Athletics Wollongong stars of the future clean up at recent Australian Champs

All up Athletics Wollongong athletes claimed five golds, five silver, and six bronze medals at the tournament held in Adelaide, but it was Sidney Bartle and Xavier Wilson that impressed in particular in the junior category.

Sidney finished with a first place finish in the hammer and fifth in the discus, whilst Xavier picked up one gold and two bronze medals in the para events at nationals, before jetting off to Melbourne to compete in the Tan Run - an event which raises awareness for mental health issues.

U14 athlete Sidney managed to get through to the top eight in the hammer event and had three more final throws to complete.

In the last round, she was trailing in fourth place, before she let forth a massive 41.94 metre throw which gave her the gold medal by a whooping 3.02 metres. She also competed in the U14 discuss, finishing fifth.

Xavier is a U15 para athlete with a classification of T/F 12 for runners with a visual impairment.

Competing in five events at the Championships, he won gold in the long jump (4.27 metres), bronze in the 400 metres (68.67 seconds), bronze in the 100 metres (15.19 seconds), and fourth in the 800 and 1500 metre events.

What was even more impressive was the fact that following these stunning results, Xavier travelled from South Australia to Victoria to compete in the Tan Charity Run at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

Xavier ran nearly four kilometres in a personal best time of 14.57.30 seconds, beating his time from the year prior by 40 seconds. He finished eighth out of 37 in the U14 males and 65^th overall out of 766 competitors.

Fellow AW athletes Delta Amidzovski and Chelsy Wayne also starred during the event in Adelaide, picking up gold medals in the hurdles and discus respectively.