Australian Little Athletics Championships: NSW claim 37th title

27 April 2025

Australian Little Athletics Championships: NSW claim 37th title

In Adelaide this ANZAC weekend NSW won their 37th Australian Little Athletics Championship. First held in 1971, the 2025 Under-13 championship went down to the last two events with NSW holding off Queensland 778 to 753 points, while Victoria finished third on 706 points. NSW claimed the prestigious Trevor Billingham Trophy, named after the founder of Little Athletics in Australia.

In the 52-year history of the championships, NSW have dominated with 37 titles, from Victoria with 14 wins, and Queensland and Western Australia – one each.

NSW also placed fifth in the Alan Triscott Trophy (U13 handicap point score) and third in the Life Members Trophy for the U15 Combined Events.

In a thrilling finish for the under-13 competition, it would come down to the two 4x100m relays. Although NSW led, Queensland, 759 to 734 points going into the last two events, a maximum of 30 points was on offer. With disqualifications in the mix, it was mathematically possible for Queensland to win, but NSW were sound, winning the boys relay and placing second in the girls, to win the teams title by 25 points - 778 to 753 points.

Double individual gold medallists Savannah Auvaa (Bathurst), Weiyi Tang (Hills District) and Zachary Leung (Ryde), along with multi-medal winning para duo Toby Morgan and Melida Hottes, led NSW to victory in the under-13 championship.

Fresh from her shot and hammer throw titles in Perth three weeks ago, Bathurst athlete Savannah Auvaa dominated the throws in Adelaide, winning the shot and discus events. Savannah won the discus by over three metres with a throw of 40.11m and the shot put with a distance of 12.14m, ahead of teammate and another country athlete Emmy Clark (Gosford) with 11.65m.

Ryde’s Zachary Leung was brilliant going undefeated throughout the championships in his six races covering heats and finals. He won the sprint double with slick times of 11.84 (11.71 heat) and 24.93 (24.90 heat) and ran on both winning relay teams – the 4x100m and sprint medley relay.

Weiyi Tang won the boys horizontal jumps double and anchored the 4x100m relay to gold. He took the triple jump title convincingly by 51cm, with a terrific distance of 12.04m, but the long jump was a different matter - locked in a thrilling competition against Victorian Liam Carroll and teammate Akara Koga (Northern Suburbs). Victoria’s Liam led after two rounds with a jump of 5.48m, from Weiyi (5.42m) and Akara (5.39). But in round three the event was transformed, when first Liam leapt 5.69m, then Weiyi responded with an outstanding mark of 5.80m, while Akara also improved with 5.53m. In the last round Weiyi leapt well with 5.55m, but he had already secured the gold, from Liam and teammate Akara. Akara Koga, who was a late selection when added to replace Jack Spencer, had a great championship winning four medals in the long jump, 200m (bronze) and twin gold in the relays.

Parkes athlete Toby Morgan (T43 classification) won five medals in the under-13 multi-class events. On the track, he won the 400m, and claimed silver medals in the 100m, 200m and 800m. He also took gold in the field, with a throw of 16.32m in the javelin. It was noteworthy that in the two events he won in Adelaide, were the two events he had improved on his performances from the NSW Championships in March. In the 400m at State he ran 1:36.40, but progressed to 1:35.71 in Adelaide, while in the javelin he improved nearly three metres in Adelaide.

Another country athlete, Melinda Hottes from the Macquarie Hunter Little Athletics Centre, won four multi-class medals including two titles in Adelaide. Her gold medals in the discus (12.72m) and shot put (4.48m) were also championships bests.

Cameron Batey (Hills District) was successful across an unusual program, which required him to compete on five occasions. He just missing a medal in the 200m hurdles with fourth place (28.89), then made the podium with third in a very close 400m (56.07). He recorded one of the best performances of the meet, clocking 2:07.56 in the 800m, just holding off teammate Nathaniel Barrett (Manly-Warringah, 2:08.68) as they went 1-2. Cameron and Nathaniel had dominated the event finishing five seconds ahead of the field. Cameron also added gold to his medal haul as a member of the medley relay. Nathaniel Barrett also had another event – the 1500m, where he recorded one of the performances of the meet, winning the metric mile in a time of 4:21.94. He won by nearly six seconds and was close to the championship best set 32 years ago.

NSW’s historic record in race walking was maintained by Audrey Russell (Raymond Terrace) and Lincoln Moore (Glenbrook) who comfortably won the girls and boys 1500m race walks in times of 7:02.87 and 7:10.65 respectively.

Other NSW winners were:

Jaxon Solomon (Manly-Warringah) 80m hurdles 12.17

Cruz Monzon (Liverpool) 400m 55.21

Caitlyn Yu (Ku-ring-gai) Javelin 36.32m

In the boys under-15 combined events Thomas Clarke (Tallawong Park) placed sixth with a score of 3776 points, just 15 points ahead of his teammate Hamish MacDonald (Springwood) with 3761 points. Strong events for Thomas were his discus (34.83m) and long jump (5.65m), while for Hamish his javelin (37.54m) and 800m (2:20.72) were impressive. In the girls combined event, Chelsea Forte (Ku-ring-gai) finished just off the podium placing fourth with 4030 points, while teammate Bronte Parkin (Quakers Hill) placed eighth with a score of 3352. Chelsea was strong in the throws with her javelin (33.81m) and shot put (9.94m), while Bronte was excellent in the high jump (1.54m) and long jump (4.82m).

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW