A history making night for SKAAC at the Zatopek meet, with the club’s first ever official Mixed 4 x 400 Relay contesting the Under 18 State Final. The team of Shannon Fraser (60.1), Maddie Hume (61.0), Seb Reyneke (50.1) & Paul Haasbroek (50.0) did an enormous effort to finish 3rd (3:41.10) in a very tight race, with just over 1 second between first place and SKAAC in third.
2 hours later it would be the turn of the Open Men to contest the State Final of the 4×400, after qualifying at the Box Hill State Relays on 24 November 2018. This race has captured the passion of a number of clubs in Victoria, with the race now arguably the premier club level race in the State. With this as the backdrop, and cool, but thankfully not wet, conditions it was to to be SKAAC prevailling in one of the best club relay races in years. All top 4 teams ran inside 3:12, with only 0.77 separating first from fourth. The SKAAC winning team of Conor Fry (48.1), Peter Bol (47.3), Tom Wilson (47.6) and Steve Knuckey (47.9) would stop the clock at 3:11.01, a mere 0.25 ahead of Athletics Chilwell in second place. This time would slash a massive 2.62 seconds off the SKAAC Club Record and becomes our 2nd win in 3 years in this event.
Luca DiConza was also featured in the Under 16 boys 1500m and served up a PB performance in 4:12.86 finishing in 6th place. Tristan Day also had his first ever start in the Under 20 DeCastella 3000m as a double bottom age athlete running 8.54.26.
Thanks to Steve Cain and Justin Rinaldi who acted as Team Managers for the night. All records and rankings have been updated to reflect last night’s performances.
The Mixed 4×400 can be seen in the Men’s & Women’s listings and have been recognised as records in both gender sections as records from Under 18, 19, 20 and Open.