SKAAC member Peter Bol is through to the Men’s 800m Olympic final to be run on Wednesday 4th August at 10:05pm Melbourne time. Peter is the first Australian to compete in the 800m final since Ralph Doubell won gold at the 1968 Olympics.

Please join club members and friends at the Glenferrie Hotel from 8pm to 10:30pm on Wednesday to support Peter. RSVP to club president Tristan Mioni (mionit@stkevins.vic.edu.au) by midday Wednesday.
Peter broke the National Record and SKAAC Record in the Heats (1:44.13) and then again in the semi final (1:44.11).

The SKAAC community mourns the sudden passing on the weekend of Rachael McGarry, wife of Peter, mother of Adam SKC year 12 and Lauren LHM year 10.

For over 25 years Peter and Rachael McGarry have been at the forefront of our club leadership and stalwarts of every endeavour we have invested and contested; on and especially off the field.  Their generosity of spirit, strength of character and grand vision are the foundations and structure of the current club and its success.

Rachael was steadfast in ensuring that the club was a place of great values. She nurtured and protected its family friendly environment; be that at a BBQ track side, private counsel or committee club policies. Yet her pride in the colours always shone brightest when supporting Lauren or her own boys compete.

An exemplar of Rachael and Peter’s influence was they were so often the first to welcome new members and their families to the club and encourage them in their pursuit. Be they future Olympians, first time competitors, nervous parents or just those with a passing interest. Their kindness always extended beyond mere words, it was sincere and instantly connected people with the club and its values.

As such so many members of the club know, love and feel a great sense of gratitude for the selfless efforts of Rachael and Peter. The outpouring of grief, the collective appreciation and respect expressed to the club over the past couple of days upon hearing the tragic news is testament to the esteem in which Rachael was held by our community and the adoration for Peter, Brian, Adam and Lauren.

Our thoughts and prays are with Peter and the family.  They have asked that we pass on their appreciation for all the support been shown to them by the SKAAC community and that, while we mourn the loss of our friend, we remember to celebrate the richness of her life and the memories we shared with her.

Requuem Mass for Rachael McGarry will be held on Friday 9th July at St. Ignatius Church in Richmond.
Followed by a wake at St.Kevins, Glendalough, Boyd Egan Hall that afternoon at 3pm.

Peter Bol has gone quicker than any Australian in Australia with his 1:44.62 win at the Oceania Athletics meet at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast on Saturday 12th June 2021. Peter’s record result, betters the previous mark set by St. Kevin’s Peter Bourke of 1:44.78. Also in action at Runaway Bay was Brad Mathas who was well placed with 120m to go and finished with 1:46.65.

Nellie Mitchell has also lowered her own National Record in the T13 1500m, running 4:53.18, lowering her previous record by half-a-second. We all hope that Nellie can get the right race pace to allow her to dip under the 4:50 target to qualify for Tokyo. Also competing at Runaway Bay was Jackson Bennett in the 100m, running 11.24sec (+2.5)

Peter Bol

Most will be aware that Peter won the National 800m title, which doubled as the Olympic trials about a month ago, and last Saturday on the Gold Coast he ran under the qualifying time and punched his ticket to Tokyo. He ran 1:44.88, only 0.10 sec outside the fastest run by an Australian in Australia (shout out to our own Peter Bourke!!)
Mastercoach, JR said that he might run this coming weekend as well, but given that he has the qualifier now he might just run pace for Brad potentially.

Nellie Mitchell

Nellie got out of Melbourne and up to Canberra and ran in the 1500m two weeks ago. She ran 4:53.68 which was an 8 second pb but just outside the Tokyo qualifying mark of 4:50. SKAAC icon and Nellie’s coach, Steve Cain is hopeful with a better pacing job she will be able to hit that mark. Unfortunately, Nellie did not get approval to head to Queensland for last weekend’s meet but is hopeful to make it there for this coming weekend’s races.

