Once a year, our region produces one of the most popular and well attended events on the Athletics NSW calendar, the Illawarra Track Classic.
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This event is the brainchild of Illawarra Blue Stars' Valmai Loomes, and continues to produce outstanding results.
This year's event was shaping up to be just as memorable until an atmospheric Armageddon unleashed itself with all the power a storm cell could muster. So strong was the weather that there was a balletic display of gazebos in the central field area, and a few trying their best to set 100m records in the home straight.
Fortunately this display of nature's petulance lasted for just a short while, but unfortunately it led to the canceling of the rest of the carnival.
Twenty-two Athletics Wollongong members contested the challenge and did exceptionally well. The carnival also inspired some crew to try new events, with several juniors trying their luck in open class. Some of the results below are incomplete.
Brock Scrivener (open men's) - 60m prelims: 6.99s, 100m: 10.97s. Calem Brown (U18 men's) - 60m prelims: 7.17s, (open men's) 100m: 11.45s. Callum Rann (open men's) - 400m: Ninth, 51.05s. Charlize Colwell: (Para women's) - 400m: 1'18.28s. Chase Grant (U16 men's) - 60m: Sixth - 7.55s. Gabriel Bickel (open men's) - 60m 7.17s, 100m: 11.38s. Holly Rea (U16 women's) - 60m: First, 7.76s, (open women's) - 100m: Ninth - 12.19s. Jada Schillert (U18 women's) - 60m: 8.49s. James McPaul (open men's) - 60m, 7.07s. Jett Link (U20 men's) - 60m: 7.20s. Keira Rejske (U16 women's) - 60m: Sixth, 8.28s, (open women's) - 100m, 13.25s. Lucas Campbell (U18 men's) - 60m: Ninth, 7.26s, (open men's) - 400m: 12th, 52.55s. Michael Doodson (masters) - 60m: Fourth, 7.93s, 100m: Fourth, 12.48s. Mitchell O'Neill (open men's) - 60m: 10th, 6.91s, 100m: Seventh, 10.69s. Nat Carroll (U18 men's) - 60m: 7.44s. Nicole McHenry (masters) - 60m: Fourth - 8.65s, 100m: Third, 13.76s. Patrick Mitchell (Para men's) - 100m: 13.58s. Rebekah Power (masters) - 60m: First - 8.03s, 100m: First, 12.80s, 400m: First, 1'02.00. Rosie Boyland (Para women) - 100m: 16.39s. Sam Zustovich (open men's) - 60m: Sixth, 6.80s, 100m: Fifth, 10.65s. Scarlett Dunne (open women's) - 100m: 13.93s. Suzy Moran (masters) - 60m: Fifth - 8.85s, (masters women's) - 100m: Fourth, 14.12s. Tayissa Buchanan (U18 women's) - 60m: 15th, 8.32s, (open women's) - 400m: Third, 58.96s. Tierney Dunne (open women's) - 100m: Sixth, 12.01s.
The 2022 NSW and ACT Combined Event Championships were also held in the ACT on the weekend. In this carnival, athletes competed in the pentathlon, heptathlon, decathlon or just individually preferred events.
In the men's masters pentathlon (50-54 years), Anthony Howlett won gold with an amazing score of 1763 points which included an impressive javelin throw of 38.79m (425 points) and a discus throw of 29.82m (461 points).
Caroline Ellis competed in both the masters women heptathlon and pentathlon (45-49 years). In the heptathlon, she scored a massive 2537 points winning gold. Her best performance was in the 200m scoring 299 points with a 32.90 second run. In the pentathlon, Ellis again walked away with gold scoring an awesome 1321 points, with her best performance being a 509 point haul in the 100m run in 14.63s.
Christine Shaw again proved her class in the masters women pentathlon (60-64), winning gold with 1459 points. Her best was 417 points in shotput with a distance of 8.28m.
Thomas Noakes is proving to be a junior multi-events athlete with a lot of class and potential. He recently received the highest accolades available from the prestigious South West Sydney Institute of Sport and won gold in the U20 men's decathlon with an enormous score of 6152 points and with a 100m best event scoring 746 points in 11.53s, and a slick 110m hurdles: 15.77s (759 points).
