An amazing day at the AV State Relays for St. Kevin’s Athletics Club on 26 November 2016.

 

3 Gold Medals and 2 Silver medals caps possibly our best AV Relays for over 25 years. Some amazing numbers facts for the day…

 

1 State Record to our Mens Open 4×800 of Steve Knuckey, Peter Bol, Brad Mathas & Alex Rowe stopping the clock in 7:22.24, slicing 0.76sec off the previous mark held by a Glenhuntly team including one of St. Kevin’s finest in Peter Bourke.

Our first ever Womens’ Relay the Under 18 4x800m team of Isabelle Collins, Ava Bennett, Eleanor Brown & Ellie Ansett

Our first ever 40+ Relay medal to the 4x1500m team of Joe Lynch, Dino Imbriano, Luke Goodman & Aaron Little

2 Mens Open 4x400m Relay teams into the Zatopek finals

2 Silver Medals to the Under 14 4x400m & Open Medley teams

3 Gold Medals to SKAAC in the Open 4x800m, Under 14 4x100m & 40+ 4×1500

3 4x800m Relay teams competed for SKAAC on the day

The Under 16 4x100m Relay team (Marcus Osman, Harry Livens, Thomas Scroggie, Massimo Acquaro) finishing 5th in 45.47 only (0.07) outside the Club Record

15 Club Records broken on the day…

Mens Open 4x800m (Steve Knuckey, Peter Bol, Brad Mathas, Alex Rowe 7:22.24)

Womens Under 18, 19, 20 & Open 4 x800m (Isabelle Collins, Ava Bennett, Eleanor Brown, Ellie Ansett 10:33.52)

Mens 40+ 4x1500m (Dino Imbriano, Joe Lynch, Luke Goodman, Aaron Little 19:04.50)

Mens Under 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 Medley (Massimo Acquaro, Harry Livens, Josh Collins, Tristan Day 3:56.31)

Mens Under 14 4x100m (Matt Dinan, Matthew Kim, Jett-Paris Bedelis, Daniel Doyle 49.59s)

Mens Under 14 4x400m (Jett-Paris Bedelis, Matthew Kim, Luca DiConza, Daniel Doyle 4:05.68)

Mens Under 14 & 15 Medley (Matt Dinan, Daniel Doyle, Matthew Kim, Luca DiConza 4:14.59)

15 as in the number of teams entered by SKAAC, our most ever by some margin.

34 Individual Athletes representing SKAAC on the day; and

60 as in the number of performances completed on the day.

 

I thank each and every athlete for making the effort to be a part of such a huge day for SKAAC. It is a very long day with heats and finals, especially for our junior members, and the results are simply amazing. I also thank team managers Justin Rinaldi & Steve Cain for so masterfully running the day so successfully.

Please see attached for a copy of the program for Round 6, which is to be held at Doncaster Athletics track on SUNDAY 20 November 2016. Competition starts at 12:00pm on the track (Sprint Hurdles) and 11:45 for the big Discus (>35m) & Pole Vault (>3.80m) competitions.

This is a crucial round in a number of ways:-

• It will be the first time this season that we will be able to gather en-masse to stake our claims for the AV Shield Finals.
• We will also welcome a number of Loreto students having their first taste of AV Shield Competition as invitational athletes at this meet. Thanks to Kath O’Connell & Kate Richardson for making this initiative happen.
• It is a chance for our three (Under 14, 16 & Open) 4×100 State Relay “shadow” teams to get a hit-out prior to the AV State Relays on 26 November 2016.
• It is a chance for our Open 400m runners to stake their claims for spots in the two teams that we are planning to field at the State Relays.

It should be a great day of athletics. We will be based in our usual Doncaster spot, on the hill just past the start/finish line.

Please see below for a copy of the program for SUNDAY.

white-zone-round-6-timetable

Congratulations to Lauren McGarry who qualified for the School Sport Australia National Championships in Sydney on 26 November 2016 in both the Discus & Shot Put.

On hand to present Lauren with the Silver Medal in the Shot Put was none other than Alex Rowe. See photo below.

The 60 people in attendance at the Glenferrie Hotel on the most historical moment for SKAAC could not have been more proud of Luke & Peter as they represented Australia in the 800m.

Whilst the results didn’t go the way anyone wanted – the achievement and the toil to get to that start line places them in the highest St. Kevin’s Athletics esteem.

What cannot be taken away from Luke & Peter is the experience of forever being known as an Olympian. What adds more lustre to that title, is that of St. Kevin’s Olympian.

Luke & Peter have captured some high-quality and well deserved media attention.

• Luke featuring in an Optus advert on first securing his place for Rio;
• Channel 7’s feature athlete profile on Peter Bol’s journey;
• Bruce McAvaney’s mention of “St. Kevin’s” to a massive TV audience;
• The roar at the Glenferrie Hotel when Tamsyn Lewis commentating on Channel 7, gave Justin Rinaldi a shout out, as acknowledgement as Peter’s coach.

