Rain shortened competition at Doncaster & Geelong but enough of the events had been completed to allow the round to count. If you pre-entered but missed out on any events due to cancellation, you will still have those events credited to you.
At Doncaster, Mark Carey took over the show when the rains came and, with the help of willing AV officials, held 2 heats of 2000m. All for fun plus a good training session.
Premier Division Update
In Premier Division, Sandringham used their Power Play and won the day with Essendon second. Box Hill and KSB have left their Power Plays until next week which will make an interesting final round. Ess are Minor Premiers but must work hard to win the premiership on Feb 22. Should we win the day, all athletes who compete in the Play Off, will receive a medallion at Presentation Night (May 1). Our rivals, Glenhuntly and Diamond Valley, will be tough to beat.
After round 10, our men’s and women’s open teams and our Womens U20’s team were well behind them. Mens U20’s had a 15000 point buffer, the Men U16’s were clearly in front (by well over 40,000 points), while the Womens U16’s were just in front. Our Men U14’s are also clear leaders, while Diamond Valley are way in front of us in the Womens U14’s comp. Glenhuntly are well ahead in the 40+ comp with nothing between Diamond Valley and Essendon. So we will need to bring our very best in every section when we get to Lakeside.
Eligibility for Play-Offs
There is a section on AV’s home page were you can check your eligibility for the Play Off. It is only up to round 10 as of now. Check to see if you MUST compete this week in order to be part of the Play Off round.
Around the grounds
We had athletes at Doncaster, Geelong and Ballarat in Round 11. Newcomer, Sky Robertson impressed with 11.87 in the 100m, while Joel Cuzzi (22.68) and Ilana Grande (25.17) were great over 200m at Doncaster. Joel’s time was a PB and a reward for his dedicated training. Rizin Sharafuddeen came 3rd in his 100m at Geelong with a sharp 11.84 for 417 team points..
Sonny Dor ran one of his best races for the club with a smart 58.86 400m at Ballarat.
Noah Hijazi took a massive 10 sec off his 800m PB to record 2:18.9, while Josh Tracy (2:01.7) and Bianca Puglisi (2:19.7) also had good runs over the 2 laps.
Our 40+ walkers pulled in a total of 1757 points between the 4 who made it past the judges.
Montana Djatschenko scored 477 points with her 5.74 m long jump, while the triple jump squad was again impressive. Zoe Edwards top scored with 519 points with a jump of 11.37 m while Hazel Lockwood (10.34 m) and Melissa Foster (11.47 m) also scored valuable points.
Thomas Sims (1.70 m) and Jack Walsh (1.80 m) had a great day scoring 494 and 480 points respectively in their high jump.
Kim Walsh went into the shot put with a torn calf but managed an impressive 7.44m to collect 404 points. Another injured athlete, Patrick Aquilina, usually a handy sprinter, competed in the shot put and has now qualified for the Play Off in 2 events.
Next up round 12 at Aberfeldie! And we need Helpers to work with the Pole Vault officials. We need 3 people at each session (1.30, 3 and 4.30 pm). Please contact John Cooper on 0414373157 if you can spare some time.