Brad Mathas

Brad also ran at GoldCoast last weekend. He was just outside the qualifying standard for New Zealand but intends to race again this coming weekend. Brad’s long-time coach, JR said that he might head to Europe for a few races to gain some more points and potentially the standard in an effort to make it to Tokyo.

There were some stunning results from the 13 SKAAC athletes, representing 6 different schools (St. Catherine’s, Sacre Coeur, Camberwell Girls Grammar, Ruyton, Strathcona & Loreto), that contested the GSV preliminary Carnival at the Yarra Bend Course in Fairfield on Tuesday 18 May 2021. The results for the girls can be seen below. Good luck to these girls as they tackle the GSV Championship Carnival on Friday 28 May 2021.

Junior (Year 7 & Year 8) 3km

Preliminary A

• 6^th Mimi Tucker 12:30.0
• 14^th Molly Blood 13:06.4
• 64^th Tilly Hume 14:52.3

Intermediate (Year 9 & Year 10) 4km

Preliminary A

• 2^nd Mattea Demetriou 15:25.3
• 15^th Sasha Feldmann 16:41.2

Preliminary B

• 1^st Cleo Richardson 13:48.8
• 4^th Bridie Hill 14:36.6
• 6^th Scarlett Gunn 15:33.8

Senior (Year 11 & Year 12) 4km

Preliminary A

• 86^th Eliza Klotz 29:38.8

Preliminary B

• 3^rd Bea Kellock 15:35.7
• 8^th Maddie Hume 16:13.0
• 68^th Milla Richardson 19:55.9

Preliminary C

• 45^th Tess Graham 18:40.0

Normally ‘Brighton by the Sea’ would be held much later in the season and perhaps the better weather was a reason for the increase in participation. It was fantastic to see so many SKAAC athletes competing in the staggered start handicap 9km event. The course was run the same as previous years except for the fact that APSOC moved the start and finish location to the same spot at the end of Green Point Carpark.

Sam Doble was coming off winning this event in 2015, 2018 and 2019 (uncommon to win back to back handicap events) and was looking to make it 3 wins at 3 consecutive Brighton by the Sea events. Dino Imbriano had checked a number of previous year’s results and found that you would need to run low 53 minutes adjusted time to have a good shot of winning. Alas, Sam knew the handicapper was onto him when he was given a handicap of 16 minutes meaning he would have to run about a 2.5 minute PB to win. SKAAC has a very good history in recent years at this event, often winning, or at least placing, on the ‘teams handicap’. This is a unique feature of this race which see the top 4 athletes from each club count towards a ‘teams handicap’ (normally it’s a SCRATCH team result). Olivia Mitchell and Alice McCann who had both run well against their respective handicaps a fortnight ago at the Hare and Hound new they were in with a shot of a podium finish.

The course heads south for about 3km and returns back through the start/finish and then heads north for about 1.5km before turning again to head back to the start/finish. The unique physical features of this event are the last 800m which runs along the sand in front of the Brighton bathing boxes and the small but steep tracks that you need to take a number of times from the top of the cliff to beach level.

With only 1-minute splitting 5^th and 24^th you can see how close the race becomes in the last few kms as the quicker runners start to catch the slower runners who had the head starts. James Kirk and Paul Hope had their first races of the 2021 season and both ran very well. James ran very well to finish 8^th on scratch with an average speed of 3:50/km. Tristan Mioni and Matthew Lynch had a good battle on the course with Matthew starting 20 seconds behind Tristan and passing him early but Tristan managed to keep him in sight throughout the race and repassed him with a little over 1.5km to go. Karen Thorp, Chloe Hardman, Joseph Lynch all ran well and finished strongly.

