outside the qualifier for the Olympics. At the Oceania Championships in June, he was just beaten by Peyton Craig.

Luke reflected on his summer in 2024: “I was very happy with my progression in the domestic season this year. As injury forced me to start my season later than expected, I knew that training in January and February was going to be more important than racing. I was able to progress well and time my peak well for nationals.”

He chased a qualifier in Europe, and ran three consecutive 1:45 times, but unfortunately Craig snuck under the Olympic standard.

Luke made more progression in 2025, placing third at the Australian Championships behind Peter Bol’s new National record and Peyton Craig. Luke clocked a PB and importantly achieved the world championships qualifying time of 1:44.50. Selected for Tokyo, he would not race again until he lined up on the start lined at the world championships.

The problem started in November 2025, when he was diagnosed with osteitis pubis, a painful inflammatory injury at the site of the pubic symphysis. He battled on over summer, but could hardly walk in the leadup to Nationals. After running a PB, post Nationals he could not walk as it was revealed he had a crack in his sacrum.

Eventually he made it to Tokyo with time trials replacing races shortly before he departed. He would go onto placed a credibale sixth in his heat in a good time of 1:45.54.

“I’m very proud of what I did today,” Boyes said. “I really tried to enjoy this whole experience, didn’t let the nerves of the race take away from that. I really wanted to enjoy the whole thing because it’s been a pretty rough couple of months.”

In 2026 Luke compiled an excellent series of races. He won the Maurie Plant meet, was second at Nationals, then claimed the Oceania title. In May he also clocked a PB time of 1:44.16 when finishing fourth at a Diamond League meet in China. In June he was named on the Commonwealth Games team.

Luke has had a number of significant influences in his life.

As a cricketer and living down the road from Pat Cummins, it is no surprise he has inspired Luke, particularly how he has gone on to “achieve huge things on the world stage.” Luke’s parents have also impacted him significantly. “They have always supported me with whatever sport I have played or whatever I have wanted to achieve in life.”

His coach Ben St Lawrence has also been a major influence on his life. “He has always been optimistic and backed me to be much better than I ever thought I could be. As someone who has had success in the sport, his experience has helped me significantly when it comes to pre-race nerves, as well as motivating me to be the best athlete that I can be.”

Education: University of Technology Sydney- Bachelor of Law/Bachelor of Communications (social and political science)… Hobbies: video games and mountain biking…Sporting ambition: Commonwealth Games in 2026, and possibly the Olympics in 2028…Biggest challenge: Juggling my training and competitions whilst completing my HSC and university…Advice to your young self: Enjoy what you are doing and try new things because you will always eventually find the right path…Enjoyment of competing: Seeing results and achievements as a result of the time and effort I put into training.

@28 June 2026 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au