After a week off due to the All-Schools Championships, everyone arrived at the Tom Kelly Athletics Track relaxed, refreshed and ready to continue the strong DAC performances at the recent inter-club competitions.
Conrad Coumaros topped the Open 100m times with 11.45, Ben Macri and Clement Chan finished with identical times of 11.91 while Georgia Feben (13.34), Monica Van Wyen (13.42), Maree Tunnecliffe (13.52) and Verity Cooper (13.61) registered 4 of the top 5 fastest times in the Open Women’s competition.
Junior Men’s Captain Chow Lui had a big day, winning his 400m heat (56.29) and Long Jump (5.85m), coming second in Discus (26.60m), fourth in 3000m (10:10.3), seventh in 1500m (4:18.7) and eleventh in Javelin (24.83m)
Nick Finch and Kirsten Walburg completed a mini-decathlon with both of them competing in the 100m, 400m, 1500m, Long Jump and Discus. On top of this, Nick also competed in Pole Vault while Kirsten competed in the 2000m walk, Javelin, 3000m and 4x100m.
The men flocked to the 400m to press their case for a place in the prestigious 4x400m Zatopek relay team. Conrad Coumaros (49.12), Wes Spargo (49.25), Alex Di Medio (50.10) and Tom Robertson (50.77) were at the pointy end of the field while heat 3 was an all DAC race with Nathan Down shaking off a bout of illness to surge into the lead with 50m to go and win in 50.99. The Open women were also competing for spots on their 4×400 Zatopek team with Connor Gist (60.98), Alex Lyster (61.57) and Steph Larkin (62.07) running the top 3 fastest times.
In Discus James Joycey won his section by just under 10m with a winning throw of 43.76m, new recruit George Asu finished second in his section with a throw of 36.79m and Natasha Coumaros also finished second with 25.50m
At the Javelin Wes Spargo comfortably won his competition with a throw of 38.63m, Natasha Coumaros and James Joycey finished first and second in the same section with 32.71m and 31.98m respectively. Bree Large came 3rd in the elite Javelin section (40.01m) while David Firth won his section with 31.89m
Other notable performances included:
- Newly crowned All-Schools Champion Damon Zethoven continued his red-hot form in the 110m hurdles, comfortably winning his heat in 15.11
- World Half Marathon representative Ben Ashkettle won the Open 5000m in 15:13.7
- Samantha O’Connell won the U18 90m Hurdles (14.30) and her 400m heat (70.08)
- And the Open Women 4×100 team of Maree Tunnecliffe, Connor Gist, Natasha Lane and Steph Larkin had a dead-heat for first with Diamond Valley in 53.26
This week sees DAC head out to Aberfeldie for the new Zone VS Zone competition where we will compete against big clubs such as Melbourne University and Athletics Essendon which will act as a valuable tune-up for the State Relay Championships on the 29th.