About Linda Allen and Linda Allen Fitness

Linda Allen is a 22 year old Australian triple jump champion from Brisbane. She is also founder of the Linda Allen Fitness studio franchise, situated throughout south-east Queensland.

The former John Paul College student began her triple jump career in grade seven at Little Athletics. After breaking the district and regional records she signed up to her first coach, Gary Bourne, and won the under-14 National Championships in 2000, followed by three gold and two silver medals between 2001 and 2005.

Linda a two time Australian champion in 2006 and 2008 became the #1 ranked women’s triple jumper after winning the Melbourne Telstra A Series competition in 2005 with a 12.84m jump at the mere age of 18 – From then on Linda has held the best Australian jump for 4 years. Her 13.28m jump at the Australian Championships in 2006 set a new under-20 record and again cemented her place as the national champion. Linda jumped 13.48m to win the 2008 Australian Championships and won by more than 30cm.

In June 2006 Linda broke her under-20 Australian record and qualified for the next Commonwealth Games with a 13.36m jump (and a 13.67m with an illegal wind). In August 2006 she competed in the World Juniors in China, placing eighth in the world. As the number one-ranked triple jumper on the Oceania continent, Linda was then selected to go to the World Cup in Athens, placing seventh among a contingent that included the world record holder.

Linda will undertake complete base training from June to December this year to achieve her goal of selection for the World Championships to be held in August 2009. In the short-term, she aims to break the current Australian record of 14.04m (held by Nicole Mladenis) and set a new record of 15.00m, ranking her in the top three in the world.

A passionate advocate of health and fitness, Linda created the Linda Allen Fitness (LAF) studios in 2006. The studios were born from a realisation that while the fitness industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Australia, expensive gym memberships are out of reach for most people.

“It’s the largest issue affecting our nation’s health – 6.5 million people are obese or overweight, and most of them just need a conducive environment to kick start and continue their weight loss,” Linda said.

“The studio was born from a desire to fill a massive gap in the market by providing private, one-on-one, low-cost training – and so far it’s proven immensely popular; we’ve granted four franchises in three months, with nine more planned for 2007.”

But Linda’s long-term focus is on winning gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games; and she’s set her sights on breaking the current Australian record of 14.04m with a 14.80m jump. To fulfill this ambitious goal, Linda moved to Melbourne in late 2008 to commence intense training with Australias’ top Athletics coach, Vasily Grishchencov who was Tatiana Gregoriavas’ coach. A big move for a big future!

Linda said mental preparation for what lies ahead is more important than the gruelling physical training she is about to undertake.

“Talent is a myth; my sport is 90% mental and 10% physical,” she said.