Rockhampton based livestock agent Lincoln McKinlay, TopX, has taken out the 2017 Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association (ALPA) Young Auctioneers Competition at the Sydney Royal Show today.
Mr McKinlay, who began his agency career in Roma, was emotional as he thanked family, friends and his boss and mentor, TopX founder Cyril Close, in accepting the award.
Fellow Queenslander, Landmark Roma’s Jake Smith, who won the Queensland title ahead of Mr McKinlay at the Ekka in August, also delivered a strong performance and together the Queensland duo took out the teams award.
An excited Cyril Close was in Sydney to watch the event and said the win was just rewards for Lincoln.
“He’s really put a lot of hard work and effort into it,” Mr Close said.
“We sat him out for a year and he wasn’t real happy that we didn’t nominate him. But that little plan seems to have worked – it made him hungrier.
“Last year he went to the States off his own bat and did a course over there and you could see he rolled some of the things he learned there into his performance today. It was a very close run race and he just needed those few extra bits to get him over the line.”
Mr Close also congratulated Landmark Roma’s Jake Smith.
“Queensland got the shield – how good is that. We haven’t got that in many years. It was fantastic.”
Full report to come.