Terrell Thorne

Biography

In just a few years in athletics, Terrell Thorne, 18, has accomplished a great deal. Thorne is a World U20 Championships 400m finalist at age 17, a global senior medallist and the fastest under-18 400m sprinter in Australian history.

+ + + + +

From age four rugby league was always the sport for Terrell Thorne. He was a fast kid, so he did run the 100m and 200m at school carnivals. Aa a 15-years sprints at the 2022 QLD All Schools he placed a modest 17th in the 100m and 9th in the 200m, both behind the winner Gout Gout. But he was also being encouraged to try a new event.

“In grade 10 (aged 15) I finally gave in to my head of sport who was always pushing me to run a 400m for years, so I ran it at a school pre meet and won with plenty of ease running it in 53 seconds.

“Then at the major school competition I smashed the field, and my friend recommended me to coaches Sharon and Chris Dale to train with them. I started the following week aged 15. Five months later I won the U17 National title for the 400m in Brisbane April 2023.”

In this remarkable start to his athletics career he clocked 48.83 for 400m.

He had not played representative level in rugby league and with his fast improvement he decided to focus on athletics.

Now aged 16, his 2023/24 season was just as remarkable. In late 2023 he suffered his first injury – a grade 1 hamstring tear. “Although it wasn’t a major injury it was my first ever real injury even with playing contact sport for 10+ years prior to this. The pain faded very quick, and I didn’t take it as serious as I should’ve and ended up re-tearing it a month later. After two months of extremely boring rehab, I realised I need to take the sport more seriously not just about the track but everything else outside of running that affects my health and performance to ensure I don’t have sit on the sidelines again.”

Incredibly he recovered quickly to record a 1.8 seconds PB and world U20 Championships 400m qualifying time of 47.02.  After the injury he had become unconcerned if he made the World Junior team or not, but the qualifier put it back in focus. Aged 16 at Nationals in April, he raced in the U20 race seeking an individual 400m place on the team and was successful winning in a PB 46.80. At the World U20 Championships in August in Peru, he progressed through the heat, semi and into the final to place 7th. He had run a 46.44 PB in the heat and unfortunately in the semi tweaking his hamstring. “Having a goal to win a world medal turned into just wanting to finish the final without tearing my hamstring.”

Back home a few months later at the Australian All Schools in December Terrell Thorne smashed his 400m PB to clock 45.64, eclipsing the Australian under-18 record of 45.96 set 36-years ago in 1989 by Olympian Paul Greene. The performance is Terrell’s most memorable sporting achievement. “Knowing that my name is going to be in the record books for a long time means so much to me.”

His progress continued over summer placing second at the Nationals in another PB of 45.54. The time elevated him to #4 Australian U20 all-time and was the fastest Australian junior for 13-years.

Selected for his first Australian senior team, the World Relays in May, he helped two 4x400m relays qualify for the world championships – the men’s 4x400m and mixed 4x400m. In the later event, he ran a 45.50 split to assist the team to an Australian record and the silver medal – his first global medal.

Most influential person in your career: his father – he’s coached my rugby league team since I was a toddler to my mid-teens, “I came to realise that he always wanted to get the best out of me and he saw a lot in me that I never did. He’s my number 1 fan”…Advice to your young self: Listen to the older people in my life because they always want the best out of me even if the advice doesn’t sound right because it always is, I just didn’t realise that until recently…Hobbies: Netflix , my mum and I could talk for days about the series or movies we watch on it…Sporting ambition: For the near future I want to get an individual medal at the 2026 World Juniors in the 400m, and then I want to be a 3-time Olympian and have the U20 and senior Australian record for the 400m to then have all three age records…Education: studying Bachelor of Business at QUT… Biggest challenge you’ve faced: Hamstring injuries over the summer of 2023/24 – “I realised I need to take the sport more seriously not just about the track but everything else outside of running that affects my health and performance to ensure I don’t have sit on the sidelines again.”

@ 10 Sept 2025 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au