Over 35 competitors from Ballarat Little Athletics made the trip down to Lakeside in Melbourne for the annual Little Athletics Victorian Track & Field Championships with exciting results recorded over the weekend. Despite some last-minute DNS, Ballarat was well represented across the weekend.
Congratulations to all participants over the weekends, was great to see so many Ballarat numbers at the state championships this year!
With perfect conditions in Melbourne, the Saturday started with Scott Peart taking gold in the Boys U16 1500m Walk in an impressive time of 6:47.18m. Then Jace Murray took home bronze in a very competitive U15 Boys Discus with a throw of 42.85m. Murray followed up with a Bronze in the Javelin with a throw of 42.31m.
A key highlight came on Sunday when Armani Anderson won gold in the U15 Girls 100m event in an incredible time of 11.99s! This is currently a pending Victorian Best Performance in her age group and the first time Armani has recorded a result under 12 seconds in an official race! Anderson then followed up with another gold in the 200m event in a time of 25.31s.
Impressive performances from Zac Grainger saw him take home two gold, one silver and one bronze in the U16 Boys category. Grainger took home gold in the 800m and 1500m events with his time in the 800m a very impressive 2:02.99m. He then followed up with medals across both the 100m & 300m hurdles events.
The U16 Girls category saw Charlotte Streat take home one silver and one bronze within the 800m and 1500m event. The U11 Girls age group also saw Shakira Lual take home silver in a competitive 400m field.
The U15 & U16 Boys section saw Tristan Leyshan take home silver in the 200m sprint in a time of 25.40s and Thomas Ham taking home a bronze in the 400m in a time of 54.88s which was an extremely gritty performance that have Ham his first medal at a state championships.
This championship also saw the introduction of a new multi class event with Ballarat’s own Eleanor Downey taking home Silver in the GMC12 after competing in the 100m, 200m, Discus and Long Jump.
Other medallist include Sam Nending in the 800m within the Boys U14 category with a bronze (2:10.13m) and Trinity Leyshan with one silver and a bronze in the U11 Boys across both 100m (14.01s) and the 200m events (28.83s)
The weekend was capped off with Shane Bicknell being awarded the Little Athletics Victoria Meritorious Service Award for his decades of service to the Little Athletics Community!
A big thank you to the incredible volunteers who dedicated their time over the weekend for the event to go ahead. Both Julie Bicknell and Shane Bicknell as officials, the amazing team managers and to all the parent and club helpers across the weekend who filled in to ensure the athletes could compete.
Good luck to all athletes representing Victoria and competing at the Australian Little Athletics Championships at the end of April.
