Over the weekend of November 7-9 Doncaster Athletic Club had several athletes competing at the All-Schools Track & Field Championships and there were several strong performances during the three days of competition including four club records being broken and one new record set.
Nicole Reynolds started off by setting a new club record in the U16 200m hurdles, claiming Gold in a time of 29.14 seconds; Nicole also won Gold in the 90m hurdles in 13.22 seconds, 0.08 sec shy of claiming her second record. Damon Zethoven continued this strong display in the U18 110m hurdles, comfortably winning the final in 14.48 sec to break his own club record of 14.59 which he set at interclub four weeks ago.
Abbey Caldwell showed that she is a distance runner with a bright future completing the 1500/3000m double. She started by running a controlled race in the U14 3000m to win Gold and break the club record with a time of 10:11.94. Abbey backed this up in the 1500m by winning Gold in 4:47.61. Chris Tetaz ran a quick qualifying time of 11.30 in the U18 100m but a stumble at the starting blocks in the final almost cost him the race, undeterred he clawed his way back from last and ran an incredible final 50m to claim Bronze in a time of 11.22 sec. If Chris was disappointed, he didn’t show it later that afternoon when he qualified third fastest in the 200m then returned on Sunday and claimed Silver in the final (22.52). Junior Boys Captain Chow Lui continued his impressive record at major championships, with a Gold medal performance in the U16 1500m (4:15.25) and finishing a respectable 4th in the 3000m (9:21.31)
In the throws Stephanie Ratcliffe got things off to a cracking start winning the U16 Hammer Throw with a club record throw of 36.12m, then backed up with a Silver in the U15 Shot Put (11.44m). Flynn McMahon-Normand continued this strong showing by claiming Bronze in the U15 Javelin (44.37m), Flynn also finished 7th in Long Jump (5.69m). But the best performance came from reigning Victorian Junior Champion James Joycey, who smashed his own club record and PB with a throw of 61.18m to win the U16 Hammer by 18.17m. James also claimed Gold in the Shot Put (15.06m) and finished 5th in the Discus (48.52m).
Other notable performances from the weekend included:
- Junior Girls Captain Charlotte Bassett won Silver in the U18 1500m (4:45.47 sec)
- Zach Nunis winning Silver in the U16 Long Jump (6.04m) and finishing 6th in Triple Jump (12.26m)
- Anna Musker claimed Bronze in the U15 400m (58.89 sec) and came 6th in the 200m (27.39)
- Fraser Robertson finishing 10th in the U16 100m Hurdles (15.98)
- And John Portwood finished 11th in the U18 3000m (9:34.74)
At the end of competition, Doncaster walked away with an impressive medal tally of 10 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze. Congratulations to the following athletes for earning selection in the Victorian team to compete at the National Championships in Adelaide in December: Damon Zethoven, James Joycey, Nicole Reynolds, Stephanie Ratcliffe, Abbey Caldwell, Chris Tetaz and Zach Nunis
So far this season we have had seven athletes across five age groups break nine DAC records in the first month of competition, an outstanding display of talent and ability. And with AV Shield competition to resume on the 15th back at the recently re-named Tom Kelly Athletics Track and the Victorian Relay Championships coming up in three weeks, we hope to continue this impressive streak of record breaking performances.