Sydney Brings One Of The Best Games Ever For Tassie
15 Mar 2010
A monster medal haul on the final day of competition allowed Tasmania to enjoy one of its most successful national championships ever, at the inaugural Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Sydney.
On the final day of competition, gold medals came from hammer throwers Rebecca Direen (under 17’s) and Danni McConnell (under 18). Tasmania showed his strength further, when in the latter event we took the silver as well thanks to Mikayla Genge.
Kaitlin Morgan turned her attention to triple jump, following her double medal winning high jump efforts earlier in the week. First up in the under 18 event, Morgan bettered the existing state record, leaping 12.23m to win the bronze medal.
The OVA athlete then backed up an hour later to win her own under 16 age group, giving her a meet medal tally of two gold, one silver and one bronze.
Eastern Suburbs athlete Joel Mason produced the performance of his life during a nail biting under 20 men’s high jump competition. On his third and final attempt, Mason cleared 1.99m to secure at least a silver medal, before missing his attempts at 2.03m. The AT/TIS Development Squad member ended up winning the silver as NSW jumper Andrew Neville went on to clear 2.07m.
Tasmania also won a medal in the under 17 men’s 400m final, but it wasn’t from the man we expected. North Launceston’s Darcey Lahey smashed his previous all time best, to clock 49.65seconds and take the bronze medal. Fastest qualifier from the heats and winner of the race at the 2009 UTAS Australian All Schools and Youth Athletics Championships, Max Waldron had the misfortune of rolling his ankle during his warm up and was unable to take his place in the race.
Lahey then backed up two hours later to run the first leg in the under 18 men’s 4 x 400m relay team, joining Chris Bray, Jordan Tyler and Joby Reynolds. Despite having the state’s fastest one lap runner sitting in the stands with his freshly injured ankle, the team combined to take the bronze medal.
It wasn’t the only Tasmanian relay medal of the day, with the under 20 men’s team also securing bronze in the 4 x 400m.
While many medals were won, many of the 55 athletes all made finals and or produced personal best efforts, in a truly impressive overall team effort.
Tasmania won a total of 22 medals over the four days of competition, with the list of medalists being
Gold – Kaitlin Morgan (OVA - under 16 high jump and under 16 triple jump), Jake Birtwhistle (Riverside - under 16 2000m steeplechase and 3000m), Kale Adams (North West – under 15 2000m steeplechase), Sophie Eberhardt (OVA – 3000m race walk), Rebecca Direen (Eastern Suburbs – under 17 hammer) Huw Peacock (Eastern Suburbs – under 20 hammer), Danni McConnell (Eastern Suburbs – under 18 hammer), Mikayla Genge (OVA – under 16 hammer).
Silver – Joel Mason (Eastern Suburbs – under 20 high jump), Rebecca Direen (Eastern Suburbs – under 17 shot put), Mikayla Genge (OVA – under 18 hammer), Danni McConnell (Eastern Suburbs – under 20 hammer), Kaitlin Morgan (OVA – under 18 high jump)
Bronze – Max Waldron (Sandy Bay – under 17 200m), Darcey Lahey (North Launceston – under 17 400m), Louise Rose (OVA – under 14 1500m race walk), Kaitlin Morgan (OVA – under 18 triple jump), Under 18 men 4 x 400m (Darcey Lahey, Chris Bray, Jordan Tyler, Joby Reynolds), Under 20 men 4 x 400m (Tyler Heron, Dom Anastasio, Chris McConnell, Jarred Gilroy), Under 18 women 4 x 100m (Nicola Rowe, Kate Walters, Abbey Walters, Laura Nicholson).