NSW Championships: 15-year-old Chelsy Wayne shatters records winning discus

Published Sun 05 Mar 2023

5 March 2023

NSW Championships: 15-year-old Chelsy Wayne shatters records winning discus

At the age of just 15, Wollongong’s Chelsy Wayne has become the youngest winner of an event at the NSW Track and Field Championships in 41 years. Competing in a wet discus circle in the rain are not the best conditions, but that didn’t seem to worry Chelsey as she spin the 1kg implement out to 49.94m.

The achievement has only been bettered in the last four decades by Sharon Dalton in 1982, who as a 14 year-old won the 1500m title. In the discus event, we have to go back to 1967, 56 years ago, when another Wollongong athlete Sue Culley, won the women’s open discus a month before her 15th birthday. Sue went on to compete at the Commonwealth Games.

Last week, Chelsy won the NSW under-17 discus with a PB 51.56m to add 33cm to her best and move to number 23 Australian under-20 all-time. It was also nearly five metres past the standard for the Commonwealth Youths.

Sprint double for Rob Marks

Macarthur sprint coach Rob Marks claimed a unique double coaching the men’s and women’s NSW 100m champions Joshua Azzopardi and Monique Quirk. Monique defended the title she shared with Olivia Rose Inkster in 2022. It was a double-double for Joshua and Monique who also won the NSW 60m titles in January.

Josh’s quick winning time of 10.28 was also the equal second fastest in the 126-year history of the event. Only Rohan Browning, with 10.20 in 2021 has clocked a faster time.

Men’s 400m decided in the last 100m as 1.2 seconds separates field

The men’s 400m saw a dramatic transformation over the last 100m with eventual winner, Teri Fragiadakis, in fourth as he entered the straight, but powering home for a comfortable win in a PB 46.58. A high standard race with last place clocking 47.79.

1 Teri Fragiadakis 46.58

2 Jordan Sarmento 46.93

3 Timothy Sanki 47.03

4 Augustine Nketia Junior 47.12

5 Oliver Maher 47.37

6 Jye Gillard 47.70

7 Thomas Hunt 47.79

7 Jamee Smith 47.79

Title 6 for the Murphy family

Connor Murphy defended his triple jump title with a strong leap of 15.95m, following on from his dad and coach Andrew Murphy who won four titles in the ‘90s and ‘00s. In second was teenager Will Moir, a training partner of Connor. Will had a great competition, twice raising his old PB of 14.56 with leaps of 14.69m, then 14.85m.