IN THIS ISSUE:
- AV All Schools State Champs, weekend 2
- Owen Veltman & Zara Smith – NEW Club Records!
- XCR ‘24 season wrap & awards
- It’s nearly here…the Essendon Gift, November 9!
- AV State Relays – November 23 & 24 at Doncaster… SIGN UP!!
- R4 AVSL this weekend, entries open for R5
AV ALL SCHOOLS T&F CHAMPS, W/E 2
Huge thanks AGAIN to all those families that helped out volunteering at AV All Schools last weekend – you all deserve a medal too! These events can’t run without the help of parents & family members as AV can only supply so many officials, so the success of every AV event is dependent on the generosity of all those wonderful helpers that assign themselves duties! Huge appreciation for giving your time & expertise to contribute to the competitions that your children compete in.
Another successful weekend of hot competition at Lakeside on November 2 & 3, saw several podium finishes once again. Please drop us a line if we have inadvertently missed anyone in our celebrations! secretary@athleticsessendon.org.au
GOLD
- Khushnoor Rangi U18 Pole Vault
- Lillian Micallef U16 Long Jump
SILVER
- Ethan Vom U14 200m
- Owen Veltman U15 200m
- Ella Leith U16 Javelin
- Olivia Evagelistis U16 Pole Vault
- Maddox Wilson U17 Long Jump
- Sukhnoor Rangi U18 Pole Vault
BRONZE
- James Moore U15 Hammer
- Madigan Carroll U16 800m
- Will Hurt U17 200m
All of these athletes who finished on the podium in gold & silver over the two weekends, have now qualified for Team Vic & will travel up to Brisbane for the National All Schools Championships, December 6-8, 2024. They will contest their events against many of the best secondary-school aged athletes in Australia so we wish them the very best of luck in their continued preparation & competition leading up to this!!
OWEN VELTMAN & ZARA SMITH – RECORD BREAKERS!!
Well, Owen Veltman M15, is certainly having an exceptional season with a spectacular record broken (& ratified) in the first week of All Schools! Owen not only took out the gold in his U15 400m final, but he obliterated his own PB & claimed a Club record by crossing the finish line in an extraordinary 51.47, breaking a 13-year record by nearly half a second! Congratulations Owen & his team & we look forward to watching your continuing success as we head towards States & Nationals!!
Likewise, two days after her 13th birthday, F14 young gun, Zara Smith, also smashed the U14 girls’ 400m Club record at the first weekend of All Schools with a blistering 59.61!! This eclipses a 16-year record of 1:00.20 & something tells me this is not going to be the only record Zara breaks this season, with awesome form across all of her sprints thus far & solid field performances in the first three weeks of AVSL season 24/25. We cannot wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for this superstar, congratulations Team Zara!!
XCR ‘24 SEASON WRAP & AWARDS
Athletics Victoria XCR’24 Winter Club Competition Report
(kindly supplied by Stephen Murphy)
Another year of the XCR’24 ten-race winter season has now been completed. As always, there have been highlights and lowlights. Massive highlights are the amazing performances by all of our female & male junior athletes. Winning three junior championships and winning two individual junior championships. Biggest highlight for the open athletes was Bianca Puglisi’s XCR’24 season, she had a huge breakthrough season.
Bianca raced in six of the ten open women’s XCR races, finishing third @ Hanging Rock, sixth @ Lakeside, third @ Ravenswood, fifth @ Bundoora, fourth fastest individual time @ Jells, eq. fourth fastest individual time @ Sandown.
Bianca finished ninth in the Open Women Australian XC Championships @ Launceston on Sat 31 Aug and she was the second U23 runner. And Bianca finished ninth on Sun 15 Sep in the Adelaide City2Bay 12km road race, which were the Australian Road Racing Championships, in a field stacked with female Olympians & Nat. XC reps.
A fabulous winter season for Bianca and her coach Frances Lipscombe.
Team Highlights :- Top Three
F20 Winner
M18 Winner
M16 Winner
F16 Second
M20 Third
Individual Highlights :- Champion Athletes Top Ten
M20 Winner Charles Barrett (As a 17 year old!)
M18 Winner Jonty Neethling (As a 16 year old!)
M16 Third Noah Tarallo
F16 Third Isabella Kays
F60 Third Janine Higham
FOP Fourth Bianca Puglisi
FOP Short Course Eq. Fourth & F40+ Short Course Second Rebecca Pile
M16 Fifth Miles Thompson
M20 Sixth James Cruse
M45 Eq. Sixth Damien Bruneau
M55 Seventh & MOP Short Course Sixth & M50 Short Course Fourth Philip Barrett
F20 Eighth Lara Sacaner
F18 Tenth Sarah Fitzpatrick
M16 Tenth Archer Bramble
F14 Tenth Isabella Howley
In the open team’s competition, we had seven teams competing, three female & four male
FOP Div 2, sixth of eleven, will remain in div 2 in 2025
FOP Div 4, eleventh of fourteen, will remain in div 4 in 2025
FOP Div 5, eq. twentieth of twenty-nine, will remain in div 5 in 2025
MOP Div 2 thirteenth of fourteen, will be relegated to div 3 in 2025
MOP Div 4 ninth of thirteen, will remain in div 4 in 2025
MOP Div 6 twelfth of fifteen, will remain in div 6 in 2025
MOP Div 7 Eq. twenty-fifth of thirty-two, will remain in div 7
This has been a transition year for the F&M open teams, with only one team being relegated, realistically that is a good result, it could have been a lot worse. Managing to keep the other six teams in their current division is a good outcome.
