World U20 Team Profile: Connor Bond

10 June 2022

World U20 Team Profile: Connor Bond

From Rugby royalty, Connor Bond has been a national level sprinter for nearly a decade, but he regards his brilliant 2021/22 season as a breakthrough campaign. Despite incredible depth in Australian men’s junior sprinting, he was able to place third in the National U20 100m and second in the 200m. He ran consistently fast times in the summer of 2022 hitting outstanding bests of 10.46 and 21.00. He secured selection in the 4x100m Australian team for the World U20 Championships.

In June on the Gold Coast Connor teamed up with Lachlan Kennedy, Calab Law and Aidan Murphy to break the National U20 4x100m record, clocking 39.30. Also at the meet he ran an individual 200m time of 21.07 to indicate his form two months after Nationals was still strong. Then 10 days later at the Oceania Championships, he surprised by winning the U20 100m over 200m star Calab Law, clocking 10.40 as he moved to number 15 fastest junior in Australian history.

Connor Bond was destined to be involved in sports. His father and uncle both played Rugby Union for Australia. His father, Grahame Bond, was a 5-time Wallaby in 2001, while his uncle, Adam Ashley Cooper, only recently retired after a 14-year and 121 test career for the Wallaby’s.

Connor started in athletics aged six at Ku-ring-gai Little Athletics Centre and also playing rugby in U7s with Lindfield. “I started playing because my mum and dad both did athletics and rugby when they were younger and wanted me to enjoy sport as much as they did.”

Connor was successful from the start.

“I went to nationals for the first time when I was 10, and won my first national medal in Brisbane for the 4x100m relay. I also went to nationals in the U11’s and U12’s. He was also playing rugby as they were in opposite seasons.

Just prior to his emerge in the last two years, Connor was also hurdling and long jumping, but at the end of 2020 he was really making progress ahead of his standout 2021/22 season. In November 2021 he hit the World U20 Championships standards in both event, 10.60w and 21.40, however the 100m was wind assisted.

“It was my 200m season opener, which I was blown away with.”

The season just progressed from there with numerous qualifiers and runs at major meets like the Melbourne Track Classic, where he clocked his 100m PB of 10.46. His outstanding Nationals campaign included third in the U20 100m (10.50) and second in the 200m (21.00). He was elated with his nationals performance:

“I was over the moon with my results at nationals because this was my first year of being truly competitive on the national stage and also my second year of proper athletics training.”

Combining athletics and rugby has been the big challenge for Connor.

“Being a multi-sport athlete, until recently, I had to balance rugby and athletics at a high level from when I was about 14. I struggled with many injuries including a broken shoulder, concussions, hamstring and hip flexor tears and patella tendonitis to name the more serious injuries. These were a challenge to me as it meant I had to be very particular as to how I trained and how I managed my load with training.”

IN BRIEF - Education: studying a double degree of Bachelor of Cyber Security and Media Communications at Macquarie University…Hero: His father. “Despite a career plagued with injuries that were out of his control, he still had the grit and determination to represented Australia in rugby union. He inspires me to maintain integrity, determination and motivation when it comes to my track career and I could not thank him enough for it.” Influential person in career: John Gikas. “John is a fantastic sprinter, and was the captain of my house in school when I was in year 8. His incredible results and his leadership as house and athletics captain in 2018 to lead us to a GPS athletics senior victory was truly inspirational to me and he is one of the reasons I kept at athletics through my early teens despite a flattening in progress at the time. He stoked my love for athletics and without him I would not be where I am today.”… Advice to your young self: Always stick to the grind and love the grind. Bide your time and be patient and you will have your time…Hobbies: Surfing, skating, beach, cars and watching and playing soccer and rugby.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Connor Bond at the 2022 Nationals (courtesy of Fred Etter)