February 2003 Volume 84 Number 1 "serving the protectors"
Tribute ride for Johnno
By Brett Williams

To honour his lost friend and colleague, a young SA cop plans to subject himself to one of the sports world’s most punishing events.

Matt White felt plain scared as he gazed at his best mate who, at the age of just 25, lay dead in a suburban hospital. For 10 years, he had known Adam Johnson as a lively, super-fit sportsman with the world at his feet. White now figured that, if his untroubled, full-of-life young mate could suddenly collapse and die, so, too, could he.

“It was the most ‘real’ experience I’ve ever had in my life,” says White, 26. “When you see your best mate lying there, it’s gut-wrenching. I still think about it every day. When I’m alone, I’ll just sit down and think about Adam, and that it (premature death) can happen.

“A lot of the things in my life, now, I’ve made more important, (because) I might not be here the next day. I now live on a more day-to-day basis.”

Johnson, a police officer since 1999, had collapsed as he surfed with a friend at Hallett Cove Beach last August. He was later found to have died of a hard-to-detect congenital heart disease (arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy).

He and White were accomplished athletes. They had met 10 years earlier and become close friends through their deep involvement in the sport of triathlon.

White, who joined SAPOL in 2001, had raced as a professional for various French clubs, and twice placed in the top 12 in Iron Man France.

Johnson finished in the top 10 in two state triathlon championships in the late 1990s. And he twice competed in Iron Man Australia in Forster, NSW. There, in 1998, he finished fourth in the 180km cycle ride.

The two irrepressible young men lived for their sport and spent countless hours together in training. “When you’re a triathlete,” says White, “you pretty much devote most of your life to it. It just consumes you mentally and physically and, even when you’re not doing it, you’re talking about it.

“Adam would come to my place, or I would go to his place, and we’d watch a collection of videos he had of the Hawaii Ironman, the Forster Ironman. We’d ring each other and discuss the next day’s training, or what goals we had.

“We actually talked about going up to Queensland to go professional up there one day. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

But by 2001, White and Johnson had come to share the same profession, only instead of sport it was law enforcement. White had heard his mate speak of the job in glowing terms, and so decided to join him in that endeavour as well.

Each revelled in the young policeman’s lifestyle and found it a bonus to have weekdays off to immerse himself in sport. And, even with the variety of fields in the police force, the two had hoped to work together in the STAR Group, for which Johnson had qualified last year.

On August 28, however, came Johnson’s tragic death. By coincidence White, who still struggles with the loss of his mate, was that evening on his way home from a workout at a city gym.

He stopped at an intersection that police had blocked near the Flinders Medical Centre to allow an ambulance fast passage to the hospital. White, of course, could never have known that, inside the ambulance, was the mate he would never again see alive.

“The last time I saw him was about two days before he passed away,” White remembers. “He’d just finished his five-week (STAR Group) course up at Echunga, and he was so rapt about it. I’d never seen him that happy before.”

At Johnson’s funeral on September 3, White gazed thoughtfully at some photos of the young triathlete in action on his beloved Hotta bicycle. The pictures suddenly sparked an idea in him. The ideal way in which to honour his mate, he figured, was to compete in the next Iron Man Australia – on Johnson’s bike.

A few days after the funeral, White ran through his tribute plan with Johnson’s parents, Steve and Maxine. Both gave the idea their full support.

Says Maxine: “I thought it was just great for a mate to want to do that in memory of Adam. I know Adam would really appreciate it.

“He would say: ‘Set yourself a time and goals, go hard and do your best’, like he (Adam) would.”

White chose Iron Man Australia for his tribute race because he knew that, to Johnson, it was a “very important” event. He says he loved the cycle leg and “had a lot of talent” as a rider.

“And, even though he was working as a police officer,” says White, “he was still looking at doing it (the race) again down the track.

“So this is it – one last shot for Johnno. This type of thing used to inspire him, so I hope I can inspire other people to think about Adam, and maybe even take up triathlons.”

Now, in the lead-up to the April event, White endures a gruelling workout regime. In addition to his full-time job as a police officer at Transit Services, his training involves up to 25 hours’ input per week. In that time, he swims 10km, rides 400km and runs up to 80km.

But, still not completely satisfied with his endurance levels, White plans to add another 10 hours per week to his training. Of his chances in the race, he says his realistic goal is that of a top-10 finish.

For White, a race-day bonus will be the presence of Johnson’s parents. He knows that Forster was the last place they saw their son race in 1999. “I’d like them to be there,” he says, “but just them knowing that I’m doing this for Adam is good enough for me.”

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