COUNTRY TITLES - GREAT RESULTS
The month of January was one of disruption for all Illawarra Blue Star’s athletes, but it has been a month of great results and excellent all-round performances. Many of the club’s members missed rounds of competition due to the fires and quality of the air, smoke and health hazards, but they put their best foot forward when it came to the Illawarra Track Challenge, then followed by the Country titles. The country championships were held in Dubbo over three days. The meet presented wind, dust, heat and a little rain but athletes were not denied, and some outstanding results were recorded by members of IBS. The outstanding third place in the Hooper Trophy for most points scored at Country, behind the very large Mingara club and our own local southern club, Nowra, was a great reward for the athletes who competed for the club. Some of the members had to withdraw due to fires close to their homes, but it was a team of determined and dedicated athletes who took to the wonderful facilities they have in Dubbo.
LACHLAN OUTSTANDING BUT MATCHED BY COREY
Outstanding efforts were recorded with the win of Lachlan Parry from club mate, Chris Devery to take out the men’s open 100 metres in a classic event of the meet. Great to see so many of our senior men make the final with Parry, Devery, Corey Williams and Cameron Chisolm. Parry also took out 2nd placing in the open 200 metres. Devery and Parry then teamed with Cameron Chisolm and Corey Williams to defend their open men’s 4 x 100 metres relay title. Williams was one of the stars for IBS, recording two personal bests in the open high jump (gold) and open long jump (gold) and also making the final of the 100 metres.
FIELD ATHLETES PROMINENT IN ALL EVENTS
U18 high jumper Brent Harriman kept the flag flying in country titles for our jumpers, when he took gold in the 17 years event, whilst the javelin was also popular with Blue Stars Alex del Popolo who recorded a personal best and is now heading to state titles. In the women Charlotte Smith won her age javelin and then contested the open javelin to gain 2nd placing. Mary Thomas dominated her javelin in the master’s event.
SENIOR WOMEN SHINE
Great to see the return of middle-distance athlete Rosie Davidson. In her first major meet for some time, Davidson was impressive to take out the women’s open 800 metres, 1500 metres and then backed up to win the 3km. An outstanding performance for an athlete who has had very little preparation. She was joined by Rebecca dos Santos who took gold in the steeplechase and silver behind Davidson in the 1500 metres. Silver also went to Monique Byers in the 400 metres hurdles, and then backed this up with silver in the 400 metres with club mate Sarah de Vries who placed 3rd. Emma Matthews had virtually the state final and ran a gallant race to take bronze in the 100 metres but has since backed this up with a great 4th placing in the ACT titles to record a personal best time. Ashlyn Adams battled shin splints but still manager a national qualifying time and a silver medal for the under 17 years 100 metres hurdles.
MASTERS SHINE YET AGAIN
Our masters athletes were once again superb with sprinters John Lamb and Andrew Rodda. Rodda winning his 100m, 200m and 400m setting himself up for a great attack at the upcoming state titles. Lamb was more than impressive wining his short and long hurdles, the 100m, 200m and 400m. He was joined by Rodda and female sprinter Gianna Mogentale with Athletics Wollongong athlete Rodney Tebbutt to take out the masters 4 x 100m for the South Coast.
June Lowe dominated her events with wins in throws, jumps, sprints and hurdles whilst breaking the State record for the women’s hammer in the women’s 65 years.
Sprinter/jumper Gianna Mogentale had it all her own way dominating the women’s 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, long and and triple jumps whilst club mate Sarah Guevara ran a great race to finish a very close third in her 100m, 3rd in the 200m and 3rd in the long jump.
Mary Thomas dominated all her events, the shot, discus, javelin and hammer, breaking two country records in the process. The masters athletes will now head into State titles, like a number of our Senior and Junior athletes.
Mark Matthews and partner Jodie Redman were not going to go home without medals and backed up in the masters throws and jumps really well, Jodie recording a personal best in her hammer. Heidi Smith also bough home medals with a good 2nd in the 3km walk, and was well supported by husband Ian, whilst son Joshua finished in the top bracket in all of his events he contested over the weekend.
Our relay teams were once again superb, but minus a few members, we drew on athletics Wollongong Kailee Moore to team with Emma Matthews, Ashlyn Adams, Sarah de Vries to take a well earnt silver medal in the open women’s 4 x 100m, whilst our senior men of Lachlan Parry, Chris Devery, Cameron Chisolm and Corey Williams ran a great race to take the gold medal once again. Our masters’ men and women were down a little but female sprinter Gianna Mogentale and Athletics Wollongong Rodney Tebbutt teamed with John Lamb and Andrew Rodda to bring home the gold, winning the event by a large margin.
I cannot thank all our members enough, the Blue Stars flag is flying tall, and although we were down on numbers, the effort put in was fantastic. Our helpers, the Smith Family in particular who set up a fabulous base for us all, the Adams family, the Barnes family, Gary Kidd, Andrew Rodda, Andrew Lau and Mary Thomas, all helped out with all our members to give us a delightful setting for members to relax and watch the action. Also, our thanks go to Wollongong City Little A’s for the loan of two of their tents.
Thank you all on a job well done. All results cannot be shown here in this column but can be found on the ANSW website. We are a proud club that has a great history at the Country titles, with athletes now at their top heading into State titles over the February period.