At the front of the race both Alice McCann and Olivia Mitchell were passing quite a few of the other athletes and were looking like securing a top 10 finish. It’s always hard to tell exactly where you are in these sort of events, particularly considering athletes MUST have competed in at least 5 races to be eligible for the handicap win (so there could be 5 athletes in front of you but they will not be counted in the handicap results). Olivia Mitchell crossed the line 3^rd and Alice McCann crossed the line 6^th but both were promoted to 1^st and 3^rd respectively. TWO SKAAC athletes on the podium!!!

For full results go to: https://apsoc.net.au/apsoc-from-2013/
SKAAC summary below.

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Pos	Athlete	Club	Time	Hcap	Adj Time		Races1
1	Mitchell, Olivia	SK	53:05.33	10:32	42:33.33	Female	35
3	McCann, Alice	SK	53:38.55	7:55	45:43.55	Female	8
13	Mioni, Tristan	SK	54:30.53	20:50	33:40.53		40
18	Imbriano, Dino	SK	54:41.22	17:32	37:09.22		17
22	Kirk, James	SK	54:51.00	20:16	34:35.00		9
29	Lynch, Matthew	SK	55:09.28	21:11	33:58.28		18
36	Doble, Samuel	SK	55:33.08	16:02	39:31.08		45
52	Lynch, Joseph	SK	57:28.38	17:34	39:54.38		42
*	Letts, Andrew	SK	58:24.23	11:10	47:14.23		2
65	Thorp, Karen	SK	58:57.44	20:31	38:26.44	Female	32
69	Cornwell, Chloe	SK	59:15.02	9:20	49:55.02	Female	47
75	Hope, Paul	SK	61:10.00	12:35	48:35.00		8

Pos	Club	Athlete	Time	Place	Points
1	SK1	Mitchell, Olivia	53:05.33	1	35
		McCann, Alice	53:38.55	3
		Mioni, Tristan	54:30.53	13
		Imbriano, Dino	54:41.22	18
10	SK2	Kirk, James	54:51.00	22	139
		Lynch, Matthew	55:09.28	29
		Doble, Samuel	55:33.08	36
		Lynch, Joseph	57:28.38	52

On what was a very warm Saturday afternoon (when compared to the previous few weeks) at Jells Park, SKAAC had 3 teams fielded in the competition. Due to the fact that there had been extensive development at the top of ‘the hill’ with a new playground, AV were forced to change the course slightly. The course was still very challenging and featured NO flat running what so ever. Basically the course was like a flower with the center being at the top. This meant for each petal you were running either down or up. The course is 3km long with juniors competing over that distance and seniors completing two laps for 6km each.

Under 14 Women
SKAAC were very happy to field an Under 14 women’s team and hope that these 3 girls continue to compete throughout the season and that a few other will join them during the XC season. Saskia Klotz was first runner who passed the timing chip to new recruit Lucie Thompson. Both athletes making their transition from CMLAC. The final leg was run by Claudia Tierney who flew around the 3km hilly course in 12:37. The girls were stoked to start the season with a bronze medal and are looking forward to the next relay at Sandown.

St Kevins ‘W14.3’
3rd Place – Bronze Medal…Saskia Klotz: 13:34, Lucie Thompson: 14:06, Claudia Tierney: 12:37

Under 18 Women
Off the back of track and field nationals, both Cleo Richardson and Bridie Hill are in great form. But it was Sophie Pont who stole the show early, running the first leg too quickly for me to catch her for a photo. Not to mention that she is only 14 years old and was running up an age group as a bottom age athlete!! From here, Cleo (also running up an age group) was able to pass quite a few athletes to put the team in a great position leading into the final leg. Bridie Hill showed her class finishing with the second fastest individual time on the day and pulling the team into 4^th place and only 20 seconds behind a bronze medal.

With both Sophie and Cleo in Under 16, SKAAC hopes to find one more athlete who would be keen to make an Under 16 Women’s team with them and then find some more Under 18 women to compete with Bridie at the Sandown Relays in June. Please reach out if you have interest.

