Gold flowing Tassie's way in Townsville
06 Dec 2013
Tasmania has won two gold and a bronze medal during tonight’s opening evening session of the Australian All Schools Track and Field Championships in Townsville. All three came in the State’s traditional areas of strength.
Eastern Suburbs AC’s Emma Keleher got the ball rolling, or perhaps more correctly hurtling, with victory in the under 16 girls hammer throw in a meet record of 53.65 metres. It was a personal best throw by more than half a metre.
But she was not alone for long as the only Tasmanian with a gold medal hanging around her neck, as one of the State’s most consistent performers at national under age level, Ulverstone’s Kale Adams grabbed the national title in the under 18 boys 2000 metres steeplechase to share the honour.
The North West AC athlete recorded a time of 6m 04.94 – more than five seconds faster than he had covered the distance previously.
Another ESAC athlete, Julia Direen followed in the footsteps of her older sister, Rebecca when she won her first Australian All Schools medal with a third placing in the under 14 girls’ hammer with a performance of 36.10 metres. It complemented the medal of the same hue she won in the discus at the Australian Primary Championships last week.
Alex Bessell (ES) finished sixth behind Adams in 6:23.33. Other top eight performances on day one came from Emily Canham (ES) [eighth in the U16 hammer with a personal best of 41.58m with the 3kg implement] and clubmate James Gravina who threw the hammer two metres further than his previous best to record 35.82m in finishing sixth in the under 14 boys event.
In qualifying competitions there were excellent performances over 400 metres with Ben Robinson (ES), Samantha Lind (ES) and Maddy Scott (OVA) each easily making it through to the under 18 finals on Saturday.
The Championships continue with two full days of competition on Saturday and Sunday, with the Schools Knockout National Final following on Monday.
