Promising signs for many SKAAC athletes leading up to the National Championships in late March.

SKAAC had a strong presence on Thursday night at the newly laid track and Lakeside stadium. Conditions in the early evening were a little bit windy and warm, but as the night progressed the wind and temperature dropped providing the chance to see some fast and honest racing.

Bridie Hill began the proceedings for SKAAC running in the Women’s Junior 1500m. Bridie (who arguably does NOT have fresh legs after running multiple events at AVSL last Saturday and then placing second in her age group on SUNDAY at the triathlon in Elwood) ran superbly. Her time of 4:45.67 was good enough for a podium bronze, a 0.90 sec PB and SKAAC Club Record from Under 15 to Under 20.

In the Men’s Open 800m SKAAC had 3 athletes competing along with new clubman Felix Lonergan who was pace setting the A final. It is fantastic to see Alex Rowe returning to competitive racing, and as previous joint national record holder, SKAAC is confident he will continue his progression back to the top of Australian 800m running. Alex ran 1:53.58. Steve Knuckey showed good speed in the Men’s A 800m and ran a 1:49.75, however probably just missed his opportunity to latch onto the pace of the 3 front runners. Young gun, and all round nice guy, Jack Lunn, had his debut run in domestic open elite company. Jack displayed confidence and determination, taking the lead with 250m to go and making sure of his terrific 1:48.81, a World Under 20 qualifying time. Jack was strong enough to hold down the closing straight to earn himself a Bronze medal in the event.

In the 5000m, which is held as the Nation Championships, SKAAC had two representatives in Sam McEntee and Ben Moynihan. The race unfolded as a relatively easy first 3km (although many of us probably could not hold their pace) and then Stewart McSweyn lit the race up. Sam McEntee was the only athlete bold enough to make the move with him and ran in tandem with Stewart until two laps to go. Stewarts amazing form was on show as he went onto win solo with a 100plus meter gap to second. After a very gutsy run, Sam was able to hold on for 3rd place and a time of 13:49.28. Jack Holden has put in a fantastic season thus far “with probably his best run ever” in the zatopek in December, followed up with a 15sec PB tonight finishing 15th in 14:19.37, stepping up to 8th on the SKAAC All-time listings, with Ben Moynihan crossing the line in 14:38.54.

All records and rankings have been updated and cen be seen at www.skaac.com Can’t wait to see what all these athletes can do in SKAAC colours over the balance of the 2019/2020 track season and into the 2020 AV XCR and APSOC winter seasons Tristan Mioni

Darcy Roper has leap to 8.20m (+1.4) to take out the win at the ACT State Championships over the Australia Day weekend.

On the same weekend, but at the Victorian Country Championhips in Geelong, Jackson Bennett was the equal winner of the Open Mens 100m in a time of 10.79 (+1.4) This was a great effort by Jackson as he was severely delayed by an accident on the Princes Freeway heading to Geelong. AV were very kind in letting him run given his arrival at the track was only 15 minutes before race start. Nicholas Jackson had his 3rd PB run inside 3 races with a 2:08.80 for 4th place in the Under 20 Men’s 800m

SKAAC had huge representation at the Vic Milers on the 23rd of January 2020 with 24 starters across the two middle distance events. Earlier in the night the 800m runners faced some gusty wind conditions that made racing exciting and unpredictable, as the night progress the wind died down and some quick 1500m times were recorded.

Aaron Little got the night going for SKAAC and recorded a 2:09.33 in a relatively quick field. Jacob McGirr had the chance to race for $100 in the randomly selected ‘Dash for Cash’ heat. Jacob lead through the bell and looked strong, however suffered into the back straight headwind and was passed by 4 other athletes to finish middle of the pack and in a time of 2:04.76. Tom Sellwood blitzed his field to finish first in a sub 2-minute run. Andrew Mathieson and Conor Lynch were to do battle in the Men’s C event. A few cheeky side bets were taking place in the lead up to this heat. Andrew proved to get the better of Conor and took the win, however credit must go to both athletes who ran sub 2 minutes in a very competitive race. Tom Scroggie showed good form and seems to be well on track with his recovery post injury. His time of 1:55.41 was good for a podium un the Men’s B Heat. In Men’s A we had both Jack Lunn and Felix Lonergan racing for SKAAC. Felix ran a quick 1:54.06 and Jack ran a huge PB time of 1:49.53 on his chase for a national qualifier.

