NEWS

Shield Round 4

Round 4 Shield report – 27/10/18.

by John Cooper.

Doncaster venue hosted Yellow Zone but Athletics Essendon had many competitors at other venues, with some competing at 2 venues on the day.
Outstanding performance of the round goes to Kevin Healy who broke the club U/14 Hammer record with 55.15m. Kevin has 22 club records in his short career and also holds the U/13 shot & discus records.
Maria Strong again made headlines with her 3rd F33 Australian record (unratified) for the seated shot.
We had a number of athletes out on the track for the first time this season, including the McLarens ‘boys”, Don & Justin.
There was a mixed bag of results which saw WOP, W14 and M40 have wins, while W20, W18, W16 and M18 teams managed second place. MOP1 and M16 finished 3rd and will struggle to make the Shield Final on Feb 23 unless more athletes compete in more events more often!
AV results have been a little confusing with some athletes being credited with events they didn’t do at venues they weren’t at and others not being credited with their correct times. Please check your results and lodge a Query to AV.
As we go into our first break of the season, let’s look at our Most Valuable Athlete award leaders in each division.

W14 Faith Villi (4 rounds and a total of 1725 points)
W16 Emily Newton (4 / 3893)
W18 Maeve Bousie (4/2289), although Rubi Ali has been roobed of many points!
W20 Cath Mendes (2 / 959)
WOP Joanna Margiolis (4/4404)
M14 Kevin Healy (4/3659)
M16 Christian Knox (4/ 2705)
M18 aagaash Murugathas (3/ 1532)
MOP Marco Pitisano (4/ 2176)
M40 John Cooper (3 / 3386).

Top performance in round 4 came from ‘first timer” Jacob Despond, 100m (513 points – best individual effort from an Essendon athlete). Jacob also scored 483 points for his 200m at Doncaster.
Others to perform well for the club were – Anna Kasapis 800m (500 pts – best FOP), Erin Rayner 800m (488pts), Benan Oztorun long jump (487points), Mason Scott 1500 (481pts), Mark Donahoo 2000m walk (468pts – best M40), Emilie Guy 1500m at Geelong (463pts), Hannah Brodie discus (456 pts – best in W16), Marcus Guglielmino 400m (458 pts as well as 445 points for his 100m), Marco Pitisano 5000m (458pts), Lauren Connell 1500m (452pts), Maeve Bousie high jump (437 pts – best in W18), Aagaash Murugathas Discus (436 pts – best M18).

Others who topped their club team were: Faith Villi shot put (426pts – best in F14), Emily Spiteri 800m (354pts – best in F20), Jack Walsh high jump (406pts – best in M16) and Kevin Healy hammer (435pts – best M14)

Round 5 is at Newport for Yellow Zone on Nov 10, after the All Schools Comp this weekend.
Athletics Essendon is required to supply helpers over the 3 days – please consider helping out.
Entries for Rnd 5 will open Wed Oct 31.
We will again be asked to fill the long jump duty as well as the short hurdles. Please be willing to help if you’re asked – that way the program runs smoothly.

Check out photos from round 4 on our Facebook and Instagram pages.