A hot Sunday afternoon at the Tom Kelly Athletics Track brought out some outstanding results from all competing members. Starting with the track events; Damian Di Donato, Conrad Coumaros and Alex Di Medio set the track alight by recording the top three fastest times of the day in the Open mens 200m – with Damian winning in a time of 22.16sec. Young gun, Ben Della Bosca ran well to top the U/14 boys age group with the only time under 25sec. It was much the same in the womans event with Nicole Reynolds and Samantha O’Connell occupying top spots in the U/16 age group with sister, Joanna O’Connell finishing second in the U/14 event. Nicole, Samantha and Alex Di Medio then backed up again in the 200m and 400m Hurdles to win their respective events.
In the 800m, Nathan Down showed his return to form by kicking home strongly to finish with 1:55.3 with team mate Tom Robertson, stepping up from the 400m Hurdles to finish in 1:57 for his first 800m. However the show was stolen by the woman, with new recruit from Tasmania, Abbey De La Motte and clubmate Georgie Buckley both leading from start to finish to record National 800m qualifiers. The top 6 fastest times of the day were achieved by the Doncaster girls, with Abbey topping the standings with 2:09.0.
The distance races saw John Portwood break 10min for the U/18 3000m with Chow Lui not far behind to finish with 10:04.6; 51sec ahead of his closest rival in the U/16 boys competition. Abbey Caldwell was in a race of her own, winning the U/16 girls race in 12:24min. Ben Ashkettle returned from a training stint in the states to comfortably win the Open mens 5000m in 15:03.2. Doncaster Athletic Club performed well in the 4x400m relays, with both the Open mens and womans A and B teams finishing in top spots; showing the great depth at the club before the up and coming Victorian Relay Championships.
In the field, Zachary Nunis leapt an amazing 12.25m in the U/16 boys Triple Jump with Chow Lui finishing second; in a day where he competed to a total of 6 events. Declan Carman won a tightly fought battle in the U/14 boys Triple Jump with a jump of 10.66m. Big boys, Wesley Spargo, Peter Coumaros and Nick Finch occupied the podium in the Open Shotput, with Wes throwing exactly 11m to win the event. James Joycey followed suit throwing 13.55m to win the U/16 boys event – over 2m ahead of second. Strong girls, Natasha Coumaros, Julia Bryne and Stephanie Ratcliffe took out the U/18 and U/16 girls events with Staphanie leading the charge with a 11.35m throw. Peter, James, Julia and Natasha followed on their performances with the Hammer throw to top the Open mens, U/16 boys and U/18 girls events.
Round 3 of the Shield Competition continues in a week’s time at the Collingwood Athletics Track.