WJC Profile: Harvey Allen

Melbourne’s Harvey Allen had a fractured hip, he had lost almost 20kg in less than two months and he was completely drained of energy. This was the pivotal moment Harvey knew something was wrong, but also when he became empowered to put his life and squash ambitions back on track.

Today, Harvey works full-time as an apprentice electrician five days a week and he trains for squash seven days a week. He’s at the job site by 7am, then on the squash courts for more than two hours a night on weekdays, and twice a day on weekends. The 18-year-old is a buzz of energy.

But in 2021, Harvey experienced a health scare that has since changed his life for the better.

He suffered an avulsion fracture playing squash, a piece of bone dislodging from his hip as he made a fully-extended lunge. He couldn’t walk for days after, but this was just the start.

Sidelined from squash, he began to lose weight fast. He wasn’t eating and, unusually, he was tired all the time. The hip injury was showing no signs at all of healing.

“Mum said ‘you look really sick, you need to go get some tests done’,” Harvey recalls.

“I went and got a lot of blood tests done and my sugar levels were about 33, so they were well over.”

A usual blood range is 4–7.8 millimoles of glucose per litre of blood, so Harvey was more than four times the high range. “I pretty much had to rush to hospital,” he continues.

Harvey’s diagnosis with type 1 Diabetes was a shock, but it has also come as a relief. It gave him answers and a path forward.

He must constantly test his blood with finger pricks throughout the day, and he takes insulin four times a day. Squash, he says, is also helping him to manage his diabetes.

“It has been a struggle to understand the illness and how I can still perform at a high level whilst trying to balance my insulin and food intake,” Harvey says.

“It’s always on your mind, so it was hard trying to match my sugar levels and work everything out, but the squash has sort of helped manage it, just with all the training. The way I’m eating has changed and that has definitely helped my squash too.

“When I’m managing it the best, I have constant energy and I feel really healthy.

“Oceania Junior Championships last year [2022] was the first tournament since I was diagnosed that I felt I had finally found the right balance. All my [blood] levels were good throughout the whole tournament and I felt really healthy and strong. It’s probably the best I’ve ever played.”

Harvey finished third in that tournament, and he was also third at this year’s Australian Junior Open, qualifying him for the 2023 WSF World Junior Championships in Melbourne.

“I’m keen to play in front of a home crowd and hope the support will push me to win my games,” he says.

Melbourne is Harvey’s hometown. He was raised in the suburb of Wheelers Hill.

“I started playing squash with my dad who is a member at the Mulgrave Country Club and because Mulgrave were looking for juniors. I received coaching from Dennis Jefferies and played in the Saturday morning competition which we won quite a few times. I didn’t realise that they held tournaments until after I had been playing a while, and so I played my first tournament at 14.”

“I love the physical movement and how it focuses your mind.  I have always played a lot of team sports but found squash to be a very individual sport where it is solely down to your own performance and mindset.”

Harvey is coached by Raj Nanda and Anthony Hill, while he’s also supported by the Victorian Institute of Sport.

 “I’ve been doing heaps of strength and conditioning there. I’d like to continue training at the Victorian Institute of Sport and develop my fitness for squash in the hope of taking my squash overseas and to play PSA.”

You just need to look at his schedule to understand energy isn’t an issue for Harvey anymore. Except perhaps when he gets to the end of the working day day.

“I get a good sleep every night, that’s for sure,” he says.
 

2023 WSF World Junior Championships
18-29 July | Melbourne Sports Centres VIC
Australian Squad
Men: Harvey Allan (VIC), Dylan Classen (WA), Oscar Curtis (WA), Connor Hayes (VIC), Ken Lamb (NSW), Thomas Scott (NSW)
Women: Erin Classen* (WA), Shona Coxedge (QLD), Amelie Guziak* (VIC), Madison Lyon* (QLD), Courtney Scholtz (VIC), Hannah Slyth* (WA)
* denotes competing in women’s team event
Coaches: Cassie Thomas, Stewart Boswell, Jenny Duncalf