Joshua Ross

Background

Joshua Ross was born 9 February 1981 in Sydney, Australia.

Career

He spent his early childhood in south western Sydney and moved with his family to the Central Coast (New South Wales) at around age seven. He went to Woy Woy Public School and Henry Kendall High School. He is the third fastest Australian of all time, after Matt Shirvington and Patrick Johnson.

Apart from the occasional school competition, however, he did not return to athletics until he was nineteen.

During that time he played representative rugby league on the Central Coast. He reached the semi finals at the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2005 World Championships.

Additionally, he holds the fastest 100m time by an Australian on native soil, his personal best, 10.08 seconds. This record was set in Brisbane on 10 March 2007.

He also has a personal best in the 200m of 20.52.

Ross retired in 2009. Ross also threatened to walk out of the Australian 4 × 100 m Olympic relay team if he was not allowed to compete in the individual men"s 100 metres at the Olympic Games. Ross"s most successful year has been 2007 when he ran his personal best of 10.08 then 10.10 then 10.12 and then 10.13.

Ross and John Steffensen held a press conference in the week before the games began, criticising their selection in only the relay event and not the individual races.

He is recognized in the Australian Olympic Committee list of Australian Indigenous Olympians. General references.

Achievements

• He was national 100 metre champion for several years and competed for Australia at the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics. On the Central Coast, Ross attended Little Athletics and he won his first Australian title at age 10 in the long jump. Ross attracted immediate attention as a sprinter in 2003 when he comfortably won the Stawell Gift off a mark of seven metres. He also became the third person ever to win the event twice. He has won four consecutive Australian national 100 metre titles and became a vital and successful member of Australia"s 4 × 100 m relay team which placed 6th at the Athens Olympics in 2004. An Indigenous Australian, Ross was awarded the 2004 Deadly Award for Male Sportsperson of the Year. Ross won his fifth Australian national 100 m title in March 2009. Ross returned to athletics and won his sixth national 100 m title in 2012 with a time of 10.23. Ross gained the sprint double at the 2013 Victorian Championships when he won the men"s open 100 metres and 200 metres finals at Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park. In 2013 Ross won his seventh national title in a time of 10.34 equalling the record of the great Hec Hogan.

Membership

He was a member of the Australian 4 × 100 m relay team that equalled the Australian record when they qualified for the finals at the 2012 London Olympics.