Jake wins gold at Youth Olympics

BALLINA boy Jake Farrell won a hockey gold medal at the inaugural Youth Olympics last week.

But the 17-year-old already has his feet firmly back on the ground – he is straight back to work as an apprentice boilermaker, and doing over-time to boot.

Australia scored a goal in the dying stages to defeat Pakistan 2-1 in the gold medal match at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore, and while Farrell is back among his workmates in the steel fabrication business, it is with his Olympic mates that he shares an unbreakable bond.

“It is an amazing feeling – hard to describe – but the moment we won the gold it drew us all together and put us on such a high,” Farrell said.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it. As a team we were all pretty close mates already but doing what we did really bands us together forever.”

Young Farrell didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet in the final, but after trailing 1-0 deep into the second half he was happy to see his good mate from Tweed-Border Hockey, Dylan Wotherspoon, grab the equaliser.

“We were always in the game but with 15 (minutes) to go and still behind it was getting a bit nervy,” he said.

“But once Dylan got the first one we got a second wind and stepped up a notch.”

And with three minutes to play Australia was awarded a penalty stroke which Luke Noblett slotted home as the Pakistani players fell to the ground in despair.

Farrell, who plays for Eastern Suburbs in the Brisbane A-grade competition, is still coming to grips with the magnitude of his achievement at the inaugural Youth Olympics.

“It was just a big opportunity we were given,” he said.

“To be 17 years old and get to play at the Olympic level against the best young players in the world is a privilege that not many people will have.

“And to get the gold is something even rarer.”

Farrell is back and busy with his apprenticeship but there is still one giant hockey goal in his mind.

“I guess it (the Youth Olympics) gives you a small taste of what it might be like to play in the ‘real’ Olympics,” he said.

“Maybe, just maybe, one day I will get to do that as well.”

But for now it’s blue overalls, soldering irons and welding as Farrell comes back to earth on the Northern Rivers.