NSW Juniors REVIEW Day 2: Kabba two world junior qualifiers from two starts

Published Sun 10 Mar 2024

NSW Juniors REVIEW Day 2: Kabba two world junior qualifiers from two starts

Day two of the NSW Junior Championships, in glorious conditions at Homebush, will be remembered by a host of sprint results that didn’t go by the form guide, while two established stars Rashid Kabba and Izzi Louise-Roe achieved key World U20 Championships qualifiers.

Rashid Kabba now two world junior qualifiers from two starts

Westfields star, Rashid Kabba confirmed he has returned to top form with a blistering 100m timed at 10.53, beaten across the line by visiting Victorian Frankleen Newah-Jarfoi. Both went under the World U20 Championships standard of 10.55, joining another four Aussies under the mark. Rashid is on track to go three from three in Sunday’s 200m.

Louison-Roe nails triple jump standard

After threatening the standard all summer, Izzi Louison-Roe finally hit the World U20 Championships triple jump standard of 12.90m with a jump of 13.02m. She backed it up with another three leaps over 12.80m.

“I was so happy to finally get it legal,” said Izzi, who had leapt a wind assisted distance of 13.39 in December in Perth.

“In January I wasn’t doing as well as I wanted to do. After Nationals in December I had a bit of a break and then was a little rusty, but I’ve got back into it now.”

It is such a long season for juniors who can start competing mid-year in school carnivals and are still going 10 months later in April.

“I tell myself, breaks are good,” she remarked.

Jack Deguara U20 400m

Jack Deguara, maybe a very new name to the quarter mile community, but the quietly spoken 18-year-old from Maitland has now recorded four consecutive sub-48 second 400s, narrowly setting a PB on each occasion. It led to a win on the weekend in the NSW under-20 400m title in 47.75.

“I started the season with a PB of 50.31 seconds and my goal was to qualify for the Nationals. (standard 49.84),” he said. He now remains just 0.01 seconds outside the world junior standard.

A regular soccer player over winter, 2023 season will be his last as he enjoys athletics more and feel he can be more successful sprinting. Coached by Katie Smee, he started athletics as an under-8 and attributes his recent progress to training with ‘the best squad’.

New 100m stars

NSW athletes, by sheer numbers, has enormous depth and year after year we see a wave of new and emerging talent. But this years 100s have surprised by the number of newbies to the top of the podium. In addition to the three athletes we have profiled below, some others to emerge were Brodie McCluskey (U17 girls), Divine Chukwidi (U14 girls) and Darcy Coote (U15 boys).

Xavier Peacock U17 100m - One of the major surprises was the win by Bankstown athlete Xavier Peacock in the under-17 100m. Coached by Mike Psarakis, and already signed to Cronulla Sutherland Rugby League team, at the NSW All Schools, last October he placed third in the 100m in 11.31 – well behind Cooper Wilson who ran 11.14 and would go on to claim the National All School sprint double in Perth in December. But 10 weeks on, Xavier is on the rise, clocking a half second PB of 10.76 in the heats this weekend, before claiming the title in the final by 0.12 seconds, from Cooper Wilson in 10.78 seconds.

He has only been training for five months and explaining why he started.

“I just wanted to test out my speed.”

Jacob Copp U14 100m - Winner of the under-14 100m, Jacob Copp, was the favourite coming into the meet and he didn’t rest on reputation running 11.71 in the heat and 11.79 in the final to take the title by a staggering half second.

He is in just his third year in athletics and under the coaching of Shane Hoad at Campbelltown.

“I started in year 6 at my school athletics carnival and ran well, so decided to join Little As and landed here.”

Why does he think he is running so well?

“Training has been paying off. I hope I can keep it up,” he said.

Alex Ruhfus U16 100m - At the 2023 NSW All Schools Ryde’s Alex Ruhfus pushed Lachlan Byrnes in the 100m, placing 0.03 seconds behind. Lachlan would two months later take the National title in Perth. Alex was also in Perth and clocked an impressive winning heat time of 11.39 – the fastest on the day in his age. In the final he placed fourth in 11.55. In the heats today, he ran a PB 11.36, but was still well behind Nepean’s Epeosi Ugbomhe who ran 11.20.

The final was open to whoever could step up. In addition to Epeosi and Lachlan, there was the outstanding Jack Proudfoot. But Alex was brilliant clocking 11.12 to just edge Epeosi Ugbomhe who ran 11.23. Unfortunately, it will not be a PB as it had a slightly illegal wind of 2.2m/s.

In Brief:

Multiple National champion Eliza Lawton was untroubled adding the 1500m title to her previously won under-15 3000m, clocking 4:31.84 to just miss her PB.
Newcastle’s Jemma Pollard won the under-20 400m in another world junior qualifier of 53.75 seconds clocking her fourth fastest time of her career, only bettered by runs at the ACT Champs, Adelaide and Canberra Track Classics.
Shari Hurdman has returned to top form with a devasting last 200m kick in the under-18 400m to clock 54.83 seconds, not far from her PB and her fastest time for 12 months. Shari and her coach (Vanessa Price) have been patient through some mixed form and have been rewarded.
Managing a hamstring issue, Daniel Okerenyang took just three attempts in the under-18 triple jump, but still leapt an outstanding 15.00m, a distance he has exceed only once previously. The 16-year-old continues to chase the NSW U18 record of 15.23m and world junior standard of 15.50m.
In the U20 1500m Ada Rand ran away from a quality field including world juniors middle-distance qualifiers Fleur Cooper and Tayissa Buchanan. While in the boys U17 Matt McLachlan, similarly sprinter away from the field on the last lap to clinch victory in 3:56.73.
A feature race was the under-18 100m and it lived up to expectations. Australian Junior Champs U17 100/200m champion Dylan Hall was racing emerging star John McDonald who won silver in the U17 100m at the Australian All Schools. John took the race narrowly in 10.85 from Dylan with 10.88, while hurdler Billy Blair was there also with 10.91. “I got a real good start, but I could hear him (Dylan) coming up. It is good to be racing together again,” said John McDonald.