Day 1 and 2 Wrap from Australian Junior Championships
14 Mar 2010
The Tasmanian team has got off to a flying start at the inaugural Australian Junior Championships in Sydney.
Following the first two days of competition, the teams medal tally sits at 5 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.
On day 1, highlights came from OVA’s Mikayla Genge who crushed her own state record by almost 5m, to annihilate her competition by some 12metres. Her last throw being the best, sending the hammer 51.97m.
Two gold were then won in quick succession, in 2000m steeplechase races. First up was Ulverstone’s Kale Adams in the under 15 boys, who was brilliant, taking his first national crown in 6:42.18.
Riverside’s Jake Birtwhistle was equally impressive, as he led all the way in the under 16 boys race, winning with a new personal best of 6:16.19
OVA’s Kaitlin Morgan then took home the silver in the under 18 women’s competition, behind NSW’s Amy Pejkovic who won with a Commonwealth Games B qualifier of 1.86m.
Day two brought about more gold for Tasmania, with Birtwhistle making it two from two, taking out the 3000m. In contrast to his win in the steeplechase, he flashed home quickly to go from third to first in the final 200m, setting another PB of 8:52.56.
Kaitlin Morgan dropped down to her own age group, the under 16’s, with much success, taking out the competition with a winning clearance at 1.76m.
Louis Rose took home the bronze in the under 14 boys 1500m race walk.
In other highlights, Max Waldron qualified fastest for his final in the under 17 boys 400m, clocking 49.70seconds.
Plenty of personal bests have also been set by the team of over 50, across a number of events.
Competition continues on Saturday and Sunday, in what is already shaping up as a successful inaugural championships for the Tasmanian team.