Australian Championships Day 9: U18s, U17s and Para-athletes

4 April 2022

Australian Championships Day 9: U18s, U17s and Para-athletes

Competing alongside the open athletes on the last couple of days were Para-athletes and two juniors ages, under-18 and under-17 age groups.

Bennetts Double

Two outstanding performances in the under-18s was a double by Mudgee 16-year-old Alesha Bennetts. Two World U20 Championships qualifiers in two races. In just her fifth 400m hurdles Alesha won the Australian under-18 400m hurdles title in 60.67 seconds. The performance was a three seconds PB by Alesha and came a day after she won the 400m in another massive PB and World U20 Champs qualifier of 54.83 seconds in the very windy conditions.

She reflected on her 400m win.

“In the first 300m I didn’t feel like I was running, then with 100m to go I thought I’m almost there I may as well go all out,” Alesha said.

Some major changes in the life of Alesha have certainly helped her significant progress this summer.

“I recently moved up to Canberra from Mudgee,” said Alesha who will commence Year 11 in the ACT this year. Supported by her parents who remain in Mudgee she has relocated to enable her to commence training with Matty Beckenham’s squad in Canberra.

“I have been training with Matt on and off for the last seven years. In Mudgee we don’t have an actual track and my mum would help coach me. We would go to Dubbo every weekend and train with Mark Penman, Ella’s dad.”

Alesha’s emergence is not a surprise for keen observers of the sport.

Aged 14 she clocked impressive times of 12.33 (100m), 24.72 (200m) and 56.47 (400m).

“I was going strong a few years ago and have been injured through COVID.

“I did Little Athletics from Tots to U17s, always 100m and 200m. I then started the 400s and they came along well.”

Despite the many years in Little Athletics she never did hurdles.

“I only started them (hurdles) with Matt. My first race was in December at the NSW All schools.”

In that debut, she ran a promising 64.02 seconds, winning the gold medal. She ran a few more occasions over summer and then her Nationals campaign over the last few days.

Mali Lovell improving every competition

17-year-old Mali Lovell continues to impress with every race in her 2021/21 season. The then 16-year-old T36 athlete missed Tokyo Paralympic selection by the barest of margins. She had travelled to Queensland in the months prior to the team selection where she clocked a best of 31.73 for 200m, fractionally outside the B standard of 31.60. Mali was also outside the 100m qualifier clocking a fastest time of 15.66, chasing the standard of 14.82.

After a summer of improvement Mali has capped off the season perfectly with two great runs in the 200m at the Australian Championships, she clocked a PB of 31.03 in the heat and backed that up with 31.12 in the final. The times are well inside the Tokyo Paralympic Games standard of 31.60. She also is making progress in the 100m, down to a best of 15.40 at the Australian Championships.

The great news is Mali’s two events are on the 2024 Paralympics Games program – we just wait to see what the standards will be. In the meantime she will also have a Para-Athletics World Championships in 2023 to aim for.

Last year Mali reflected on the progress she had made and her athletics team.

“I really owe it to my coaches, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and Katie Edwards, they believed in me so much. The culture of our training group that Mel and Katie work so hard to create make those killer sessions easier to bear.”

Para Sprinters in form

The Blacksmith siblings, Telaya and Carson competed in the junior events over the last few days. Teleya in the under-17s, claimed four medals, including gold in the T20 200m and long jump. Coached by Peter Murphy, her long jump best of 4.60m, was just 2cm behind her recent PB. Carson won a set of medals in the under-15, with gold in the long jump, silver in the 200m and bronze in the 400m.

In the under-15 Para athletics sprints, Dubbo’s Bailey Thompson, a T64 athlete, smashed his PBs clocking 14.99 in the 100m and 31.19 in the 200m. They were a half and full second, respectively, improvements. He won gold in the 100m and bronze in the 200m. Cooper Robb-Jackson won a treble in the under-15 para events. The T38 athlete claim national titles in the 200m, 400m and 800m. Just missing a PB by 0.01 seconds in the 400m.

