Shell Cove Public School is celebrating a double success after the school’s junior and senior boys relay teams won gold medals at last week’s NSW PSSA Athletics Championships.
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After finishing second behind Mt Terry Public School at the regional championships in Canberra, the Junior boys were able to edge their local rivals at the state championships, with Mt Terry taking home the silver medal.
The senior boys won gold in Canberra and made it a clean sweep at the Sydney Olympic Park athletics track, setting a new state record in the process.
Lee Moran, one of boys’ coaches, said the improvements between the regional and state championships were the result of 10 weeks of hard work by all the boys.
“Between the region and state, both teams trained twice a week before school with myself and Allan Tracy and every Monday night after school with Peter Murphy,” Moran said.
“They improved a lot in that period. When the junior boys raced in Canberra, they were behind Mt Terry by about three metres, at state they beat the entire field by at least eight metres. The senior boys also improved a lot, and broke the state record.
“The boys were all committed, they had their goals set and it paid off for them. Both teams came first, they came away with gold medals and the plaque and did the school proud.”
The junior team comprised of Ashton Moran, Cooper Markovic, Noah Fuimaono, Eamon Mangulabnan, while Sam Tracey, Josh Stone, Riley Moran and Thomas Kirk made up the senior team. Kirk also finished third in the 12-13 years 200m final and will represent NSW at the Australian Championships.
Moran has worked at Shell Cove for a number of years and this is the first time he has been involved in a state medal-winning relay team, let alone two gold medal-winning teams.
“I don’t know if it’s ever been done before having two teams from the same school win both relays. It’s a huge achievement for Shell Cove.
“I’ve never seen Shell Cove come first in the relay before. We’ve made it to state, but haven’t come top three.”