Bumper Medals Harvest For Hills Athletes
It’s been a bumper crop of gold medals for Hills athletes at the 2023 Australian All Schools Championships in Perth, helping NSW win the team trophy.
Isaac Beacroft, Caitlin Martin, Cameron Bloem, Sophie Polkinghorne, Olivia Scott-Rogers, Parker Bohman, and Vanessa Apel were among the golden Hills squad.
Isaac Beacroft of Quakers Hill LAC continues to smash records. Having set a new meet record last year, Isaac broke the championship record, the Australian U18 and U20 records while recording the fastest U17 5000m walk in the world. His time of 19:31.21 seconds missed the officially-recognised U18 world best time of 19:30.15 by China’s Rui Zhang.
“I’m stoked with that, I’m really happy. It was good to come out, hit the time I really wanted to get the gold,” Beacroft told Athletics Australia. “I’m thankful for the boys who dragged me through in the first two kilometres.”
In November, Issac set an Australian U18 record with a time of 41:48.76 for the 10,000m, which qualifies him for the 2024 World U20 Championships.
North Rocks Carlingford LA star Sophie Polkinghorne dominated the 3000m walk, winning in 14:34.27 seconds. This was Sophie’s third Australian title this year, despite the difficult conditions.
“It was hot and windy and difficult to hold the pace,” she said. “But I’m just glad to have the win.”
Hills ace Cameron Bloem smashed the meet record with an outstanding win in the gruelling U15 2000m steeplechase. Cameron clocked 5:59.05, to erase the old mark by 10 seconds set back in 2004. This is also the sixth fastest time in the world for U18s.
Olivia Scott-Rogers of the Hills District LA continued her hot form to win the gold in the U14 high jump with a personal best of 1.68m, having also dominated the State and NSW LA championships this year.
There were gold medals for Caitlin Martin in the U15 high jump (1.68m), Parker Bohman in the U17 400m (55.42 seconds), and Vanessa Apel in the U18s high jump ( PB of 1.77m). Tanisha Kumar won bronze in the U16 pole vault (2.75m).
Cherrybrook Athletics also enjoyed success at the Australian All Schools Championship, with one silver and four bronze medallists.
Cherrybrook’s winners were: Viktorija Calusic – silver in the U18 high jump with an equal PB of 1.74m; Nisini Rajapaksha Mudiyanselage – bronze in the U14 pole vault with a PB 2.35m;
Teddy Hampton – bronze in the U16 pole vault with a PB 3.70m; Lani Khiroya – bronze in the U16 triple jump with 11.37m, and Idris Burkhardt – bronze U17 steeplechase with a PB time of 6:12.39 seconds. Samuel Price finished fourth in U15 discus with a PB throw of 49.59m
Daniel Photios of Hornsby District Athletics won gold in U17 pole vault with a PB of 3.85m, and joins Teddy Hampton at an elite week-long pole vault clinic at the WA Institute of Sport.
NSW won the team trophy with 1664.5 points, followed by Queensland (1393) and Victoria (1241.5).