Uchenna Egbu jumps and hurdles to national medals

Uchenna Egbu appeared across the week in a mix of many events. His finest moment was in the under-18 triple jump. Approaching his last attempt, he was battling to just finish on the podium with his best jump of 14.04m. But he knew he could finish higher, as earlier in the week he placed third in the under-20 triple jump with a jump of 14.62m. He tore down the runway and bounded out to 14.60m to not only guarantee a podium finish, but take gold from QLD’s Nathan Taverner. Uchenna also placed third in the 400m hurdles and competed in the long jump and high jump.

NSW’s girls dominate Sprints

Four NSW athletes helped the home state dominate the under-18 sprints. Olivia Rose Inkster, who had placed fifth in the under-20 100m and is hopefully of World U20 Championships relay selection, dropped down to her own age and win the under-18 in a swift time of 11.93 seconds. She held off training partner, in the Melinda Gainsford-Taylor and Katie Edwards, Gabriella Taylor, who clocked 12.02, the third quickest time of her career. In third was Emma Lee with 12.05. The next day, Emma won over her pet distance the 200m in 24.46, ahead of Gabriella Taylor (24.80) and Paige Campbell (25.05).

The four athletes combined to win the under-18 4x100m relay in 45.77 – just outside the Australian record.

In Brief

• Sienna Bond had a great carnival, winning the under-18 horizontal jumps double with leaps of 5.77m and 12.46m. She also won medals in relays and hurdles.

• Sydney’s Emma Polikowski was locked in a terrific battle for the national title in the under-18 shot out. Her early put of 13.84m, held up as the event leader until in round four QLD’s Zoe Beith took the lead by just 1cm. The places remained the same until the end with Emma taking silver.

• NSW fielded a young team which comfortably won the under-18 4x400m relay. They also didn’t need the under-18 400m champion, Alesha Bennetts who had run a 400m hurdle shortly prior to the relay. Only Jemma Pollard was the correct age. She led the relay off, with U16 400m/800m champion Ivy Boothroyd running the second leg. Third was Damita Betham and anchor Ella Penman. The team clocked 3:47.03 to win by three seconds over Victoria.

• After his tremendous campaign in the under-20 events earlier in the week where he placed fifth in the hot 100m race, Sebastian Sultana may well have run himself on to the World U20 Championships team. It was back to his own age to take the under-18 sprint double in times of 10.92 and 21.54.

• Nicolas Rodgers rebounded from third in the 1500m to take the under-18 800m title in a quick 1:53.90.

• A strong line up of Zac Urbach, Rashid Kabba, Sebastian Ghisso and Sebastian Sultana won the under-18 4x100m relay in a swift 41.44, ahead of Victoria’s 42.34.

• Samuel Perkins arrived at the championships ranked third in the under-18 hammer throw with a best of 59.95m, but after an initial foul, he hit 62.69m in round two, extending that to 64.09m in round three. All his three throws would be sufficient to take the national title.
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• Jade Kitching claimed the third individual gold for the North Coast family when he added the under-17 800m title to the 1500m crown he had won earlier. Seeded fourth going into the event, he clocked a personal best time of 1:54.79. Unfortunately missing the podium with two fourth places in the two events was the talented Eastern Suburbs athlete Oliver Neate.

• The under-17 triple jump was an intriguing competition for NSW’s representative Joseph Touma. Coached by great Australian long jumper Lyn Jacenko, Joseph was ranked seventh going into the event with a best of 12.82m, but on his opening attempt, bounded out to an extortionary 13.54m – a 72cm PB. He held the lead until the second last jump of the competition, when Victorian Joshua Sullivan passed Joseph with a jump of 12.59m.

• It was a great championship for Gosford’s Annabelle Rodgers’. In the open para throws she won the javelin and shot and placed fourth in the discus. But in the under-20 she dominated with a treble of wins. What was also impressive was her individual distances in the throws. Prior to the championships, Annabelle had a shot PB of 9.11m, but in the under-20 event exceeded that distance on four occasions and in the open shot with five of her attempts. In both event she hit 10.00m with her new PB at 10.09m.

It was a similar achievement for Annabelle in the discus, exceeding her old PB of 28.46m in both the under-20 event (29.33m) and open (30.26m).

• Gold in the under-17 Para 100m went to T37 athlete Sybella Warton in a PB time of 15.22 seconds. The Melinda Gainsford-Taylor coached athlete also ran a PB in the 200m clocking 31.69 in placing fourth.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Alesha Bennetts winner of the U18 400m hurdles (image courtesy of Fred Etter)