Nowra fielded 9 teams at the NSW State Relays over the weekend and brought home some medals, personal best times and renewed friendships.
On Saturday the Under 14 team of Charlie Heidke, Henry Parrish, Riley Power and Cooper Barrett came 5th in their 4x200m heat in a time of 1.50.77, placing them 8th overall from a strong field of fifteen.
In the Boys U14 4x800m Cooper Barrett, Cameron Baxter, Toby Dyball and Harrison Baxter combined efforts to place 6th with a time of 10.26.82 whilst the Boys U16 4x1500m team of Will Dyball, Nash Hay,Jake Pepper and Jasper Arnold placed 7th in their event in 19.32.53.
Hamish McLaren, Talea Miller, Taj Barrett and Cooper Barrett joined together in both the Boys U14 discus and Boys U14 shot events. In the discus circle the team threw a combined distance of 96.68m to place 7th and in the shot put they finished 11th with 29.80m.
Also in the shot put arena were the Mens 200+ team of Ron Cox, Geoff Crook, Carl Heidke and Kane Barrett who produced great success and earned themselves a silver medal after throwing 35.60m collectively. Surprisingly, this was Ron’s maiden competition as a competitor, despite being responsible for coaching throws and officiating at many local and State events in the past. In his first time on the athlete’s side of the fence he ended up with a silver medal! Both Carl and Kane backed up from last year’s relays, although, admittedly are still not experienced in throwing at a competition level; whilst Geoff, a practiced veteran of many years as a Nowra Athletics Club member, self-proclaimed; “You know shot is my worst event”. All four men were very, deservedly, proud of their achievement.
Sunday saw the U16 team of Will Dyball, Nash Hay, Jake Pepper and Jasper Arnold run a strong 800m relay and claim a bronze medal. The largely ‘inexperienced at racing on the track’ team performed well together and it was great to see their efforts rewarded with a medal. They claimed “the sweatbands did it” after proudly sporting the 2541 headbands for their race!
The U14 4x100m team of Charlie Heidke, Ruby Marshall, Riley Power and Toby Dyball performed extremely well and earned themselves a place in the final after finishing 4th in their heat. Against a highly competitive field they then went on to place 6th in the final.
Harrison Baxter, Cooper Barrett, Cameron Baxter and Toby Dyball put in an enormously gutsy effort against a much older field to finish 5th in the Boys U14 4x1500m event. All four boys ran personal best times in their legs clocking a combined time of 20.44.92. They gave it their all!
In addition, Erin Smart joined Illawarra Blue Stars athletes to make a South Coast team in four different relay events and won herself two gold medals in the process with a 1st place in the 4x100m 160+ and 4x200m 200+ events. Lachlan Kaszonyi also competed with Illawarra Blue Stars to make up a South Coast boys team.
All Nowra competitors over the weekend did themselves and the Club proud.
The Committee would like to thank everyone for their dedication and contributions to the relays. We appreciate the time and effort athletes and their families put in to travel to Campbelltown and compete as part of a team. The comradery amongst everyone was fantastic!