SKAAC had 5 athletes in a field of 15 runners in the Men’s 1500m A Heat. An impressive feat in itself. Peter Bol took the win with a comfortable run of 3:46.91 and showed his is right on track for his assault on the Tokyo Olympics. Both Sam McEntee and Steve Knuckey crossed the line in 3rd and 4th in low 3:48s. Steve (arguably) had one of the quickest finishes on the night and stormed home from about 8th to 4th. Both Ben Moynihan (leading up to the Melbourne Track Classic) and Joseph Deng rounded out the SKAAC contingent. Josh Collins ran 3:53.62 and is starting to show some real consistency in his running at the top end of the game. Luca Di Conza managed to break the 4-minute mark, as did Jonathon Gusman. Tristan Day came agonizingly close in a time of 4:00.02, however these are all promising signs heading into the back end of the track season and the upcoming Cross Country Season.

Our two female performances of the night were by young guns Bridie Hill (4:52.55) and Cleo Richardson (4:55.7) who arguable ran the best race of any SKAAC athlete on the night. Her pacing was excellent and her final kick proved far too strong for her competitors as she broke away from 2nd and 3rd to finish 1st in the Women’s 1500m D Heat.

By Tristan MioniHarry Bowen ran 4:08.17, Callum Day 4:14.77, Jack Bowen 4:35.93 and Sam Scroggie 4:44.51. In all this was a fantastic effort by all SKAAC athletes and shows the depth in talent that we have over the middle distances. Hopefully everyone can go one better this weekend at the SKAAC AVSL DOUBLE POINTS round.

SKAAC Athletes have won 1 Gold Medal and 2 Silver Medals in a sensational Victorian Multi-event Championships in Bendigo over the weekend of 4 & 5 January 2020.

Seb Reyneke dominated the Under 20 Mens Decathlon, winning the Gold Medal with 7,110 points, Seb also produced a SKAAC Club record for U19, U20 & Open High Jump with a massive 2.05m leap. To round out a massive Day 1 for Seb he was also able break Dan Bailey’s U19 & U20 Long Jump record of 7.08m with his 7.13m leap was also the first time for Seb over the magical 7 metre mark. It is hoped that AA will consider Seb’s efforts as a World Junior Qualifier, with some of his events being impacted adversely by wind. 🙁 SKAAC’s Paul Haasbroek took silver with 5.417 points, continuing his long and frustrating battle with a back injury. Paul was able to secure a PB in the Long Jump and also passed his first time over 99cm Hurdles. This was Paul’s first full load athletic effort for nearly 18 months and it was great to hear from his coach Steve Cain that he has pulled up well from his Bendigo efforts. Harvey Connor took silver in the Open Men’s Decathlon event, producing a PB effort of 5,845 points. This was a 23 point increase on his combined effort at the Multus event in November 2019. Harvey had a great sequence of events finishing with a big decathlon PB in the 1500m at the end of a gruelling two days. This silver medal confirms his National Championships Qualification. Georgia Bertrand however had no luck in the Open Women’s Heptathlon falling in the first event, the 100m Hurdles and being unable to continue. And finally a big thanks to Shane Bertrand and Ivan Reyneke for being the SKAAC Volunteers for the weekend!!

The Zatopek 10 meet at Box Hill on 14 December 2019 had a decidly SKAAC flavour to it.

Headlining the SKAAC performances was Sam McEntee in the feature 10,000m race that is the National Championship Final, where Sam finished in 5th place in a new Open Mens Club Record time of 28.17.13, taking over a minute from Julian Dwyer’s Zatopek time from 2001.

