IN THIS ISSUE
- President’s report
- State Gold for our 4×400 open women’s relay team
- Zatopek 10 – our AE athletes shine
- Club Records – Charles Barrett & Ela Uzun
- AV High Velocity #1 * Vic Milers #2 * Rare Air #3
- Breakfast with Steve Moneghetti – 26/01/25
AE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – Martin Sheppard
Happy Christmas & Festive Period and Yearly Wrap.
On behalf of the Athletics Essendon committee, I would like to wish all of our athletes, coaches, team managers, and volunteers seasonal greetings for Christmas and the festive period.
What a year 2024 has been, with Paris 24, where 5 of our athletes represented Australia at the Paralympics and Olympics; also, congratulations to those picked for World Juniors, World Relays and Australian University Cross Country team. The Club is very proud of your achievements. We hope that 2024 is a stepping stone for more success in 2025. Your success provides the inspiration for other athletes.
We have just witnessed the Australian Schools championships in Brisbane, and congratulations to those who achieved personal bests, climbed the podiums and took home medals. Also, a huge congratulations to the coaches who gave their time to support their athletes success.
We have also seen the passing this year of two stalwarts of the club, Ian Williams and Adrian Fitzgerald, whose commitment to the Club has helped make it the success we are all now benefiting from. They will be missed by all, and we send warm wishes at this difficult time of the year to their families.
We will be exploring with Moonee Valley Council about redeveloping the track and club pavilion with a precinct masterplan that includes adding extra lanes to the track on both the home and back straights, expanding the long / triple jump pits and moving the Pole Vault area. A new clubhouse is also on the agenda. This will take a few years to come to fruition but we need to start now, as we are outgrowing our facilities and the Essendon Little Athletics Club is outgrowing theirs too. Their growth should feed into our club and we haven’t enough coaches currently so any older athletes who are interested in becoming a coach please reach out to us as we are looking to train another 5-10 coaches in the events we are missing and also the large groups who need some support.
Volunteers are the life blood of the Club and we need more as we are not meeting our obligations to the AVSL and other events. We have tried a few different approaches this year and we are still missing many spots. We are considering now increasing subs by $100 per person and then once the obligatory volunteer duties are completed people will get their $100 back. We are going to monitor the uptake over the next couple of months, but just giving everyone the heads up.
To finish the last Presidents note before the end of the year, I just wanted to personally thank the committee for the support and work they do behind the scenes. Thank you
Merry Christmas Everyone and hope Santa brings you a new pair of running shoes or spikes 😊😊
If you have anything you would like to connect with me on feel free to drop me an email at president@althleticsessendon.org.au
GOLD & A NEW STATE RECORD FOR OUR 4X400 FOP RELAY TEAM!
Superlative performance from our very own AE Open Women’s 4×400 relay team at the recent finals conducted at Zatopek 10, Lakeside on Saturday December 14th. Proudly coached by the incredibly experienced & successful AE Coach, Steve Gaffney, his team of girls comprising Nina Lawson, Lily-Bella Hilli, Sophia Gregorevic & Mikeala Selaidinakos not only stormed home to claim the GOLD but also smashed the 23 year-old Victorian Club Record of 3:40.33 (Doncaster in 2001) to an amazing 3:39.64!! Congratulations to you all, what an AMAZING achievement!!
A great effort from our AE Men’s Open 4×400 team (Luca Sebastiano, Tarik Bello, Christian Reinhardt, Hyuga Nishimura) finishing just out of the medals in FOURTH! It was a very hotly contested field of quality sprinters & the podium just wasn’t theirs on the day but it was a fantastic run by all.
ZATOPEK 10, LAKESIDE, DECEMBER 14
In addition to our 4x400m relay teams competing last weekend at the illustrious Zatopek 10, we were also represented by a number of other athletes in various track & field events, with some outstanding results -:
POLE VAULT
- Sukhnoor Rangi – 3.86m – 4th
- Khushnoor Rangi – 3.76m – 5th
60m VIC CHAMPS
– Prelims
- Brian Mayengo – 7.09 – 5th
- Brendan Ashcroft – 7.10 – 6th
FOP 3000m
- Linden Hall took the win in an extraordinary time of 8:43.02!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR SUPERSTARS ON THESE FANTASTIC RESULTS!
NEW CLUB RECORDS – ELA UZUN & CHARLES BARRETT
The records just keep falling this season!! 13yo Ela Uzun broke yet ANOTHER Australian, state & club record at the Victorian Race Walking Club meet on 15/12/24, racing to a PB time of 23:41 in the 5km road walk – a National U16 record & another state U14 record which was her own anyway. What an incredible feat, Ela, WELL DONE!!
