The 2016 NSW Junior & Youth Championships were held recently at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre over the 5th to 7th February 2016.
There were 25 local athletes, from Nowra Athletics Club, who competed at these championships.
There were some great results from these athletes in both track and field events against the very best in NSW.
Hannah Stone was the youngest female athlete representing Nowra Athletics Club. Hannah competed in the Under 15 90m and 200m hurdles events, finishing 9th in the 90m final and 5th in the 200m.
In the boys Under 15 Byron VanDyk ran strongly to win Bronze in the 800m. Rhys Burinaga also won bronze in the Under 15 discus, and making up the hat trick for the Under 15’s boys; Corey McConville won bronze in the 3000m walk.
In the Under 16’s there were five female athletes wearing the Nowra colours.
Jenna Bentley was busy on the track in the 100m, 200m and 400m events; with her best performance coming in the 100m, finishing 9th.
Mariama McKern went home with a gold medal after winning the girls triple jump and finished 4th in the 100m.
Jessie Boardman ran hard in the very competitive 100m sprint; finishing 24th and Mikayla Check, recovering from a hamstring injury had a shot at throwing instead of running at these championships and placed 8th in the shot put.
Annie Peace is perfectly at home in the throwing circle, and came away with silver in both the discus and hammer throw events.
The Under 16 boys were also well represented by Nowra with six athletes competing.
Lachlan Kaszonyi ran strongly at his first Junior Championships, placing 6th in the 100m, 8th in 200m as well as finishing 10th in long jump.
Cooper Thomson had a full program, with 200m, 100m hurdles, and both high and long jump. Cooper’s top performance was in the high jump, clearing the bar at 1.65metres to take 5th place.
Blake Hartnett ran superbly to finish 7th in the 400m final and Jesse Buckham placed 4th in the gruelling 2000m steeplechase event.
In the field, Siwa Harvey-Aziz was outstanding, claiming gold in the discus and Alistair Clark, recovering from a hip injury, had a good effort in the discus circle, placing 14th.
Shenay Edwards performed well in both the Under 17’s 400m and 800m; placing 6th in the 400m and 4th in the 800 whilst Hugh Dobson ran in 4th in the Under 17’s steeplechase.