NSW All Schools Day 1 Review: Temora/Wagga dominate

9 December 2021

NSW All Schools Day 1 Review: Temora/Wagga dominate

Four athletes from the Riverina towns of Wagga Wagga and Temora have dominated the opening day of the NSW All Schools Championships held at Homebush. Riverina triple jumpers Grace Krause, Daniel Okerenyang and Kipchumba Langat, were joined by hammer thrower Damian Wells with titles on day one.

An emerging star last year, Grace Krause (Temora High) was extraordinary today in her ‘warmup event’ at the championships. Arriving with a triple jump PB of 11.05m, she bounded out to 12.30m on her opening attempt in the 14 years, to destroy her old PB and add 34cm to the previous record held by a great Wagga Wagga athlete Alyisha House – set way back in 2002. But Grace was not finished yet and bounded out to 12.33m on her last attempt – a mark only five athletes have bettered in the 85-year history of the meet.

“It felt good - I didn’t think I’d jumped that far on the first attempt,” said Grace who noted her preferred events, are 100m and long jump, which are still to come.

Kipchumba ‘Kippy’ Langat (Wagga Wagga H) faced some steep competition from defending champion William Moir (Trinity) in the 17-year triple jump. Kippy started slowly with 14.22m (a PB), while Will was on fire with jumps of 14.38m, 14.52m (PB) and 14.37m. But in the last round Kippy bounded out to another PB of 14.62m into a 1.6m/s wind. But he then had a nervous wait as Will took his last attempt and also set another PB of 14.56m, but had to settle for the silver.

Kippy moved himself up to number four under-20 in Australia and number one under-18.

“I’ve had injury problems for a while and I’m still carrying a niggle in my knee, but considering the conditions, (1.6m/s head wind on his last attempt) I’m pleased.,” said Kipchumba, who plans to complete his HSC in Wagga in 2022, then move to Sydney to study a medical engineering.

Despite the injuries he has stayed positive.

“It’s been difficult, but the motivation has been there as I knew what I could do and if I just kept working hard I could get to where I know I can.”

In one of the first titles to be decided, Riverina High’s Daniel Okerenyang was untroubled winning the 14-year triple jump by over one metre with a jump of 13.51m.

The fourth gold medallist was hammer thrower Damian Wells (Temora High) whose throw of 54.86m was within four metres of the old mark.

Damian receives technical coaching from Ernie Shankleton, but joins the three triple jumps for speed training in the Greg Wiencke squad.

It was an extraordinary day for the Greg Wiencke squad.

“Pretty amazing,” was how Greg described it. “I couldn’t be prouder.

“Coming from the country they look at this like a ‘cycling peloton’. In a race they push or pull you along to faster times. So in the jumps when someone does a big jump they don’t get stressed they think it is a great environment to do well too – ‘there’ve done it, I can do it too’. They build off that positive attitude all the time.”

Wiencke squad member Kipchumba Langat spoke glowingly about his coach.

“Greg is the best coach, he keeps us all motivated. We all get the work done, but enjoy doing it. We are all close in our squad and encourage each other and have a great environment.”

+ + + + +

Sarah Clifton-Bligh clocked 25.26 seconds in the para wheelchair 100m and later added wins in the 800m and shot put. For Sarah, her performances in the 100m are vital this season as the event is rare – on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games program.

“I’m beyond excited,” she said. She is mid-way through her HSC which she is completing over two years at PLC Sydney. She is set on what career she wants to do – a building inspector for wheelchair accessibility.

Cormac Ryan (Rosebank College) T54 classification and Waryk Holmes (St Stanislau) T34 classification, were the standouts in the men’s wheelchair events on day one. Cormac just had the upper hand on Waryk in the 100m and 800m, crossing the line ahead and scoring higher.

A hammer thrower on the rise is Samuel Perkins the niece of Olympian Karyne Di Marco. Sam who is making his own waves in the sport, threw a PB of 56.92m in the 16 years.

Albury’s Kijana McCowan (Xavier High) just missed the 13-year triple jump record with her opening attempt of 11.46m – 8cm under the record. But school mate at Xavier High, Logan Sandland had no trouble raising the meet record on three occasions in the 15-year hammer throw. The old mark of 60.97, set 10 years ago, was improved to 63.65m, then 65.70m and finally 69.07m. It was a four metre PB for the Victorian Logan, and he now leads the national rankings by an extraordinary 15 metres.

The hammer throw seemed to be where all the action was with another meet record surpassed by Alex Goetz (Westfield Sports High). In a fascination competition, the previous record stood at 53.36m – set 21 years ago. Alex peppered the record with throws of 53.33m, 53.49m (PB/record), 53.32m and 53.51m (PB/record).

Twins, Julio-Xavier and Dominic-Xander Tatupu (St Andrews) went 1-2 in the 13 year hammer throw. Julio-Xavier won with a throw of 49.84m, within two metes of the record, ahead of Dominic-Xander with 43.66m.

The 13-year girls hammer throwers were even closer to the meet record with Ava Masic (The Hills Sports H) throwing 45.37m just 45cm under the record.

There was some great racing in the steeplechase events. Number two in Australia, Rebecca Solomon (Davidson High), won the 14-year race in 7:12.11, from Sophia Slater (PLC)7:23.15.

Competing in the same race, the winners of the 16 and 17-years boys steeplechase, ran side-by-side for much of the event. 16-year competitor Max Russell (Sydney Boys High) won the battle in 6:10.95, with Australian number two Adam Bruntsch (Epping Boys) taking the 17-year race in 6:12.29.

In the 14-year 3000m walk, Isaac Beacroft (Oakhill College) took 25 seconds off the meet record held by international race walker Tyler Jones, set 9 years ago. Isaac won in 13:05.12, an event his dad David likely won a couple of decades ago. The time also moved Isaac to number two 14-year-old in Australia this year.

Billy Blair set a meet record in the 14-year 200m hurdles clocking 26.27 to shave 0.05 seconds off the mark set by Sebastian Ghisso (Trinity) two years ago. Last year Billy broke the 13-year 90m hurdles record.

Delta Amidzovski (Corpus Christi Catholic) started her busy four-event program with a close win in the 200m hurdles in 28.65.

In the 13-year boys 3000m walk, visitor from ACT, Kodi Clarkson, dipped under the old standard by nearly a minute. Central Coast’s Sienna Pitcher (Terrigal H) battled the rain to win the 14-year walk in 14:21.16. In the 15-year 3000m walk Milly Boughton (Westfields) was the winner in 14:57.45.

Starting his competition as all his competitors were concluding their day, Aiden Princena-White (William Carey) vaulted 4.40m in the 17-year pole vault, ahead of missing three attempts at a new meet record of 4.80m.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Grace Krause (courtesy of David Tarbotton)