James Turner, as reported in our last article, produced a flawless performance to win a gold in the T36 men's 100m at the World Paralympic Championships. In the next few days he was to produce another flawless performance that would shake the para athletics world.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After cruising through his T36 cerebral palsy class 400m heat in 55 seconds, James faced the challenge in the final of Russian world record holder Evgenil Shvetsov, who ran a blistering 53.31sec at the London Paralympics seven years ago. The Russian broke his own record in the final by running 53.18 seconds, however James turned on the after burners down the home straight, winning, and setting a new world record of 51.71 seconds, a clear 1.59 seconds under the old record. A tremendous performance from this capable young athlete.
Albion Park student and AW member Delta Amidzovski was recently honoured in the 2019 Wollongong Diocese Sports Council Annual Sports Awards This well deserving young athlete was presented with the "Most Outstanding Secondary Sportswoman award" and a Blues Medallion for her athletics achievements this year. Her efforts included winning five gold medals and breaking four NSWCCC records at the NSWCCC Athletics Championships, followed by four golds and three records at the NSW All Schools Championships. I have no doubt we will see a lot more of this talented young lady throughout this current season.
A number of our younger athletes competed at the recent NSW PSSA (Primary Schools) carnival at SOPAC.
PSSA Results were: Amy Campbell SG Shot - 7.54m. Chelsy Wayne SC discus - 34.66m. Ella Hewitt SG long jump - 4.45m. Genevieve Tozer G11 discus: - 22.13m. Holly Rea G12 100m Semis: - 13.60, G12 200m final 5th - 27.57s. Keira Bostanci G11 high jump: - 1.35m. Rose Stuart SF discus: - 19.22m. William Willis bronze in the SB discus - 39.64m.
Last weekend saw the running of the NSW Relay Championships at the Campbelltown track. Age groupings ranged from Under 14 to masters categories. Some of the young AW folk got some teams together and tried their luck at the Championships.
In the Open Men 4x100m heats, the AW team of Gabriel Bickel, James McPaul, Rowan Karanja and Isaac O'Brien came 3rd in their heats with a 44.52s and ended up 11th overall.
Callum Rann swapped for Rowan in the Open Men's 4x200m heats to qualify for the finals with a 1.32.91s. The boys improved their time by 1.7 seconds to finish 7th in the final in 1.31.20sec. Great running guys.
The U18 4x400m women's team of Hannah Crinnion, Brooke McCabe, Alyssa Parks and Tayissa Buchanan put in a stunning performance to win bronze in a flash time of 4'03.05s.
Dennis Bindon has been a great contributing member of the club over the last few years. Dennis, via his Wollongong-based company Bump Products has sponsored a club event known as the Wollongong Gift. This is an event whereby athletes compete over a successive number of rounds of 100 metres with starts handicapped based on an athlete's performance so far this season.
Over the series of rounds the last two runners are eliminated from each round until there are first, second and third placed winners left. Placegetters are awarded cash prizes of $100 for first, $30 for second and $20 for third. So, congratulations go to Olivia Sivills, 3rd, Oliver Rann 2nd and finally the $100 first place prize goes to the mum of a very deserving sporting family, Natalie Heywood.
This Wednesday we will be holding a novelty events meet, celebrating the 61st anniversary of the founding of the Wollongong Southern Flame Athletics Club, which later changed its name to Athletics Wollongong. A full report will appear in our next article.
www.athleticswollongong.org.au and also on facebook
