NSW All Schools - Juniors day 3: Tammin Lampret superb

8 October 2023

NSW All Schools - Juniors day 3: Tammin Lampret superb

Day three at the Junior NSW All Schools Athletics Championships was all about the continuing dominance of one athlete, Tammin Lampret. The superlatives were dazzling.

Fourth gold in 2023 for Tammin Lampret

The superlatives that Tammin Lampret is clocking up are breath taking. The sprinter/hurdler has overcome strong opposition in all her events to go undefeated at the 2023 championships, claimed four titles. It also brought her tally of NSW All Schools titles to 13 in four years. Earlier in the championships, she also won her fourth consecutive 80/90m hurdles title and staggeringly, with three wins in the 200m hurdles, she has never been defeated in a hurdles race (7 finals) at the NSW All Schools for four years. In addition, she has won three of the four 100m and three of the four 200m titles she has contested since 2020 – an incredible record.

She reflected on her four-year journey at the NSW All Schools.

“I’ve always been up there with hurdles but in the 100m and 200m we often swap places depending who is running best on the day.”

This year Lampret won the 100m (12.28), 200m (24.68), 90m hurdles (12.69) and 200m hurdle (28.11) - a seven race program.

“I’m quite tired after four events and particularly after the 200m hurdles today,” said Lampret. “That time is decent after all the events.”

The 200m was also particularly impressive.

“I think I’m running well. I ran my first 24 in the 200m and really happy with that and hopefully it’s a big season ahead.”

Second to Lampret last year, and again this year in the 90m and 200m hurdles was training partner Neve Jenkins from the Jacinta Doyle squad.

“Neve’s one of my closest competitors – I love training and racing with her.”

Eliza Lawton pivots as she plans ahead

The Australian 13-years 1500m and 3000m champion, Eiza Lawton and her team, put a lot of thought into her racing program for the NSW All Schools. It may have surprised some that she opted for the shorter 800m and 1500m events this weekend. She explained.

“If I got into the 3000m for Nationals it would be close to the 1500m and there would not be time to recover between events,” she said.

So last weekend she dropped down to the 800m and 1500m events. In the half-mile ran a massive five seconds PB time of 2:13.87 and then comfortably won a tactical 1500m in 4:33.10.

Cooper Wilson clocks the fastest 200m of the championships

An injury and the positive impact of a coach have sent Tamworth’s Cooper Wilson down the pathway of athletics. He has made steady progress over the last couple of years in the 100m/200m – in 2021 4th/6th and in 2022 3rd/3rd (not forgetting a silver in the high jump in 2021), but the State level basketballer has now made athletics his number one.

“I’m now just focusing on track as following an ankle injury earlier in the season (playing basketball) I’m just concentrating on track as my main priority as I like it more,” said Wilson.

And the results this year have proved it has been a wise decision. After recently winning the CIS with PBs of 11.00 and 22.11, he won the NSW All Schools 15-year double in 11.14 (headwind) and a stunning 200m time of 21.86.

Another influence has been his coach Jay Stone. As a favour to his dad, Stone took Wilson to the 2021 NSW All Schools to ‘see where he was at’. Two years on, he is now the best in NSW.

From fifth to first for hammer thrower Mikayla Skundric

Seeded fifth going into the 15-years girls hammer throw, it’s fair to say the win by Bonnyrigg’s Mikayla Skundric was a surprise. But she didn’t make it easy on herself and her support crew, nailing just one valid throw in the competition.

“My PB was 43 metres, so getting 50m was a great great effort,” she said. “My first two throws were fouls, then I produced 50m and the last throw was a foul.”

The silver medal was claimed by the favourite Matilda Saunders, Skundric’s training partner, making it a 1-2 finish for Campbelltown coach David Prior.

Skundric looks to have a very promising future. “I only started hammer training in January,” although she did start her journey in athletics 10 years ago, competing in the other three throwing event.

Solo win for Annabelle Vella from the B race

It rarely happens, but Annabelle Vella won the 14 years 3000m after starting in the B race and chasing a target time. Entering the race a few weeks ago, Vella submitted her best time of 11:07, but that was from last year prior to starting training under coach Brandan Jones.

Seeded into the ‘B’ race she was disappointed but knew what she had to do after watching the first race.

“I saw the first heat and the winning time of 10:10.80 and knew I could do it,” said Vella who had recently run 10:10.51 at the CHS Athletics carnival.

Mid-race Vella was 14 seconds ahead of the schedule, maintain 84 seconds laps, but the A race winner Philippa Quarrell had sped up over the last mile of her race, but at the bell Vella was still seven seconds ahead of the gold medal schedule and closed in her fastest lap split of the race - 77 seconds, to clinch the gold by four seconds and a new PB of 10:06.79 minutes.

Vella started competing age 11 and training at just 12 and is hooked on athletics.

“I love the adrenaline from the sport and after the race I’m excited and so happy I want to go again.”

Other notable performances:

• Hours after Cameron Badger impressively won his third gold medal at the NSW All Schools he was on a plane to England for a two week soccer tour. Badger, a centre back who has just signed with the Sydney FC Youth team, won the 14 years 90m hurdles, 200m hurdles and 400m at the championships. A member of the strong Jacinta Doyle squad, Badger has been doing athletics since age nine. He missed last year’s championships with a dislocated kneecap.

• There were a series of terrific half-mile results with probably 15-year old winner, Alexander Marshall from Holy Cross Ryde, the pick of them. He clocked 1:55.51, just a second outside Daniel Williams’ record. Marshall also defeated Tom Partland who was chasing history – a fourth consecutive win since 2020.

• The fourth Bond family sibling to compete at the NSW All Schools, Amalia, won the 13-years triple jump in a meet record 11.56m. She twice exceeded the old record of 11.54m, with leaps of 11.55 and 11.56m. She was locked in a close battle with Sutherland’s Jade Strahl who leapt 11.51m.

• We saw two hammer throwing records in the boys’ events. Under the guidance of Lawrie Barclay, one of the pioneer coaches in Australian and world hammer throwing, Maroubra’s Joseph Mechreki broke the 12-year record with his third throw of 39.47m – a five metre PB. In the 13-years Blacktown’s Kalisi Aualiitia added four metres to the meet record with a very impressive throw of 55.52m.

• With better wind conditions on day three of the championships, mostly tailwinds, the boys threatened many of the 200m and 200m hurdles meet records. Westfields star and current Australian champion Jayden Todoroski clocked 23.31 in the 13-years event, just missing Olympian Paul Greene’s record. In the 12s, Liverpool’s Jacob Copp was also in record territory clocking 24.34, just 0.26 seconds from the best ever time. Mona Vale’s Lachlan Byrnes defended his 200m title in the 14 years, clocking 22.88, just 0.39 seconds outside the record. The hurdlers went even closer, with 14-year winner Cameron Badger clocking 26.38 - 0.11 off the record and 15-years winner Ollie Facer just 0.50 seconds from the best ever.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Images: Tammin Lampret (image courtesy of Fred Etter)