St Kevins ‘W18.12’
4th Place – Sophie Pont: 12:50, Cleo Richardson: 11:26, Bridie Hill: 10:46

Open Male (Division 4)
The Men’s Open team had a great first race for the season. Jack Holden completed the first leg and put SKAAC in the lead of the division 4 competition. It is great to see Jack finding some form again and competing in the SKAAC singlet. The club looks forward to watching his progression throughout the season. Matt Lynch ran a solid second leg and provided much needed feedback to those that were about to follow, “don’t go out too hard, the second lap bites”. It was awesome to see Ned O’Brien racing again and he is keen for plenty more events in the near future. Sam Doble rounded out the team for a solid 4^th place.

St Kevins ‘M4.12’ 4th Place – Jack Holden: 19:30, Matthew Lynch: 22:24, Ned O’Brien: 23:58, Tristan Mioni: 22:37, Samuel Doble: 26:00

the 2020/2021 National Championships held in Sydney from 12 April 2021 to 19 April 2021 have been a stunning success for the 22 SKAAC athletes that have reached qualification standards to enter this prestigious event. These 22 SKAAC athletes produced an Australian Record to Nellie Mitchell and a combined 3 gold, 2 silver, 5 Bronze medals.

Day 1

• Tom Forster U16 1500m 8^th 4:12.38
• Cleo Richardson U16 1500m 3^rd 4:40.44. Cleo’s first ever National medal and a SKAAC Club record from U15 to U20, and 2^nd All-time for SKAAC.
• Glen Imbriano U16 Shot Put 11^th 6.60m

Day 2

• Joel Imbriano U16 3000m Walk 8^th 15:09.50. SKAAC Club record from U15 to U20, and 3^rd All-time for SKAAC.
• Tom Forster U16 3000m 3^rd 8:50.03. Tom’s first ever National medal and SKAAC Club record from U15 to U16

Day 3

• Ben Forster U14 800m Heat 2^nd 2:11.46Q
• Jack Bowen U16 800m Heat 3^rd 2:00.59Q
• Patrick Retschko U16 800m Heat 8^th 2:05.45
• Cleo Richardson U16 800m Heat 2^nd 2:17.24Q

Day 4

• Ben Forster U14 800m Final 8^th 2:30.58
• Jack Bowen U16 800m Final 3^rd 1:57.48
• Cleo Richardson U16 800m Final 3^rd 2:13.14. SKAAC Club record from U15 to U20.
• Seb Reyneke Open Decathlon Day 1 (100m: 11.25 (+0.5), Long Jump: NM, Shot Put: 13.66m (which was a 1.68m PB and took Seb to 3^rd on the SKAAC All-time list) , High Jump: 1.97m, 400m: 51.01)
• Harvey Connor Open Decathlon Day 1 (100m: 11.77 (+0.5), Long Jump: 6.23m (+0.6), Shot Put 10.72m: , High Jump: 1.76m, 400m: 55.30)
• Peter Bol Open 800m Heat 1 1^st 1:50.43Q
• Luke Mathews Open 800m Heat 2 3^rd 1:51.54Q
• Jack Lunn Open 800m Heat 3 3^rd 1:53.11Q
• Brooke Gordon Open Triple Jump Prelims Heat 1 8^th 11:58 (+0.5)

Day 5

• Seb Reyneke Open Decathlon Day 1 (110m Hurdles: 15.85 (-0.3), Discus: 41.38m, Pole Vault: NM, Javelin: 47.64m, 1500m: 5:12.13) (13^th 5548 points)
• Harvey Connor Open Decathlon Day 1 (110m Hurdles: 18.21 (-0.3), Discus: 33.78m (+0.6), Pole Vault: 3.70m , Javelin: 47.75m, 1500m: 5:15.11) (12^th 5652 points)
• Conor Fry Open 400m Hurdles Heat 2 1^st 52.49
• James Kerr U17 100m Heat 4^th 11.36 (-0.3)
• Nellie Mitchell Women AMB 1500m 4^th 5:01.42 Australian National Record for T13, and $1,000 cash for Camberwell Malvern Little Athletics Club courtesy of Coles Supermarkets!!
• Jackson Bennett Open 100m Heat 5 4^th 11:11 (-1.2)
• Peter Bol Open 800m Semi 1 1^st 1:48.61Q
• Luke Mathews Open 800m Semi 1 4^th 1:51.67
• Jack Lunn Open 800m Semi 2 1^st 1:50.39Q
• Jason Kozica Open 10,000m Walk 10^th 46:57.27, Jason’s second best ever performance over 10,000m on the track.