Joel Bee showed that he is in great shape at the minute, with a silver medal

in the Victorian State 100 yards championship in 9.96, one of only 2 runners under “even” time on the night. Julian Oakley and Steve Knuckey had prominent performances in the 1500m, with Julian 5th in 3:44.38 (X All-time for SKAAC) and Steve 6th in 3:45.32 (a 7 second PB!!) Will Lewis and Tom Sellwood were also featured in the growingly prestigious de Castella Under 20 3000m, Will finished in 6th place in 8:26.34 with Tom taking in on early finishing with 8:58.88. As has become tradition, the State Relay Finals for 4×400 for Open Women & Men and the recently added, Under 18 Mixed 4×400 contribute plenty to the night. The mixed team of Matt Dinan, MaddieHume, Bridie Hill & Luca DiConza finished 6th in 3:53.03. The Mens Open 4×400 team of Joel Bee (split of 47.9), Steve Knuckey (Split 49.2, after that 3:45 1500m!!), Felix Lonergan (split 49.5) and Conor Fry (split 47.5) finished 4th in 3:14.17 (5th All-time) A great night of SKAAC running and hopefully a pointer to what is in store for the balance of the season.

SKAAC athletes have performed remarkably well in the National All Schools Championships in Perth, securing 6 medals (2 x gold, 3 x silver and 1 x bronze).

Sam Cantwell won a thrilling Under 16 Mens 100m Hurdles, getting a great start and leading the pre-race favourite from the gun, Sam looked the man to beat until disaster nearly struck on the 7th barrier, with Sam forced to regather himself and quickly regain his rhythm and produce 2 excellent clearances of 9 & 10 to take out his first National All Schools title in a club record 13.19 (+1.6).

Sam also secured a Silver medal in a Victorian Trifecta in the Under 16 Mens 200m Hurdles in yet another club record effort of 26.09 (-1.5) winning Heat 2 of the timed final.

Gus Simpfendorfer had the run of his life in one of the races of the meet in taking out the Silver medal in the Under 16 Mens 400m. Gus’a PB effort of 48.51 took out the SKAAC Under 16 & 17 records (48.88) of club legend Matt Burmiester.

Patrick Retschko captured a Silver medal in the Mens Under 14 800, on arguably the worst day weather wise of the whole meet, where start times were split to avoid the 40 degree daytime temperatures.

Jacob McGirr secured a silver medal as a member of the Victorian Swedish Medley (100m, 200m, 300m, 400m) running the 400m leg to bring the Vics home in 2:02.03

Other athletes in action were Maddie Hume in the 400m hurdles, who tragically hit the 3rd hurdle, fell badly, but yet was brave enough to pick herself up, grazes and cut hand included to finish her first ever race at National All Schools level. Maddie backed up bravely in the 400m flat the next day finished 5th in her heat in 60.14.

Noah Sewak finished 19th in the Under 16 Men Triple Jump jumping 11.54m, at his first National All Schools

Under 16 rising talent Jacob McGirr took on a strong field in the 400m, as a bottom age athlete, finishing in 52.74 (4h1)

All at SKAAC wish the following athletes all the best for the National All Schools Championships in Perth this weekend.

Please keep an eye out for…

Patrick Retschko… Under 14 800m & Nitro

Maddie Hume… Under 18 400m & 400m Hurdles

Jacob McGirr… Under 16 400m

Gus Simpfendorfer… Under 16 400m

Sam Cantwell… Under 16 100m Hurdles & 200m Hurdles

Noah Sewak… Under 16 Triple Jump

And to the following athletes that will be in Perth for National Schools Nitro Tom Forster (Nitro for Caulfield Grammar)

Bridie Hill (Nitro for Loreto)

Cleo Richardson (Nitro for Loreto)

Mia Destefanis (Nitro for Loreto)

