Athletics Essendon lead for most of the day to grab a well earned win at Lakeside.
Our “pre game” analysis suggested 60,000 points would be needed to win and we pulled together a champion team capable of just over 62,000!
Again, we couldn’t have done it without those who fulfilled our Club Duties, especially Lisa Gunn, who has not been able to compete this year due to her work in health care (Covid) but came down to work the triple jump pit for 3 hours! Thanks also to coaches, Gaff and Gregor who worked the morning shift on the track. Parents, Anna Neethling and Robin Walker helped again, while veteran Duncan Knox put in an hour in between his 4 events. Mel Foster also helped out again while amassing over 1100 points.
Thanks to Danny and Frances for lap scoring the walks and 3000.
Final Results:
ESS 62054
DIV 48931
GHY 35721
EAG 33438
OUR MVPs:
Twenty three athletes pulled in over 1000 points (inc relays) on the day – that’s our largest number for the year. Interesting that 11 of those were from our champion 40+ team! Did you know they were the top team in the state for the season? Jamison was Number 1 in the state, Mackenzie 7th, Bouchaib 15th, Richard 18th with Arden rounding out the top 20 MVAs for the Play Off.
| 1 | Jamison Towers | 1,615 | F14 |
| 2 | Mackenzie Leith | 1,467 | M16 |
| 3 | Bouchaib Chefnaoui | 1,376 | M45 |
| 4 | Richard Brophy | 1,356 | M55 |
| 5 | Arden Stevens | 1,353 | M16 |
| 6 | Sebastian Weickhardt | 1,323 | M16 |
| 7 | Brett Maurer | 1,298 | M45 |
| 8 | Kevin Healy | 1,256 | M18 |
| 9 | Thomas Sims | 1,253 | M16 |
| 10 | Cailin Walker | 1,247 | F14 |
| 11 | Jonathan Neethling | 1,181 | M14 |
| 12 | Melissa Foster | 1,161 | F40 |
| 13 | Maria Strong | 1,136 | F50 |
| 14 | John Cooper | 1,095 | M65 |
| 15 | Duncan Knox | 1,079 | M60 |
| 16 | Kim Walsh | 1,076 | F45 |
| 17 | Kaylee Mangion | 1,074 | F18 |
| 18 | Sukhnoor Rangi | 1,072 | F16 |
| 19 | Karl Orr | 1,052 | M55 |
| 20 | Lily-Bella Hilli | 1,044 | F16 |
| 21 | Jack Walsh | 1,032 | M18 |
| 22 | Graeme Baynes | 1,014 | M50 |
| 22 | Mark Harper | 1,014 | M45 |
Our win was due in part to athletes willing to get out of their “comfort zone”; there were sprinters trying high jump and hammer, walkers doing 800s, 800 specialists throwing a shot. This willingness to have ago pulled in those extra points throughout the day.
Normally Kevin Healy would be our lone hammer thrower with Kim Walsh & David Jones “doing it for fun”; this year we added Imogen Makin and Jo Margiolis along with seven 40+ men learning the ropes well enough to qualify and collect 1725 important points in the Play Off. Great Team work!
Big PBs to Molly Bremner in the 3000m (27sec) and Maddy Caulfield breaking her 7 year old 800m PB by 0.4 sec. Jayme-Lee Cobain took 1 sec off her best 200m and her 2:26.5 800m time was also a PB. Jonty Neethling broke 2:10 in the 800 for the first time for a 0.5sec PB
TOP FIVE:
200m
Maria Strong 547 pts, Mark Harper 512 pts, Jamison Towers 511 pts, Brett Maurer 490 pts, Lily-Bella Hilli 483pts.
800m
Maddison Caulfield 520 pts, Lara Sacaner 505 pts, Jonathan Neethling 496 pts, Jayme-Lee Cobain 493 pts, Jannik Ernst 482 pts
3000m
Bouchaib Chefnaoui 542 pts, Emily Mifsud 477 pts, Damien Bruneau 451 pts, Matthew Sostaric 449 pts, Molly Bremner 447 pts.
Hurdles
Jamison Towers 490 pts, Lily-Bella Hilli 459 pts, Amanda Wrout 255 pts.
2000m walk
Danny Hawksworth 432 pts, Duncan Knox 388 pts, Stephen Murphy 325 pts, Brian Anderson 308 pts.
Triple jump
Melissa foster 482 pts, Arden Stevens 482 pts, Tesia Haggai 482 pts, Katie Baynes 478 pts, Cailin Walker 471 pts.
High Jump
Richard Brophy 515 pts, Jamison Towers 512 pts, Thomas Sims 499 pts, Ella Duncan 485 pts, Jack Walsh 467 pts.
Shot Put
Maria Strong 561 pts, Imogin Makin 503 pts, Kevin Healy 483 pts, Kristian Lakusa 460 pts, Thomas Sims 447 pts.
Hammer
Kevin Healy 527 pts, Kim Walsh 396 pts, Mark Hamblin 349 pts, Graeme Baynes 331 pts, Kristian Lakusa 317 pts
