Nowra Athletics Club was represented by 25 junior athletes at the 2017 NSW Junior & Youth Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre from 3rd to 5th February. Athletes performed well over the three days of competition but particularly did well just to compete in the events on Sunday in extreme heat which was over 40 degrees.
For their efforts, Nowra came away with a swag of medals and many individual bests as well as personal satisfaction!
Talented middle distance runner Jaylah Hancock-Cameron earned herself two State gold medals for convincing wins in the U16 800m and 1500m. Jaylah consistently performs well in both track and cross country events and is certainly proving to be a name to keep an eye on. Well done Jaylah!
Rumer Williams bagged a gold medal in the U20 3000m steeplechase event as well as finishing 8th in the 800m.
Asha Martin claimed a silver medal in the U18 3000m steeplechase and a bronze medal in the 1500m.
Incidentally all three of these talented South Coast girls (along with several others who competed here) a
re coached by the capable and passionate coach Andae Kalemusic who was recently profiled on NSW Athletics. (Read about her coach profile at http://www.nswathletics.org.au/Coaching/Coach-Profiles )
Zoe Chater hurdled her way to a silver medal in the U16 200m hurdles in a time of 29.74 seconds. Also in the hurdles, Shenay Edwards won silver in the U18 400m hurdle event whilst Jenna Bentley placed 6th in the U17 400m hurdles.
Alice Hamblen sprinted in the U15 100m and placed 18th whilst Baylee Holland ran in both the U15 400m and 800m finishing 15th and 11th respectively.
Our only female representative in the field was Annette Peace who threw the discus into silver medal place with a throw of 36.45m.
In the male events Nowra had 16 athletes competing.
Byron VanDyk finished with a silver medal in the U16 800m and placed 4th in the 1500m.
Corey McConville proudly stood on the podium for his bronze medal win in the U16 3000m walk event in a time of 20.14.35 minutes.
In the Under 20’s Cam Musgrove finished 15th in the 400m; Harry McGill placed 6th in the 1500m and Troy Whittington finished 8th in the 1500m and 21st in the 800m.
There were a number of steeplechase enthusiasts with Hugh Dobson placing 6th overall in the U18 event and 4th in NSW (with two Tasmanian athletes competing). Rhys Flood claimed silver in the U15 steeple just in front of fellow Nowra athlete Alex O’Brien. Rhys also placed 4th in the 1500m. In addition Nowra had Jesse Buckham compete in the U17 steeple event, placing 7th.
Jai Holland returned to competition after his recent success at Dubbo Country Championships and added another medal to his collection with silver in the U14 long jump. Jai also competed in the 400m finishing 7th and placed 5th in the triple jump.
Lachlan Kaszonyi sprinted his way to 15th place in the U17 200m and in the hurdles Alistair Clark ran a Personal Best to win bronze in the U17 400m hurdles.
All-rounder Cooper Thomson placed 9th in U17 javelin, 18th in the 100m and 9th in the 110m hurdles.
In the field Lachlan Smith finished 5th in the U15 javelin and Siwa Harvey-Aziz claimed bronze in the U17 discus with a throw of 42.12m.
In addition to the NSW Juniors the Sydney Invitational was held on Saturday night and the men’s 1500m race in particular was a fantastic race. “Records were smashed, personal bests were shattered and all-time lists were re-written” [Athletics NSW]…
“Less than ten seconds covered the entire 1500m field as Jordan Gusman (ACT) stormed home winning by nearly two seconds in 3:39.85.
In second was Nowra’s Jye Edwards in a stunning 3:41.69 – the seventh fastest in Australian history. Jye reportedly said “It didn’t really feel that quick. After last week (3:45) I felt I had a little more in me.”
In one week, Jye has taken six seconds from his PB, 2.5 seconds last week and then 3.5 seconds at the Sydney Invitational. What an amazing achievement! Jye takes his place in history along with Ryan Gregson on the Australian U20 1500m All Time list.