RUNNERS Torrie Lewis and Luke Young won gold medals to finish the best of the Hunter’s track and field athletes who travelled to Cairns for the Australian All Schools Championships last week.
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The December weather in tropical Far North Queensland brought monsoonal-like rain, which bucketed down across the three days of competition and made for challenging conditions.
Gateshead runner Torrie Lewis, 13, took out the under-14 girls 200m with a scintillating run to cap off a highly successful year after returning this season after a nine-month injury lay off.
Her run in the final, described by coach Gerrard Keating as “amazing”, followed a record-breaking run at the NSW All Schools that was touted as one of the best ever in the event’s history.
“To come out and do what she’s done this season is really, really extraordinary,” Mr Keating said. “Off the pretty much limited training she’s had, it’s been a testament.”
Awaba distance runner Luke Young won the under-18 boys 1500m to put a stamp on his own huge season, which included competing at the Youth Olympic Games in October.
Sarah Pickering and Montana Monk finished third and fourth respectively in the under-16 girls 800m. Only .05 separated the pair.
Monk also finished fifth in the final of the 400m.
Leroy Reid claimed a silver medal in the under-18 boys 4 x 100m relay after a busy few days competing in the 100m, 200m, 400m and long jump.
Imogen Petrie thew 40.66m to take silver in the under-16 girls discuss, closely followed by Ashlyn Blackstock who threw 40.28m to claim bronze.
Blackstock also threw 13.46m to finished third in the under-16 girls shot put.
Clayton-Brown runner-up at surf nationals
Mike Clayton-Brown finished second in the under-16 boys final of the Australian Junior Surfing Titles at Victor Harbor last week.
The result comes at the end of a big year for the Corlette surfer, who won a NSW Junior State Surfing Title in July and featured on the podium at a number of regional events throughout the year.
Clayton-Brown finished the national’s final with a score of 14.75, which was just shy of fellow NSW surfer Joel Vaughan’s score of 15.90.
Frenchmans Boardriders surfer Jordan Liackman was knocked out in the quarter finals of the same age group, while Merewether’s Madison Poole also dropped out in quarter finals of the under-18 girls.
Dalibozek shines at National Boys Youth Sevens
Weston product Liam Dalibozek set up two tries to help NSW to the National Boys Youth Sevens Championship title at the weekend.
NSW Blue defeated QLD White 45-0 in the final, held at Ballymore in Brisbane.
Dalibozek will train with the Australian squad this week before competing at the World Schools Sevens in Auckland this weekend.
