Day 3 Australian All Schools Championships: NSW defend team title

8 December 2019

Day 3 Australian All Schools Championships: NSW defend team title

NSW have defended their Australian All Schools team title, sailing home on the back of a strong para athletics and relay performance. On the last afternoon of competition NSW’s four medley relays were unbeatable, including two meet records.

Despite only a short break between the individual 400m and medley relays, about one hour, NSW’s quarter-milers backed up well to anchor teams to victory.

Following a silver in the 200m, on the final day Western Sydney’s Caitlin Ferrier, won the 400m in 54.55 and an hour later anchored the under-18 girls medley relays to a win in 2:11.31. Second in the 400m, Emma O’Reilly also ran on the relay. Sprinters Teagan Berry and Emma Klasen were also members of the winning team.

Montana Monk duplicated Ferrier’s feat, except she won silver in the 800m, ahead of gold in the 400m (56.12) and anchoring the U16 girls medley relay to gold in a meet and national record time of 2:11.43. She was joined on the relay by Aleksandra Stoilova, Hayley Wright and Olivia Inkster.

Hills athlete, Joshua Atkinson won medals in the 200m and 400m (47.98) ahead of anchoring the under-18 medley relay to victory in 1:55.19. He was joined on the relay by Max Holmes, Laud Codjoe and Leroy Reid.

Daniel Cattana and Charlie Jeffreson backup from the under-16 400m for relay duty helping the team to gold in 1:58.56.

Hurdler Sebastian Ghisso and Luka Szymanski were other members of the winning NSW team.

An athlete making significant improvement this year has been Ellen Murphy, a Meriden student in the Nicole Boegman coached program. Today in Perth she won the under-14 100m and 80m hurdles. In the sprint she ran a wind assisted 12.07 and in the hurdles a swift 12.32. The hurdles was a battle throughout with Delta Amidzovski who suffered an injury just before the finish line.

“I hurt my hamstring,” explained Amidzovski. “For the past four weeks I have had problems with the hamstring.” Despite the hampered preparation she earlier won the high jump and ran on the gold medal winning 4x100m relay.

NSW were again strong in the distance events claiming a trifecta in the under-18 girls 1500m and 1-2 in the under-16 boys 1500m.

Imogen Gardiner added the under-18 1500m to her 3k win in a PB time of 4:24.53. “I knew 1500m would be a tough race against these girls. I tried to conserve as much energy as I could in the 3000m and control that race, then warm down and hydrate after for the 1500m.”

Second in the 1500m was Nicola Hogg, also in a PB time of 4:26.60, while third was Georgie Purcell with 4:30.86.

Training partners in the Pulse Performance squad under coach Dan Andres, claimed gold and silver in the under-16 1500m. Nathan Stanmore took gold in 4:01.07, just ahead of Kane Shield with 4:01.90.

“I’m happy to be beaten by my training partner,” said Shield.

The field events often get overlooked, but one outstanding performance was by Emmaus College’s Amosia Soatini in the boys under-14 shot. At the NSW All Schools, he put a meet record 17.99m, but in Perth he surpassed that with a massive 19.36m meet record. He was spurred on by Central Coast discus champion, George Wells hitting 18.57m and taking silver.

Another outstanding unsung result was by Wagga’s Kippy Langat in the under-16 triple jump. After leaping 13.30m at the NSW All Schools he was out to 13.96m in Perth to claim a very comfortable 58cm win.

Also impressive in the field was Jack Greaves winning the under-16 boys javelin by a few metres with his first round mark of 65.16m. Ashlyn Blackstock’s win in the shot was never in doubt with four puts over 14m, ahead of second place best of 13.96m. Blackstock’s best was her last with 14.43m. The day started with a decisive win in the under-18 javelin throw from Lianna Davidson with a tremendous throw of 51.91m. Two of Kane Simmons’ javelin throws would have been sufficient to take the win in the under-18 javelin. His best was his last throw of 62.34m.

NSW’s para athletes won three titles on the final day with Dylan Mendonca adding to his previous titles. He won the under-16 100m in 18.19 (107.64%), ahead of Luke Small with 20.38 (96.07%). Mali Lovell was another to claim more gold, in the under-16 para girls 100m with a time of 15.78 (95.63%), just ahead of Lainee Harrison with 15.09 (95.16%). Sammy Muamba won the under-18 para 100m in a quick 11.74, ahead of teammate Edward Parker who ran 12.03. Parker had started his competition program running in the 400m hurdles.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Delta Amidzovski (close to camera) and Ellen Murphy at the last barrier in the 80m hurdles (image courtesy of Laura Crowhurst)