NSW All Schools Day 2 Review: Charlie Jeffreson best ever

10 December 2021

NSW All Schools Day 2 Review: Charlie Jeffreson best ever

Heavy rain and an electrical storm interrupted competition on day two of the NSW All Schools Championships held at Homebush, but the weather couldn’t stop Charlie Jeffreson stamping himself as the finest ever half-miler to compete in the 85-year history of the meet.

The 17-year men’s 800m was one of the strongest races on the program, with the Charlie Jeffreson (The Kings School), the second fastest under-18 800m athlete in Australia history, taking on a field including Canberra’s Hayden Todd and Orange’s Ben Jones. After passing the bell in 54 seconds, Charlie gradually increased his lead to finish comfortably ahead of Hayden Todd in a quick 1:50.98. Charlie’s time broke the meet record of 1:52.00 held by prominent coach Ben Liddy at 1:52.00 set in 1998 and was also the fastest time in the history of the meet.

Hayden ran on very well to clock 1:51.69, with Jayden Gill (The king’s School) third 1:54.98 and Ben Jones fourth in 1:56.43.

While Charlie Jeffreson was a favourite to win, it is fair to assess the 14 year 800m winner Daniel Williams was a total shock. Daniel, from Hyland Park, just north of Nambucca Heads, arrived at the meet with a PB of 2:12.

“I saw the national qualifying standard was 2:04 and I was enquiring if I could get that,” said Daniel about his race goal. The heat went well as he clocked 2:02.32 to easily progress into the final.

“I ran a 10 second PB in the heat. My previous best was at the school carnival on a grass track at Coffs Harbour.”

He was now truly in the mix as none of the entries had ever broken two minutes.

In the final, he and national under-15 champion Leon Schouten (St Josephs) ran side-by-side for much of the race as they dragged four athletes to significant PBs and all under two minutes. Daniel and Leon both broke the meet record with Daniel taking the win in 1:57.91, from Leon 1:58.29. Daniel had taken over a second off Jordan Doris’ old mark of 1:59.09.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting that not in a million years,” said Daniel. “These boys have always been a tad in front of me, but today I caught up.”

After his heat time PB, he still had unfinished business as his dad’s PB was also 2:02.1 – fractionally ahead of his.

Daniel enjoys athletes as he notes “I see many different talents, which is great.”

Cronulla’s Ivy Boothroyd broke her second record in as many years. Last year she lowered the 13 year 800m record, this year it was the 14 year mark, held by dual Olympian Jenny Blundell. In a high quality race, Ivy clocked 2:09.05 to take just 0.01 second from Blundell’s 2008 record.

In the 14-year boys high jump, Sydney Grammar’s Jackson Dyne jumped out of his skin to add 17 cm to his PB. Arriving here with a best of 1.75m, he attempted a meet record of 1.94m, but after three misses settled for the win at 1.92m. He had been pushed all the way by the revelation of the competition in 2020 Kurt Michael (St George), who then set the 13 year record of 1.87m.

Also in the half-mile events, there was more success for the north coast with siblings Jade and Hayley Kitching taking wins. Jade Kitching (Orana High) won the 15 year boys in 1:56.56, while in the 17 year event big sister Hayley, who was expected to be duelling to the finish line with defending champion Montana Monk (Bishop Tyrrell Anglican), but Hayley won by two second in 2:07.47, ahead of Montana’s 2:09.44. Hayley broke the meet record set in 2008 and recorded the second fastest time in the history of the meet.

Quickest of the day in the girls 200m was Emma Lee (Inaburra School) in the 16 year event, clocking 24.49 ahead of Olivia Inkster (PLC) 24.76.

One of the performances of the meet was Ben Stevens in the 16 year shot. Short of the record held by Samoan Olympian Emanuele Fuamatu, Ben still pushed the 5kg shot out to 18.17m.

The 5000m provided terrific racing at the end of the day. In the 19 year event, Daniel Kelly (Katoomba H) gave the meet record a scare clocking 14:57.28 – terrific in the conditions. In the girls race Kambala’s Allegra McGivern was able to take the record by 12 seconds in 18:07.85. We witnessed an extraordinary performance in the 17 year boys 3000m when Ciaran Rushton (The King’s School) clocking 8:17.59. It was the second fastest time ever recorded at the NSW All Schools, only behind Lawrie Whitty’s record of 8:12.7 set in 1977 – 44 year ago.

There were many close battles during the day, here are some:

-13 year girls 200m: Tammin (Endeavour H) defeated Bronte Locane (Meriden) 26.07 to 26.08.

-19 year men’s 200m: Connor Bond (The King’s School) held off Ace Haslam (Cronulla H) 21.64 to 21.67.

16 year girls high jump: all place getters cleared 1.65m with the colour of the medals decided on count back. Allrounder and talented thrower Karina Bell (Meriden) won from triple jump specialist Olivia Dimech (Bede Polding) with Emily Malakovski (Hoxton Park) third.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Charlie Jeffreson (courtesy of David Tarbotton)