Young Shoalhaven and Athletics Wollongong sprinter Tegan Berry is also under the guiding care of the Illawarra Steelers Rugby League Club. This amazing young sprinter had the honour of being picked in the NSW women's under 18 Rugby League side to play Queensland at North Sydney oval last Friday. The Maroons were a strong attacking side and put the NSW girls under a lot of pressure.
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Not daunted by the occasion, winger Tegan sized up her opponents and pounced at a scrappy opposition pass and tore down 95 metres of field in 12 seconds flat to score her and the team's first try. She later scored a second try to greatly assist the NSW team to win the match 24-4.
This amazing performance drew tremendous accolades from commentators who could see that this promising young star may have a bright future in rugby league. Tegan has trained and competed for a number of years in Little Athletics and has represented at state level on a number of occasions. She is another outstanding example of how consistent targeted athletics training is a foundation to success at various other sports.
The recent Shoalhaven District Athletics Carnival became a happy hunting ground for two of our athletes. Under 15 Little Athletics Australian Champion Lara Check had an absolute field day. The unstoppable Lara, known for her keenness to train in all types of weather including drenching rain, has a passion for the sport that few others possess. Ably supported by her ex athlete mum Janie, former Australian javelin rep, now coach Peter Lawler and former Olympian and now coach, Paul Greene, Lara began a campaign of systematically breaking records, or at least coming terribly close to them.
Lara's impressive performance resulted in gold in nine events in the Under 16 girls category which included breaking five records, three of which go as far back as 1978. The list includes the 100m, lowering a 40-year-old record from 12.8 to 12.5 seconds, adding 4cm to the high jump record, also held for 40 years, raising it from 1.60m to 1.64m and shattering the 40-year-record for the 200m from 27.40sec to 26.50sec. She improved the long jump record from 4.71m to 5.66m. Lara also won the shotput 10.14m and javelin 26.5m. In triple jump she broke the record of 10.05m to jump 10.85m, discus 23.03m and gold with her team mates in the 4x100m relay.
Amazingly on the zone record list is her current coach Paul Greene who as a 16-year-old in 1988 set the 100m record.
Australian champion Chelsea Ezeoke has her eyes set firmly on the Commonwealth games in 2022. To achieve this, her focus is now more firmly set on the 200 and 400m. At the Shoalhaven zone carnival, this amazingly powerful young lady smashed the under 13 girls 200m record from 27.28sec set back in 1980 to a new time of 26.19sec. Running up an age group to the under 14s in the 400m, Chelsea smashed that record from 61.65 sec to 61.28sec. Chelsea also competed in the Campbelltown winter carnival last Sunday. Although she came first in the 300m she just narrowly missed the world record mark for age by 0.91sec.
Hannah Ezeoke threw a silver medal distance in shotput of 9.14m.
One of our amazing para athletes is Karlee Symonds. Because of her visual impairment Karlee needs the help of a guide who runs beside her using a tether to connect adjoining arms. The difficulty a guide has is they must show at all times they are not pulling the athlete along.
Training mate and high jump champ Eleanor Tozer volunteered to take a day off school to help her team mate qualify for the next level. The task is not that easy. It takes two weeks of co-ordinating to get the action right. It must have worked as Karlee qualified to compete at state with a 15.5sec in the 100m and a 33sec in the 200m. Such fantastic team spirit
The ANSW Cross-Country Championships produced a few results for our club. Dual member and para athlete Charlize Colwell as an Under 14 competitor competed in Open class, just narrowly missing out on gold, but comfortably qualified for nationals in the 3km event by running 16 minutes 21 seconds well and truly below the 22-minute qualifying time.
Ros Perry came 4th in the women's 65-69 class. Alex Morrisby just missed on placing in the Under 14 boys.
We wish our three athletes, James Turner, Karlee Symonds and James Gorham competing in the Oceania Championships this week in Townsville all the best of luck and we wish you every success.