Charles Barrett is also another athlete at our club who is familiar with breaking the odd record or two & he did it again at Vic Miler’s, Box Hill, 19/12/24 – Charles broke the Victorian U18 1500m record, aswell as AE U18 & U20 Club record, racing to a 3rd place finish in the Men’s A race with a speedy 3:44.80. On fire Charles, CONGRATULATIONS!!
HIGH VELOCITY, MILERS, RARE AIR
Specialist meets are well underway for season 24/25 & they’re proving to be a great hit out for our AE athletes who are throwing out PB’s, NQ’s & records all over the place! Big kudos to the following athletes on the following performances during December –
HIGH VELOCITY, DONCASTER, 17/12/24
200m
- Nina Lawson – 25.08 (0.9) NQ
- Sophia Gregorevic – 25.10 (0.9) NQ
- Amanda Wrout – 25.79 (0.9)
- Luca Sebastiano – 21.36 (0.6) NQ
- Christian Reinhardt – 22.66 (0.8)
- Tarik Bello – 23.32 (2.1) NQ
- Matthew Hosie – 23.63 (3.3)
400m
- Lily-Bella Hilli – 57.76 SB/NQ
- Jamison Towers – 63.84
90 hurdles
- Sienna Gec – 13.85 (3.0) NQ
- Hannah Gec – 14.64 (3.0) NQ
Triple Jump
- Tesia Haggai – 11.28m (1.2)
- Liam Glew – 15.51m (0.2) NQ
- Angus Wood – 14.70m (0.5) NQ
High Jump
- Ella Leith – 1.61m PB
VIC MILERS, BOX HILL, 19/12/24
FOP 800m - Anna Kasapis – 2:19.29
- Madigan Carroll – 2:23.56
- Saana Jayasinghe – 2:29.09
- Riddhi Mehta – 2:36.17
- Harriet Gray – 2:47.28
MOP 800m - Oscar Lichter – 2:00.89
- Jesse Lumby – 2:01.47
- Elijah Marshall – 2:04.96 PB
- Sebastian Moore – 2:08.04
- Isaac Faure – 2:10.99
- Xavier Walsh – 2:17.00
- Lenny Gray – 2:18.26 PB
- Mackinlee Carroll – 2:19.11
- Henry Parker – 2:25.23 PB
FOP 1500m - Audrey Savage – 4:56.46
- Ela Uzun – 4:59.35 PB
- Charlotte Jackson – 4:59.84
- Rosa Barbanti – 5:04.82 PB
- Madi Gilchrist – 5:18.33
- Teagan Pape – 5:26.42
- Havana Ali – 5:36.07 PB
MOP 1500m
Olivia Evagelistis – 2.60m
Charles Barrett – 3:44.80 – RECORD
Jonty Neethling – 3:58.32
Matthew Sostaric – 4:02.75
Aiden Davis – 4:05.08
|Archer Bramble – 4:06.75 PB
Samual Duncan – 4:14.14 PB
Ethan Williams – 4:14.82
Miles Thompson – 4:16.44 PB
Ben Rowse – 4:19.76
Jasper Gay – 4:24.97
Javier Lama – 4:27.47 PB
Aidan Clarke – 4:28.27
Alex Konstantinidis – 4:34.77
Jude Barrett – 4:36.01
Ayub Khalif – 4:38.09 PB
Andre Faure – 4:58.60
Max Collins – 4:59.68 PB
RARE AIR, BOX HILL, 21/12/24
FOP Pole Vault
Sukhnoor Rangi – 3.90m
Khushnoor Rangi – 3.80m
“I LOVE AUSTRALIA BREAKFAST” WITH GUEST SPEAKER, MARATHON LEGEND, STEVE MONEGHETTI, 26/01/25
Offering our AE members a unique opportunity compliments of the Rotary Club of Essendon North, to have breakfast with one of Australia’s greatest marathon runners, Steve Moneghetti. Taking place on Australia Day, SUNDAY JANUARY 26th at Hyatt Place Event Centre, Essendon Fields , commencing at 9.30am, BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL. $50 per person for a full, plated breakfast & you will be guaranteed a personal meet & greet with the Aussie legend, thanks to the Essendon North Rotary Club & help them to celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Bookings can be made through Try Bookings & for further enquiries, you can reach out to Barry Coleman on 0427 852 062.
WISHING ALL OUR ATHLETICS ESSENDON MEMBERS & FAMILIES THE VERY BEST FESTIVE SEASON & CHEERS TO A NEW YEAR FILLED WITH HEALTH & HAPPINESS TO YOU ALL!! SEE YOU BACK IN 2025 🙂
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.
