Australian All Schools Day 3: high jumpers Louison-Roe and Hatfield fly to gold

Published Mon 11 Dec 2023

10 December 2023

Australian All Schools Day 3: high jumpers Louison-Roe and Hatfield fly to gold

The final day of competition at the Australian All Schools Championships in Perth saw NSW claim the team State trophy comfortably over Queensland and Victoria. In the day’s competition a highlight was impressive high jumping from Isabelle Louison-Roe and Mitchell Hatfield.

Triple for Louison-Roe

Favourite to win three gold medals at the championships, Louison-Roe left something special for the high jump, clearing a PB 1.86m and a world junior qualifier. She also took down a famous meet record of 1.81m, held by five athletes set over 45 years. It was also historically nearly 10 years to the day that probably the best ever performance at the championships was achieved by a high jumper Eleanor Patterson who leapt 1.96m (in the under-18 age) setting a World Youth (U18) record.

Today she was perfect in her series, clearing up to 1.83m on her first attempt, then 1.86m on her third, before missing 1.89m.

She had earlier won the under-17 triple jump with a meet record 13.39m, long jump with a leap of 6.06m windy.

Louison-Roe capped off her weekend with third in the under-17 100m hurdles clocking 14.05, just 0.01 seconds from her life-time best.

A Mitchell Hatfield master class: both his approaches on the high jump fan and attitude to competition

The last medal decided at the championships was in the under-18 high jump and it was delivered for NSW by Mitchell Hatfield. After clearing 2.07m he bypassed his PB of 2.10m to bump the bar up to 2.13m where he attempted the World U20 Championships standard, just missing it on his second attempt.

Wise beyond his years, Hatfield spoke about his competition today and his 2021/22 campaign where he missed an opportunity to represent Australia.

Today he didn’t miss a single jump until 2.13m

“I pride myself on consistency. I always like to keep a clean sheet, that’s when it goes well. It provides confidence coming into those final rounds, especially when there is just the top-3. Not to be done on countback is such a big thing for high jumpers.”

He came close to clearing 2.13m on his second attempt.

“I held that drive a little bit longer…..it could have been today….. but I’ve got four months (until the National championships) …I’ve been up there now - I had a crack at 2.15 a couple of months ago.”

Last year at these championships he won with a clearance of 2.02m.

“Last year I had a lot of injuries coming into the Australian All Schools, but Leanne (his coach Leanne Pejkovic-Kelsey) sorted that out and it is working pretty well now.”

The win in December 2022 seemed to put him on the path to qualification for selection in the Australian team for the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games, but alas it was not to be.

“It sounds silly but I was really hyper focused on the Comm Games qualifier and I stressed myself out about it. So I told myself (this summer) I’m not going to worry about the World Junior qualifier and let it take care of itself.”

Billy Blair clocks fastest 110m hurdles at the championships

Competing in the under-17 110m hurdles Billy Blair clocked an excellent 14.01, faster that the higher under-18 age.

“I was happy with it, but I was aiming for the record 13.62,” he said, but any chance of a record was foiled by a 3.7m/s headwind.

“I could feel the headwind and I didn’t have the best race, but I was happy to get the win.”

Sophie Polkinghorne follows in the footsteps of our classy race walkers

Race walker Sophie Polkinghorne maintained her undefeated 2023 record with her third National title. Last summer she won the Australian U14 title in Brisbane, the ALC title in Melbourne, then today the Australian Schools under-14 title in Perth. Her time today of 13:34.27 was hampered by the conditions.

“It was hot and windy and difficult to hold the pace,” she said, “But I’m just glad to have the win.”

Polkinghorne had to wait until the last day to compete.

“Spectating on the first two days I really wanted to get out on the track, I had that urge. It was great to be watching all the other walkers like Isaac – very inspirational.”

She also really enjoyed the trip to Perth.

“It has been a lot of fun and good to see a lot of the records broken and make some new friends.”

NSW win the team trophy

The largest Australian State, NSW had a strong win in the team trophy (1664.5 points) from Queensland (1393p) and Victoria (1241.5p).

Going forward, with Queensland, now split into Queensland and North Queensland, they are unlikely to be a threat to our run of wins, only Victoria pose a challenge.