Dear SKAAC Community

It is with great excitement that we wish Luke, Alex, Sam and Peter our best wishes for their upcoming races:-

• Sam races over 5,000m this Sunday in the Payton Jordan Invitational this Sunday (Stanford, Palo Alto) where he will hope to go under the Qlympic qualifying standard of 13:24.00; and
• Luke’s first run is over 1,500m on May 18th  in Nijmegen, Holland and then over 800m on May 22nd in Hegel, Holland.
• Alex Rowe and Peter Bol leave for Europe on 1 June 2016 and have 800m races scheduled for:-
  • 14 June 2016 Lausanne (Switzerland);
  • 18 June 2016 Nivelles (Belgium);
  • 23 June 2016 Madrid (Spain)

All at SKAAC wish Sam the best this weekend and Luke, Alex & Peter all the best when they race in Europe.

On Friday evening at the AV Awards evening held at the AV Offices Luke Mathews was awarded the Most Outstanding Open Track and Field Performance at the 2016 Australian Championships, in addition to this Luke was also recognised as the People’s Choice Most Outstanding Male of the 2015/16 Season, receiving over 65% of the vote.

Accepting the awards in Luke’s absence was his sister, Michelle, who can be seen with both awards below.

Well done to Luke on what everyone in the state now acknowledges was a stellar domestic season!!

In a stunning race for SKAAC Luke Mathews has been crowned the 2015/2016 800m National Champion running 1:46.20. In doing so, he becomes the 5th SKC student to have achieved this feat, joining John Higham, Peter Bourke, Simon Lewin and Alex Rowe as National 800m champions. In a brutal race, typical of middle distance running, Luke was able to secure the win after sitting in second spot before pouncing at the 150m mark. Luke is now a certain selection for the Rio Olympics in August.

Alex Rowe finished a strong second after employing some excellent race tactics by staying close to the rail, getting up on the inside to complete the SKAAC quinella in 1:47.31. Alex now has until early July to seek a qualifying time under 1:46.00.

Peter Bol has been sensational all season and in coming 5th won plenty of admirers, nearly getting checked only 250m into the race, he was at the head of the chasing pack all the way and could have so easily been part of a Trifecta running 1:47.76.

Joel Bee finished 5th in his 100m semi-final running a seasons best 10.65s for 3rd fastest SKAAC athlete all time. His next goal is a race in Canberra in 2 weeks.

Dylan Johnson finished with 9th place in the Triple Jump final with 15.13m. Not many would know of the challenges Dylan has faced in the past 4-5 weeks with a foot injury severly hampering his preparation for Nationals – so to make the final was a brilliant effort.

These Nationals have been nothing short of a triumph for SKAAC.

• 11 athletes qualified and made the trip to compete in Sydney;
• 2 gold medals were won;
• 1 athlete has qualified for Rio;
• 1 silver medal was was won;
• 2 athletes can be selected pending qualifying performances being achieved before early July 2016;
• Two 5th places were achieved; and
• 11 athletes did themselves, their families and their club proud with what has happened this weekend.

Plenty of SKAAC athletes in action on Day 2 (1 April 2016) of the National Championships,

Zach Nelson jumping 6.97m in the qualifying rounds of the Long Jump.

Sam McEntee backing up his sensational 5,000m win on Day 1, narrowly missing the final of the 1,500m in 3.48.45 (17th), along with Jack Holden really close to breaking his PB running 3:50.57 (23rd)

Joel Bee was very impressive in running 10.71 (3rd in Heat) into a slight headwind to qualify for the semi finals of the 100m. See photo below…

Deluca Lawson-Matthew was 7th in his semi-final in 48.38s

In the last event of the night Jason Kozica placed 5th in the 10,000m Walk in 47:25.55, breaking his own club record of 48:42.0, a great performance.

Can we call today Super Saturday?

Big 800m Final tonight featuring Luke, Alex & Peter at 7:50pm, Dylan well set for the Triple Jump Final (6:50pm) and Joel due to run the 100m Semi at 6:35pm. Good luck to the 5 SKAAC athletes in action this evening.

One word…HUGE

The day got off to a flyer with Dylan Johnson getting a 15:43m Triple Jump (breaking his own club record) on the board in qualifying for automatic progression to Saturday’s Final.

Deluca Lawson-Matthew has also qualified for the semi-finals of the 400m in running 47.92s.

Then the SKAAC 800m championship, that also counts this year as the National Championship 🙂 was SKAAC domination, with Luke Mathews the fastest qualifier in 1:47.15, and Alex Rowe (1:48.03) coming 3rd in the same heat. Peter Bol won heat 2 in 1:49.90. So it will be 3 SKAAC athletes in Saturday’s 800m final to be run at 7:50pm.

And then shortly after 8:00pm the crowning highlight of a magnificent 1st day was the first gold medal which was magnificently won by Sam McEntee in the 5,000m in 13:37.95 beating home a quality field containing Robinson & St. Lawrence.

Plenty of action tomorrow, with the 100m Heats (Joel Bee, Michael Romanin), 1500 preliminaries (Luke Mathews, Jack Holden & Sam McEntee), 400m semis (Deluca Lawson-Matthew), Long Jump (Zach Nelson) and the 10,000m Walk featuring Jason Kozica.

There is a huge 11 strong SKAAC contingent going to Nationals in Sydney from 31 March 2016 to 3 April 2016. Representing themselves, their families, their state and our great club will be:-

• Joel Bee (100m & 200m likely)
• Peter Bol (1500m)
• Jack Holden (1500m)
• Dylan Johnson (Triple Jump)
• Jason Kozica (10km Walk)
• Deluca Lawson-Matthew (400m)
• Luke Mathews (800m & 1500m)
• Sam McEntee (1500m & 5000m)
• Zach Nelson (Long Jump)
• Michael Romanin (100m)
• Alex Rowe (800m)

The Committee and all at SKAAC wish these 11 outstanding athletes all the best for the Nationals as they chase not only medals, but also qualifying performances for the Rio Olympic Games.

Go SKAAC

Flying the club colours in Perth have been Conor Fry, Phil Borg, Will Lewis & Thomas Scroggie.

Phil ran a PB in the Under 17 200m Heats (22.93) but unluckily missed the final due to a fast heat, costing him a place in the final.

Conor ran 56.00 in the Under 20 400m Hurdles to qualify for the final as 4th fastest. We wish Conor all the best in the final on Saturday at 1:10pm Perth time.

Will Lewis ran the Under 17 800m and finished 5th in his heat in 1:58.98 to narrowly miss the final as the 11th fastest qualifier.

Thomas Scroggie finished in 8th place in the Under 15 2000m Steeplechase on 7:00.30, so close to his PB.

Phil Borg also has the 100m heats (& hopefully final) on Sunday.