The FOP div 2 won three of the ten races, Jells, Lakeside & Sandown, when Bianca Puglisi & Charlotte Wilson and a couple of other faster runners competed. This team is more than capable of winning enough races to get promoted to back into premier division.
With Matisse Lazzari, Maddy Caulfield & Audrey Savage all unavailable for the season & Linden Hall busy with Diamond League & Paris Olympics, they didn’t have the depth they needed.
Also, Charlotte, Ally Rogers, Louisa Cochrane & Jennifer Mendes all had overseas stints mid-winter.
We did welcome, Rebecca Perilli & Emma Lucas to XCR’24 and they were both very handy additions to the team.
The MOP div 2 had a very tough season and as a result will be relegated to div 3.
They were lucky to have Liam compete in two rounds, Jells & Burnley in between his Paris Olympics & Nat & world XC competitions.
They missed Archie Noakes & Charlie Blanch, both very competitive div 2 runners, who were both unavailable for the season.
The depth wasn’t there, with Aaron Heaney, Mal Wellington, David Jones, Brian Anderson, John Cooper, Daniel White, Jannik Ernst, Jeremy Drake and others, all unavailable for the season.
Unfortunately, as often occurs, injuries to our faster runners mid-season, made things even more difficult.
And as we currently have a lot of marathon runners at the club, they were focusing on Great Ocean Road, Gold Coast & Sydney marathons, alongside their XCR racing.
Damien Bruneau, Ben Rowse, Luke Gray, Troy Jardine & John Thompson, all ran a autumn / winter marathon, hopefully I haven’t forgotten any others!
The positives were that we had a few new runners compete with the club for the first time, John Thompson (And his M16 twins!), Michael Kipp, Cameron Noakes & William Tranter.
Also, we were very pleased to be able to invite quite a few junior runners to be a part of some open relay teams, many thanks to these athletes for stepping up.
Ellie Kays, Alexis Shead, Charles Barrett, James Cruse, Oliver Byrnes, Samual Duncan, Dylan Rowbottom & William Tranter.
In summary, the future is looking very bright, with so many high achieving juniors coming through, as can been seen by the excellent junior individual and team junior team results.
Many thanks to all of our five distance coaches who had athletes compete this winter, Charlotte Wilson, Frances Lipscombe, Gregor Gojrzewski, Ken Hall & Mark Carey.
Many thanks to our team captains, Bianca Puglisi (FOP), Matt Sostaric (MOP), Emily Mifsud (F Junior) & James Cruse (M Junior).
And massive thanks to Sandra Schulze as the junior team manager, for the massive amount of work she has done with all of the junior female & male U14-U20 runners inclusive.
Let’s look forward to even more successful 2025, as more our junior athletes emerge and perform at the next level on their athletics journey.
ESSENDON GIFT TOMORROW!!
SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2024
IT’S FINALLY HERE! AT MVAC, TOMORROW!!! SATURDAY NOV 9.
Get on down to Aberfeldie & enjoy a day of excitement, great racing action & a world-first handicapped high jump competition!! BBQ, a drink, live music, 14 sashes to be won…. what more could you ask for?! Can’t wait to see you all there to support Athletics Essendon, Victorian Athletic League & the fantastic competitiors. Action kicks off at 10am & will go through to around 6.30pm.
WE CAN’T WAIT TO SEE MANY OF YOU THERE!!
AV STATE T&F RELAYS, DONCASTER, NOV 23-24
We are still looking for a few more athletes to join teams for the State Relay Championships on the weekend of November 23/24. Remember, you can run up an age group, choose to do a sprint or a middle distance leg, compete in a field relay (LJ or SP), join one team or several & you never know, you may even have fun doing it & win a cheeky state medal to boot! If you are keen to get on board & haven’t expressed interest yet, please reach out to your relevant Team Manager via email, phone or your relevant WhatsApp group & let them know your preferences. Teams to be confirmed by Friday Nov 15. Any queries, please feel free to call Kristen on 0417 117 252 & she can point you in the right direction! Let’s go Team Essendon!!
AV STATE T&F RELAYS, DONCASTER, NOV 23-24
Same problem, different week!! Every round of AVSL, duties are allocated to each & every club based on membership numbers, entries, etc & as AE is a large club, we are allocated a reasonable percentage of the duties, however, with membership numbers, surely comes parent & helper numbers!? It is often the same parents volunteering their time for duty & we are asking that you all consider logging in to the Helper App & finding a slot that works in with your own or your athlete’s program next weekend, Nov 16, at our home ground of Aberfeldie. It’s not hard, it only requires some communication with the relevant AV official at that event & it only takes an hour or two of your time – it’s actually a great way to meet new people, learn new things about an event you often don’t know a lot about & doesn’t require a lot of energy or skill! After round 5, AE is also hosting round 8 & 10 at Aberfeldie so if next weekend doesn’t work for you, please consider helping out at the subsequent rounds. Thanks in advance everybody – remember, many hands make light work!
PLEASE ALSO LOGIN TO YOUR HELPER APP VIA THE MEMBER PORTAL HERE TO VOLUNTEER FOR A DUTY!
It is expected that each member assist with AT LEAST 3 duty allocations during the season.
Please don’t leave it to the same volunteers week in, week out, it’s just not team spirit.
REACH OUT
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if there is anything we missed, by sending our secretary Rebecca an email at secretary@athleticsessendon.org.au.