In the select events, junior Chelsy Wayne again proved she is a discus powerhouse, in the open women's discus event, winning gold with a strong 43.84m.
Delta Amidzovski came first in the U18 women's long jump with 5.99m and first in the 100m hurdles in 14.50s. Club stalwart Karen Clarke got a 35m throw for fourth in the open women's discus and a second in javelin with 38.20m.
William Willis won silver in the U/16 hammer with a 45.60m throw. His gold performance in discus of 47.89m was coincidentally the same as his silver medal effort in the NSW All Schools Championships at 47.89m.
One of the novelty events conducted at Athletics Wollongong is the Turkey Run.
In this event, an athlete runs 80m and is timed. They walk back to the start and have to run the next 80m as close in time as possible to their first time.
Keira Rejske who is a classy sprinter in her own right, now has the title of "Top Turkey" for having the closest margin of seven hundredths of a second between her two times. Close behind in second place was Carlo Tallarida (0.13s) and third was Rodney Tebbutt (0.20s).
A little while back, some of our southern members competed in the Mid South Coast Zone Little Athletics Championships at Myimbarr Field. Below are the results:
Amelia Bongiorno (U12) - 100m: Fourth, 15.83s, 800m: Fourth, 3'06.52s, Long Jump: Fifth - 3.69m, Triple Jump: Fourth - 7.80m, Shot Put: Third - 6.95m, Javelin: Fourth - 10.70m. Ashton Moran (U14) - 100m: Second - 13.97s, 200m: First - 28.33s, 400m: First - 1'05.61s, 200m Hurdles: First - 31.38s. Ava Power (U15) - 100m: Third, 14.21s, 200m: Second, 28.95s, 400m: First, 1'09.05, 90m Hurdles: Third, 18.97s, High Jump: First, 1.32m. Charlotte Kerr (U14) - 100m: First, 13.69s, 200m: First, 28.08s, Long Jump: Second, 4.42m, Discus: Second, 20.60m. Chelsea Nicol (U12) - 400m: First, 1'08.56s, 800m: First, 2'41.78s, 1500m: First, 5'34.06s, Long Jump: Second, 4.09m, Triple Jump: First, 9.34m, Javelin: Third, 15.01m. Ella Hewitt (U15) - 100m: First, 13.55s, 200m: Second, 28.02s, Long Jump: First, 5.08m, Triple Jump: First, 10.30m. Ella Power (U12) - 100m: Third, 14.82s, 200m: Third, 30.50, 80m Hurdles: Third, 17.10s, Triple Jump: Fifth, 7.55m, Shot Put: Fifth, 5.66m. Jada Schillert (U17) - 100m: Second, 13.78s, Long Jump: First - 4.84. Louis LoSurdo (U17) - 100m: Second, 12.96s, 400m: Second, 1'01.42s, Long Jump: Third, 5.52m, Javelin: First, 43.00m. Lucas Campbell (U17) - 100m: First, 11.65, 200m: First, 23.95s, 400m: First, 55.62s, 800m: First, 2'33.03s, Long Jump: First, 6.32m. Mackay Jones (U15) - 200m: First, 28.40s, 400m: Third, 1'04.82s, 100m Hurdles: First, 18.45s, 300m Hurdles: First, 51.89s, High Jump: First, 1.55m. Maiya Hewitt (U13) - 400m: First, 1'06.74s, 200m Hurdles - First - 30.63s, Long Jump: First - 5.20m, Triple Jump: First, 10.41m. Riley Moran (U17) - 100m: Third, 16.25s. Sabellah Nankivell (U14) - Long Jump: Seventh, 3.32m, Shot Put: First, 8.29m, Javelin: Third, 18.97m. Tyler Campbell (U13) - 80m Hurdles: First, 16.46s, Long Jump: First, 4.39m, Discus: First, 25.07m, Javelin: Second, 16.00m.
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