A spectacularly sucessful 2019 AV State Relay Championships was completed at Box Hill on Saturday 23rd November 2019. • 5 gold medals to equal the SKAAC haul from 2018, with a special performance from our Under 14 Girls 4×100 Relay with Talei, Abbey, Ella & Lulu becoming SKAAC’s first ever Gold medal winning female relay team. Well Done girls!! • Also Tristan Day joins some elite company (Peter Bol x 3 and Steve Knuckey x 1) in also becoming a multiple State Relay Open Gold medalist in the one year with his anchor runs in both the 4×1500 and 4×800. The success of the day probably comes down to the numbers, so here goes… 1… as in SKAAC’s first ever female State Relay Gold Medal for our Womens Under 14 4×100 Relay team. Talei Spowart, Abbey Vicino, Ella Tierney & Lulu Burney all etch their names into SKAAC’s history books. 2… Silver medals won by SKAAC teams (U18 Female Medley & 40+ 4×1500) 2… Bronze medals won by SKAAC teams (Open Male 4×100 & 4×1500) 2… teams qualified for Zatopek (Mixed Under 18 4×400 & Open Male 4×400) 4… races for the day’s busiest athlete, Bridie Hill (800 x 2, 100 x 2) 5… as in gold medals won by SKAAC teams on the day (U14 Female 4×100, Under 16 Male 4×100 & 4×400, Open 4×800 & 4×1500 5… athletes went home with two medals (Tristan Day, Matt Lynch, Gus Simpfendorfer, Jacob McGirr & Giancarlo Ferraro) 9… as is SKAAC teams that won a medal of some colour. 15… as in teams that represented SKAAC in the AV State Relays. 25… as in club records that were broken on the day. (which are all updated on www.skaac.com) 35.2… as in kilometres covered by our 16 teams as they progressed through their heats and finals 31.. SKAAC athletes went home with at least 1 medal. 40… as in SKAAC athletes that competed in at least 1 race. 41.54… as in the new Open 4×100 Male club record achieved by Harvey Connor, Darcy Roper, Jackson Bennett & Joel Bee 55.56… as in the time the Under 14 girls 4×100 ran to create some serious SKAAC history 77.5… as in the percentage of SKAAC athletes the competed on the day, going home with at least 1 medal. The full results can be seen below:- GOLD x 5 Women Under 14 4x100m Final: Talei Spowart, Abbey Vicino, Ella Tierney, Lulu Burney (55.56 1st); Men Under 16 4x100m Heat: Luke Baker-Hunter, Giancarlo Ferraro, Tom Coghlan, Gus Simpfendorfer (45.84 1st); Men Under 16 4x100m Final: Luke Baker-Hunter, Giancarlo Ferraro, Jacob McGirr, Gus Simpfendorfer (45.01 1st); Men Under 16 4x400m Final: Giancarlo Ferraro, Conor Lynch, Jacob Mcgirr, Gus Simpfendorfer (3:31.66 (1st); Men Open 4x800m: Felix Lonergan, Thomas Sellwood, Matthew Lynch, Tristan Day (7:52.19 1st); Men Open 4x1500m: Alexander Rowe, Ben Moynihan, Stephen Knuckey, Tristan Day (16:07.92 1st); SILVER x 2 Men 40+ 4x1500m: Joseph Lynch, Andrew Thomas, Luke Goodman, Aaron Little (18:44.24 2nd); Women Under 18 Medley 4x400m: Mia Destefanis, Sasha Feldmann, Madeleine Hume, Bridie Hill (4:18.09 2nd); BRONZE x 2 Men Open 4x100m Heat: Harvey Connor, Darcy Roper, Jackson Bennett, Joel Bee (41.54 1st); Men Open 4x100m Final: Harvey Connor, Darcy Roper, Jackson Bennett, Joel Bee (41.74 3rd); Men Open 4x1500m: Jonathon Gusman, Callum Day, Matthew Lynch, Tristan Mioni (17:29.46 3rd); Top 8 in Victoria x 6 Women Under 16 4x100m Heat: Bridie Hill, Sasha Feldmann, Lauren Mcgarry, Mia Destefanis (53.12 4th); Women Under 16 4x100m Final: Bridie Hill, Sasha Feldmann, Lauren Mcgarry, Mia Destefanis (53.18 8th); Women Under 18 4x800m: Ella Tierney, Bea Kellock, Abbey Vicino, Bridie Hill (10:14.14 7th); Men Under 16 Medley: Jack Bowen, Riley Ellett, Samuel Scroggie, Harry Bowen (4:04.15 (7th); Men Open 4x400m Heat: Conor Fry, Stephen Knuckey, Felix Lonergan, Joel Bee (3:20.09 (P); Men Open Medley: Conor Fry, Matt Dinan, Harvey Connor, Jonathon Gusman (3:43.37 4th); Mixed Under 18 4×400: Matt Dinan, Maddie Hume, Bridie Hill, Jacob McGirr (straight to Zatopek Final)

