NEWS

Weekly Wrap March 20th 2024

March 20, 2024
11:39 pm

An abundance of impressive results coming in thick and fast this week! From Miler’s to Master’s to Mikeala, it’s all happening as we near the end of the summer domestic track season. Then it’s all about Olympic qualifiers, World Junior and World Cross Country qualifiers, for those members in that league of elite competition. Speaking of elite

Mikeala Selaidinakos, WORLD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS, Bahamas, May 4 & 5

Mikki is one of our superstar open female athletes at AE. She is a multiple state & national medallist & was selected to race in the 4x400m relay team last Thursday night in Brisbane along with Sarah Carli, Ellie Beer & Jemma Pollard. The purpose was to hopefully obtain a qualifier for the World Relay Championships to be held in Nassau, Bahamas on May 4/5, 2024. The team ran an incredible 3:30.66 & in doing so, put themselves in a ranking position of 26, well inside the top 32 in the world that will compete in Nassau!

It’s been a long & arduous road for Mikki. In only her second season competing for AE, she suffered an agonisingly severe foot injury which required surgery in March 2021. Following on from her recovery & rehab, she was able to run an uninterrupted season in 22/23 where she finished 6th in the National 400m final in Brisbane, April 2023. After all her trials & tribulations, she now finds herself on the cusp of international selection. What an amazing comeback & a testament to her fortitude, ability & the incredible team she has around her, including one very proud coach in Steve Gaffney. Congratulations Mikki, & we wish you all the very best in Bahamas & will be cheering loudly!

MILER’S, MEET 5, Doncaster 14/3/24

Lots of PB’s from the various middle distance squads based at Aberfeldie & coached by our AE coaches, namely Gregor & Mark, who are always very supportive & keen to share their squad’s results. There were also many other superlative performances across meet 5 of the Miler’s calendar as you will see below & also several PB’s –

1500m

Finley Symons, 3:56.22, PB
Oscar Lichter, 4:14.08, PB
Oliver Byrnes, 4:24.43, PB
Aden Thompson, 4:32.13, PB
Miles Thompson, 4:32.60, PB
Charlie Morton, 4:34.86, PB
Isabelle Kays, 5:00.51, PB
Rosa Barbanti, 5:12.41, PB
Riddhi Mehta, 5:21.31, PB

800m

Lenny Gray, 2:22.1, PB
Sebastian Moore, 2:08.94, PB
Charlotte Gray, 2:25.11, PB
Saana Jayasinghe, 2:24.86, PB

Gregor’s squad had a total of 23 athletes compete & 15 achieved PB’s! How’s that for some great results – congratulations to each & every athlete & especially to Gregor.

Mark’s squad also posted some handy little PB’s too with everybody heading in the right direction for Nationals…

1500m

Charlotte Jackson, 4:47.24, SB
Sarah Fitzpatrick, 4:48.64, 1.5 sec PB
Noah Tarallo, 4:23.19, 1 sec PB

Plenty of top 3 finishers across the 800 heats, including Lenny Gray (2:22.1), Vobbama Gunaian (2:14.07), Xavier Walsh (2:15.68), Charlotte Gray (2:25.11) aswell as the 1500 races, with Riddhi Mehta taking the win (5:21.31), Aden & Miles Thompson, 1 & 2 (4:32.13 & 4:32.6), Oli Byrnes (4:24.43), Oscar Lichter (4:15.08) & Linden Hall finishing the night off & winning the Female A race (4:05.41).

VIC MASTERS STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS, Doncaster, March 16 & 17, 2024

The weekend saw 13 of our ‘more mature’ Essendon athletes take to the track & field at the Victorian Masters Championships. Apparently, the biggest challenge was getting through the traffic to the Doncaster track as the program kicked off at 8 am! Many athletes competed in multiple events across the weekend but it was all worth it for Kim Walsh (F50) who came home with a swag of medals – 5, from 7 events & Linda Caligiuri who deservedly won 5 gold from 5 events – not to mention, broke 2 Vic records whilst obliterating her opposition in the 200m & the 60m in the F60. In addition, Kris Lakusa (M50) also did himself & the Club proud by finishing top 5 in all 6 events as well as scoring 2 medals & Maggie Armstrong also toughed it out in 5 events & came home with 3 medals as a reward for her gallant efforts. In total, our ‘masters’ collected 13 gold, 7 silver & 10 bronze medals, not to mention a conglomerate of strains, bruises & very tired bodies!

GOLD

Mark Giglio, M50, 100m 12.25
Kris Lakusa, M50, 60m 7.80
Linda Caligiuri, F60, 60m 8.87 PB & Vic Record, 100m 14.59 SB, 200m 30.84 SB, LJ 3.71m SB, TJ 7.89m

PB
Mark Harper, M45, 200m 23.41
Kim Walsh, F50, LJ 3.86m, TJ 8.87m, SP 10.46m
Anna Kasapis, F45, 800m 2:19.42, 1500m 4:38.79 (just 0.34 secs off her own state record time)

SILVER

Chris Vi, M30, 60m 7.16, 100m 11.09, 200m 22.54
John Cooper, M70, 400m 75.85 & 800m 3:11.04 (PW)
Kim Walsh, F50, JT 27.67m
Maggie Armstrong, JT 8.11m

BRONZE

Sukhjivan Singh, M40, 60m 8.11 & 200m 27.26
Mark Harper, M45, 60m 7.94 (despite an unfortunate block slip)
Marlon Cummings, M45, 100m 12.50
Kris Lakusa, M50, 100m 12.53
John Cooper, M70, 200m 34.61
Maggie Armstrong, F60, 800m81.54 (SB) & 800m 3:15.22
Mark Donahoo, M65, 1500m 6.48
Kim Walsh, F50, Weight Throw 9.63m

Molly Bremner – NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Our very own teenage sensation in Molly Bremner flew over the ditch to compete in NZ recently & made the trip worthwhile, winning BRONZE in the U16 steeplechase. Fantastic racing Molly & all the best for the Aus Champs!!

RUN 4 THE KIDS, 17/03/24, 14.4km

Quite a few impressive results, good race conditions & large fields as usual with the long course a sell-out, clocking 11,532 finishers & the short course, 4.7km, recording 10,235 finishers; a total of 21,767 competitors over the line.

Our very own AE coach, Charlotte Wilson was the overall female winner in the long course recording an extremely quick time of 51:47, beating her nearest rival by 40 seconds. The power duo was complete with Liam Adams placing 2nd in the men’s long course with 42:47 amongst a quality field. Congratulations to you both!

Samual Duncan (Mark Carey) came 53rd overall & 3rd in the M15-18 finishing in 52.24. Ben Rowse, 54:05 & a credible 81st overall & 26th in the M35-44 category. Solid runs from James Fitzgerald M35-44 (56:51), Jeff JonesM45-54 (80:14) & Stephen Murphy M55-64 (94:05).