Thank you to these two fine young athletes that got people excited about not only the Olympics, but our sport and even more importantly our club and our great coaches.

By way of follow-up to the magnificent 800m Legends dinner held on 28 May 2016. I thought it would be of interest to put some videos of our 5 legends up for all to view.

John Higham

• On its way!! Bit big to upload, but will be up soon.

Peter Bourke

• Winning 800m heat at the 1986 Commonwealth Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwFPao-Aij8

Simon Lewin

• National 800m Final 1993 (only last 250 metres or so & the picture breaks up) Simon_Lewin_National_800m_Final_1993

Luke Mathews:

• Coming soon

Alex Rowe

• National 800m record 1:44.40 Monaco:

On Friday 3rd June 2016 Justin Rinaldi was inducted as an Honorary Life Member of the St. Kevin’s Old Collegians Association (SKOCA) at the Annual Dinner at Kooyong Tennis Club.

Justin has been a fantastic servant of our club and this rarely bestowed honour is just recognition for his passion, enthusiasm and drive for all things St. Kevin’s Athletics.

Please see below for some picture of the night.

Justin Rinaldi being presented with his commemorative plaque by Nick Di Pietrantonio, the President SKOCA.

Members of the Athletics Club in attendance to celebrate with Justin. L-R Giovanni Gentiluomo, Simon Field, Simon Lewin, Justin Rinaldi, Tom Crowley, Nick Di Pietrantonio, Peter McGarry & Mark Fortarz.

Simon Lewin and Peter McGarry with Justin after the presentation.

SKAAC’s own, Luke Mathews takes on 800m World Record holder David Rudisha this Sunday over 600m at the Birmingham Diamond League meet. What can be confirmed before that race is that Luke is sure to run a club record, as to this scribes knowledge no-one has ever raced a ratified 600m before… 🙂

Go Luke & Go SKAAC

The gust that raced down St Kilda Rd seemed to flank the APSOC runners during their warm up for the 74th running of the Frank Dyson relays around the Tan. With the sun out however, this wind did little to dour the spirits of the SKAAC contingent as teams began to gather into place. There’s a certain sense of excitement that comes from the alignment of some of SKAAC’s finest cross country runners into one six-man relay team, and as Peter Bol and Jack Holden completed their stretches, one could sense the scale of the display that was to come.

This was backed up by a blistering first two legs, 11:35 and 11:26 being the respective times, that gave the SKAAC Division 1 team a morale-boosting lead. The ensuing dogfight for this lead was admirably fought out with Chris Hibbert, Xavier Chapman and Tristan Mioni all taking the battle to the constant charges from the opposition. Special mention must go to Steve Fabris who pulled out a monumental sixth-leg effort right from the end of Anderson St hill to the finish line to hold SKAAC’s placing above Old Hailebury and, perhaps more importantly, Old Xavier. Finishing in 2nd place with an overall time of 74:24, that’s an average time of 12:24 for the 3.8km course, this was a superbly powerful performance.

The SKAAC women’s team held their own with a consistent pace throughout each of the four legs, Chloe Cornwell being the highlight performance, with John and Gabriel Cornwell supplementing the two division 2 SKAAC men’s teams all with commendable times. The junior SKAAC runners made a vital contribution to the overall performance of these teams with Joel Imbriano and Jett-Paris Bedelis both upholding the speed that allowed both these teams to take some scalps.

A common theme that seemed to run through each SKAAC runner’s recount of their leg of the relay was the unrelenting wind in the build up to the dreaded Anderson St hill. Especially in the latter, more spaced out stages of the event did this factor remind us why a course even as familiar as the Tan can be hard to read. It is a testament to the determination of the four SKAAC teams that they were able to endure the challenges of this time-honoured course against time-honoured opposition with tenacity and class.

Sam McEntee has today booked his spot to represent Australian at the Rio Olympic Games with a sensational 13:20.72 run in the Payton Jordan Invitational at Stanford University a few moments ago. Sam finished 4th in the race and his lap splits can be seen below…great effort to nearly break 2mins in the last 800m!!

4 Sam McEntee                  Melbourne Tr          13:20.72
32.506 (32.506)     1:39.307 (1:06.801)     2:43.750 (1:04.443)
3:47.665 (1:03.915)     4:52.212 (1:04.547)     5:55.698 (1:03.486)
7:00.938 (1:05.240)     8:04.867 (1:03.929)     9:08.002 (1:03.135)
10:14.268 (1:06.266)    11:20.009 (1:05.741)    12:21.960 (1:01.951)
13:20.716 (58.756)

WELL DONE SAM !!

PS – also a massive SKAAC – club record.

Go SKAAC