TRACK AND FIELD –
Throughout the now concluded 2021 Australian Track and Field Championships at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre, a number of athletes from Mingara Athletics Club have come away with exceptional results for the NSW state team.
Starting on Monday, April 12, and moving on through to Monday, April 19, the first two days alone saw eleven Mingara athletes compete, with four podium placements being achieved, as well as two Mingara club records.
From here, a further four athletes won their events with over 30 other placements.
On Monday, the greatest result for Mingara came from George Wells in the Men U16’s Shot Put, who came second with an 18.49m shot; that set a new club record.
Day Two saw Hamilton, Coles and Garner each earn a medal for their events.
Hamilton took part in the winning NSW Men U14’s 4x100m relay team, finishing with a time of 48.36 ahead of second placed ACT by 0.44 seconds.
Garner was a part of the NSW Men U16’s 4x100m relay team, who came second with a time of 43.73 seconds, only 0.09 seconds behind the winning SA team.
Coles competed in the Men U16’s 100m Hurdles and came away with a winning run time of 13.04 seconds, setting a new club record for Mingara.
After finishing second overall in the preliminary race round, Coles dropped 0.47 seconds off his initial time, and in the end, beat second placed Victorian, William Wong, by no more than 0.01 seconds.
He also went on to set a further club record in the 200m hurdles MU16 27.67.
On Day Three, Sienna Pitcher won the WU15 3,000m Racewalk in 14:52.42 minutes.
On Day Four, the next gold came for George Wells in the 1kg Discuss with a 64.35m throw, setting a new club record.
With five local athletes qualifying for the finals in 100m, 400m and 1500m, two of them went on to race in the winning 4x100m NSW team.
These were Kelly McAndrew, who also placed third in the 200m B final in 24.65 seconds, and Bronte Carrol, who came sixth in the WOpen 200m final, 24.41 seconds.
Taj Hamilton came sixth in the Men U14’s 100m Final, Liam Coles and Taj Garner came 11th and 17th in the Men U16’s 100m preliminary round, Alyssa Haremaker came 15th in the Women U14’s 400m preliminary round and Jessie Blackwell came 13th in the Women U15’s 400m preliminary round.
Liam Bennett came 11th in the Men U20’s High Jump with a top jump of 1.85m, with Riley Grant behind him in 14th place with a high jump of 1.80m.
Haakon Barry