Day 6

• Jude Georgievski U17 Triple Jump 4^th 13.45 (+0.2)
• Tom Coghlan U17 Pole Vault 1^st 4.35m
• Sam Cantwell U18 110m Hurdles (91cm) Heat 1 2^nd 14.83Q (+0.6) Final 4^th 14.61 (+0.4)
• Peter Bol Open 800m Final 1^st 1:49.27
• Jack Lunn Open 800m Final 3^rd 1:49.80. A first National medal for Jack at only 19 years-of-age.
• Nellie Mitchell Women AMB 800m 2^nd 2:25.38 SKAAC 40+ Club Record and moves Nellie from 14^th to 9^th All-time for SKAAC.

Day 7

• Saxon Bachli Open 110m Hurdles (106.7cm) 5h2 16.83 (-1.4)
• Sam Cantwell U18 400m Hurdles Heat 2 3^rd 57.68Q
• Conor Fry Open 400m Hurdles Final 7^th 53.22
• Conor Fry Open 4x400m Final 2^nd 3:18.82

Day 8

• Jude Georgievski U17 Long Jump 1^st 6.85m (+0.8) Under 16 SKAAC Club Record, taking out Matt Bertacco’s previous record of 6.82m
• James Kerr U17 200m Heat 2 4^th 22.74 (+1.9)
• Sam Cantwell U18 Long Jump 8^th 6.22m (+0.8)
• Sam Cantwell U18 400m Hurdles Final 4^th 55.28, which breaks Sam’s own Under 18 Club record by 2.74 seconds, despite already breaking it in his heat on Sunday 😊

In an amazing finish to the Victorian Decathlon Championship held in Bendigo, Seb Reyneke has won his first Open Gold Medal by a mere 5 points!! Seb’s score of 7,262, was second All-time for SKAAC and contained no less than 5 PB’s for Seb over the two days.

PB’s were achieved in Shot Put (11.98m), Discus (36.74m), Pole Vault (4.60m), 110m Hurdles (15.52m) and Javelin (49.13m).

It should also be noted that Seb was a mere 1cm from PB’s in two other events!! His Long Jump of 7.13m and High Jump of 2.04m both right on PB’s efforts.

Seb won 6-out-of-the-10-events…the 100m (11.25), Long Jump (7.13m), High Jump (2.04m), 400m (50.73), Hurdles (15.52), Pole Vault (4.60m).

A deserved Gold Medal for a very hard working athlete and a great springboard into Nationals.

Well Done Seb and to your coach and SKAAC Life Member, Steve Cain.

There are plenty of SKAAC athletes in action at the Zatopek Meet on 26 January 2021 at Box Hill. So show your patriotism to club and country and get out to Box Hill to support your clubmates in the following events:-

4:55pm 400m Hurdles – Conor Fry

5:10pm 400m Hurdles – Marli Wilkinson (one of the SKAAC Tooronga coaches)

5:25pm 800m – Steve Knuckey & Jack Lunn

5:50pm Long Jump – Darcy Roper

6:10pm 3000m – Josh Collins, Luca DiConza

7:25pm 1500m – Peter Bol, Brad Mathas (with Joseph Deng to run as pacemaker)

7:40pm 10000m – Jack Holden, Sam McEntee