The 2025 NSW Open & HART Sport Little Athletics Championships (ages U9-U12) took place over 4 days, 20th-23rd March at SOPAC.
In the Open events, Nowra Athletics Club had 2 athletes make the State finals in the highly contested middle distance events.
Amelia May ran a qualifying time of 4.34.60 in the 1500m on Thursday night and then backed up in the final on Saturday where she ran a great race to cross the line in 8th place in 4.32.39. With 1st place athlete in the race coming from Victoria, this gave Amelia 7th place in NSW, a superb effort after coming back from injury.
Will Dyball contested the open 800m on Friday and ran in 2nd in his heat in 1.53.51 to qualify for the final. On Sunday, in the final Will ran a gutsy race to cross in 7th place with a time of 1.53.94. In Athletics NSW, the Under 23 age group competes alongside the athletes in the Open category however the Under 23’s (athletes aged 20, 21 and 22) are separated for medals. Will was the Under 23 bronze medallist, a remarkable achievement by Will, coming back from injury and illness.
(Photo by Paul Carter)
Harrison Baxter competed in the open 1500m where he finished 22nd in 4.00.69, 9 seconds faster than last week’s run at the U20 Junior Championships.
Alisha Mustapic hurdled her way to 12th place in the open 400m hurdles with 1.10.40.
In the U9-U12 Championships, Kai Thirwall was 21st in the 12’s 1500m, with 5.16.30 whilst Addison Galloway had a big program with 3 different events in the 10’s group. Addison was 11th in the 60m hurdles with 11.64 and 18th in the 100m with 15.23. In the long jump Addison leapt 3.93m for equal 5th place.
Competing in the Shoalhaven Little Athletics Centre uniform, members Finn Goddard and Riley Sandstrom had a great competition. Finn took 2 home bronze medals, with 3rd place in the 11’s 800m with 2.22.26 and 3rd place in the 1500m with 4.47.80, both PB’s. Riley Sandstrom was 7th in discus with a throw of 32.15m and 21st in shot put with a measured throw of 9.77m. In the 200m, Riley was 9th, just missing the final by milliseconds with a PB of 27.79.
Congratulations to all these wonderful athletes.