The classic is a joint operation between Illawarra Blue Stars and Athletics NSW and is a formula that works very well. The COVID crisis quietened proceedings to some degree, but as this carnival is very popular it still saw a large number of athletes drawn to the Illawarra to achieve their best. The Athletics Wollongong squad is to be congratulated on their effort up against some of the best in NSW.

Delta Amidzovski U14G competed in U16W 60m coming second in 7.69sec. Club mate Keira Rejske came 8th in the same final in 8.27sec. Delta backed up as the youngest competitor in the open women's long jump coming sixth with 5.84m.

Middle distance training mates Tayissa Buchanan and Olivia Sivills benefited from their altitude training camp in the Snowy Mountains, as Tayissa came first in the W14/15 mile in 5min 22.99sec and Olivia came second in the Open women 3k in 10.42.69 - a PB and a National Qualifying time.

Young sprinter Sam Zustovich was outstanding coming first in the U20 men 60m in a very quick 6.87sec. Mitchell O'Neil came eighth overall in the M29 plus 60m in 7.05sec and Imogen Harrison was fourth in the final in the U18W 60m in 8.18sec.

Our power para squad decided to put on their own amazing show. Nineteen-year-old visually impaired runner Karlee Symonds swept through a crowded field to take out the Women's Para 60m in 9.19sec and followed that up with an awesome first in the W18-19 100m in 14.37sec.

Young Charlize Colwell was also kept busy coming first in the W14-15 400m in 1.20.18, first in the 100m 16.97sec and a fourth in the 60m in 10.52sec. Patrick Mitchell in the men U20 took out a first in the 100m in 13.78sec and a 1st in the 400m in 65.65sec.

Not to be left out of the clean sweep was Rosie Boyland in the W 20-plus with a first in the 100m 15.96sec. In the mixed open hammer division, 14-year-old William Willis was fifth with a 33.13m, 17-year-old Jude Basnet was seventh with 30.22m and fourth in the mixed javelin with 29.23m and 15-year-old Lucas Campbell in Div 2 open long jump came fifth with 5.85m.

A huge congratulations to all our members who competed at Illawong on January 9. It was fantastic to see a sizeable chunk of our members who were giving their all amongst the best sprinters in NSW.Results were:

Men's 60m: Sam Zustovich 5th 6.96sec, Jett Link 7.45sec, Nat Carroll 7.68 sec. Women's 60m: Kailee Moore 11th 8.01sec. Men's 100m: Sam Zustovich ninth 11.13sec, Callum Rann 11.70sec, Jett Link 11.86sec, Nat Carroll 12.06sec and Liam Halloran 12.80sec.

An interesting stat for this event was that positions 10 through to 50 spanned only 0.6 of a second, indicating how tight the competition was.

Women's 100m: Tierney Dunne ninth 12.26sec, Kailee Moore 11th 12.52sec. Karlee Symonds, who was competing in open class, ran 15.02sec.

Men's 200m Mitchell O'Neill seventh 22.04sec, Callum Rann 23.80, Nat Carroll 25.20. Women's 200m. Kailee Moore 16th 26.82sec. Men's high jump. Liam Halloran seventh 1.65m.

Sunday, January 10, saw the running of the Lake Illawarra Athletics carnival. This carnival is very popular with visitors from south-eastern NSW and southern Sydney. Some of our dual athletes attended and certainly performed very well.

Keira Rejske, U14G, came second in the U15 long jump 4.47m, and back to U14 division blasted the 100m and 200m apart with firsts at 13.64sec and 29.52sec respectively.

Scarlett Dunne U12G, ran 14.72 in the 100m coming 3rd and 30.52 in the 200m coming first.

The Wiki sisters, Savannah U10G shot put first 7.87m, discus second 18.12m; and Tayla U12G discus third 21.30m, shot put fourth and javelin fifthth also did quite well.

Improving thrower William Willis U14B scored a massive 36.50m for a first in discus and a shotput 3rd with 11.50m.

The outstanding effort of our athletes and their resolve to achieve their performance standards in the current theatre of the pandemic crisis is a prime reason why our club is so proud of these amazing members.

For further information go to, www.athleticswollongong.org.au and also on Facebook.