A great day greeted all SKAAC athletes for AVSL Round 2 at Doncaster, Casey & Geelong with near perfect conditions assisting some great performances on the day. Georgia Bertrand got her season off in fine style with 3 events 100m Hurdles (16.77), 100m 13.97 (quickest female for SKAAC for the day) and a Javelin 32.71m. Brooke Gordon also opened her season with a Long Jump (4.71m) One of the more remarkable performances of the day went to 15 y.o. Maddie Hume, having her first ever race over the 100m Hurdles after graduating from the 90m Hurdles, won Heat 2 in a club record and National Qualifier of 15.68sec. The SKAAC Under 14 & 16 girls were simply everywhere!! Bridie Hill, Ella Tierney, Cleo Richardson and Bea Kellock all ran 1500’s and all enter the Top 8 Female performances of all-time for SKAAC with their runs. Bridie ran 4:52 and broke every club record from Under 15 to Under 20 and Cleo Richardson ran a PB of 4:55 to take the Under 13 & 14 Club records. Ella Tierney ran a PB of 5:03 and Bea Kellock was 8th fastest All-time with 5:21. Mia Destefanis (14.08), Sasha Feldman (14.22) , Talei Spowart (14.53) and Lauren McGarry (15.17 all ran 100m and the girls finished the day with 400’s Bridie Hill (63.23) Ella Tierney (PB 66.35, U14 Club Record) & Cleo Richardson (69.36) Jackson Bennett, in HEAVY training at the moment ran 11.20 and Matt Lynch having his first AV race in a long time ran 4:15 in the 1500, closely followed by Aaron Little with 4:21. Luke Baker-Hunter ran 12.12 into a -1.7 headwind. At Casey Fields Tom Coghlan had his first Pole Vault for the season clearing 3.10m, along with Jack Howard’s hammer of 31.46m and 12.08m Shot Put. It was the Imbriano family at Geelong, with Glen 200m 39.30sec, 800m 3:39.27, Triple 5.68 and Joel 200m 34.38, 800m 2:44.26 and Discus 17.88m. Dino had 19.12m in the Discus & 21.15m in the Hammer. All records and rankings have been updated to reflect a VERY busy AVSL Round 2.

SKAAC to have 3 athletes competing at the World Championships in Doha.

Darcy Roper completed his last training session at Tooronga on Saturday at Legends Day prior to his departure for Doha to compete in the Long Jump.

Long Jump Qualification Round will be held Friday 27/9/2019 at 23:30pm; the final will be held Sunday 29/9/2019 at 3:40am

Luke Mathews and Peter Bol are the only Australian representatives in the 800m, as both look to take on the world’s best one of the strongest events in the program. Heat Sunday 29/9/2019 at 12:05am Semi Monday 30/9/2019 at 4:55am Final Wednesday 2/10/2019 at 5:10am We wish Luke, Pete & Darcy all the best as they represent Australia.