Luke is a World, Commonwealth and European champion guide who represented ParalympicsGB at Tokyo 2020.
Towards the end of 2018, Luke spotted a British Triathlon advert for the Guides to Gold programme. With his main strength in racing being on the bike, Luke had developed a number of skills to bring to guiding and soon moved his training down to Loughborough in 2019 to train and race alongside Dave Ellis.
“Guiding has been the best experience I've ever had in sport, with new challenges and unique racing.”
Luke first discovered triathlon when he was 20, after he completed basic training in the Royal Air Force and arrived at his first posting. Luke felt that he was in some ways a latecomer to the sport in comparison to some of his counterparts and therefore put his best efforts into improving himself. He credits a number of people with aiding him in developing his understanding of the sport as he quickly rose from novice to elite athlete.
After a couple of months of training, Luke entered his first triathlon in 2012, a sprint distance event at a local pool. Luke also entered his dad, trying to tempt him back into endurance sport after a 30-year hiatus following a successful pro/amateur cycling career. Naturally, Luke attributes his talent on the bike to his father.
Although struggling on the swim and having to navigate the course on a cheap road bike during the second discipline, Luke really enjoyed the experience and began to put serious hours into training and racing.
The next few years saw Luke soar through the age group level, then onto domestic elite races, European Cups and now racing at Pro 70.3 distance events.
Luke joined the RAF in 2011, working in logistics and is currently on the elite athlete scheme that allows him to train and race triathlon full-time, away from his primary role. After becoming Dave Ellis’ guide and winning their first race together to take the British duathlon title in April 2019, the pair ended the year on a high, taking the gold medal at the 2019 Funchal ITU Paratriathlon World Cup.
Luke travelled to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and guided Dave as he made his debut for paratriathlon at the Games where a mechanical on the bike led to a DNF.
Luke and Dave bounced back in gold-medal winning fashion at both the European and World Championships in the remaining months of 2021. European gold in Valencia was followed by the world title in Abu Dhabi as the pair ended the year as World and European Champion.
Following the successes, Luke was named as a finalist for the 2021 RAF Sportsman of the Year Award.
Luke guided Dave to another European gold, the British title and Commonwealth gold with the pair becoming Commonwealth champions in Birmingham. A week later, Ellis and Pollard were back on the top step of the podium, this time at World Triathlon Para Series Swansea, the first standalone WTPS event to be held in Britain.
Major Results
Gold - 2022 World Triathlon Para Series Swansea | PTVI Men
Gold - 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games | PTVI Men
Gold - 2022 Europe Para Triathlon Championships Olsztyn | PTVI Men
Gold – 2021 World Triathlon Para Championships Abu Dhabi | PTVI Men
Gold – 2021 Europe Triathlon Championships Valencia | PTVI Men
DNF – Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games | PTVI Men
Gold – AJ Bell 2021 World Triathlon Para Series Leeds | PTVI Men
Gold – 2019 Funchal ITU Paratriathlon World Cup | PTVI Men
In 2023 he continued to guide Dave in another succesful year as the pair won another four gold medals. After starting the season with a European silver medal in Madrid, they won in A Coruna and Swansea. The Paris Paralympic Games Test Event followed and the pair were on the top step of the podium once again. They then went onto win another World Championship title in their final race of the season together.
Luke also raced middle distance in 2023 with his best finish coming at IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella as he came tenth.
