Erin Smart continues to shine bright on the athletics track, lighting up the 2023 Australian Masters Athletics Championships on the weekend!
Erin claimed the National title in the women’s 40 years 60m, 100m, 200m, and 400m, demonstrating her dominance in the sprints.
In the 60m Erin was 1st in her heat with 8.20 and went on to win the final in 8.02. Erin crossed in front of Rebekah Power from Wollongong and Amy Harkness, also from Wollongong, duplicating the podium from 2023 NSW Masters Championships which were held in February.
In the 100m, Erin took the win in 12.73, whilst Rebekah Power was 2nd in 12.82 and Amy Harkness was 3rd in 13.07. In the 200m, Erin won her heat in 26.94 then went on to improve this time to 25.51, which was a new PB, as she claimed victory in front of Rebekah Power who clocked 25.96 and Yael Reed who was 3rd in 27.50.
Erin also took gold in the 400m, finishing in 58.17, whilst once again, Rebekah Power was 2nd with 1:00.70 and in 3rd place was Lesley White, in 1:01.92.
Photo of Erin running, courtesy of @g_griffis7
In addition, Erin also competed as part of the women’s 30+ 4 x 400m relay, where together with team mates Lesley White, Sarah deVries and Rebekah Power, the South Coast team set an Australian record, as they took gold in 4.07.08, well ahead of 2nd place Queensland Masters who clocked 4:39.90. Erin ran the final relay leg, and husband Dennis clocked her leg as faster than Erin’s individual 100m race, so she definitely brought the team home in fine form!
Loretta Norris contested her first National athletics masters event and came home with a silver medal after achieving a 19 second PB in the women’s 35+ 800m. Loretta crossed in 2.36.0 in a very gutsy race. In the 100m Loretta was 6th with 14.48 and in the 200m, she was 5th with a PB of 28.89. In the 400m, Loretta clocked another PB, finishing in 1.06.07 for 5th place.
Peter Dooley, added another 2 medals to his Masters Championship collection, taking the win in the men’s 65+ 800m in what was a closely contested race. Peter crossed the line in 2.33.0 just edging out Queenslander athlete Ian Cameron who clocked 2.33.9, whilst Graham Derwent, also from Queensland was 3rd in 2.38.2. In the 1500m, Peter ran a valiant race to take the bronze medal in 5.26.7. In this race Ian Cameron took the win in 5:03.2 and Peter Hutton from NSW Masters was 2nd in 5:19.9.
In the field, Andrew Carter speared himself a silver medal in the men’s 60-64 years javelin event with a great throw of 34.72m.
Kerrie Jones had a massive throws program in her first Nationals competition, contesting 6 events. Kerrie was 5th in women’s 65 years discus with a throw of 16.02m. In hammer, Kerrie was 5th again with a distance of 19.25m. Continuing her place streak, Kerrie was 5th in javelin spearing 13.02m and 5th in weight throw with 8.47m, whilst in shot put, Kerrie was 4th with 6.32m.
On top of the individual throws program, Kerrie also competed in the throws pentathlon. In this event, Kerrie improved her discus distance to 16.13m. In hammer. Kerrie threw 18.90m and in javelin 11.68m. In the shot put circle Kerrie also bettered her throw from the individual event, achieving 6.36m whilst in weight throw Kerrie threw 8.15m. Kerrie’s results gave her 2381 points for 5th place overall in the pentathlon.
Congratulations to all these inspiring athletes who are such great role models for our junior and senior athletes alike!