By Tara Murray
Melton City Little Athletics Centre exceeded all expectations at the recent Little Athletics Victoria relay day.
The centre had 14 teams compete at the state championships in late December, with all sides improving either their qualification time or ranking they had heading into the day.
Among the results were two gold medals, two silver medals, a bronze medal and two state records.
Centre president Suzi Johnson said they had been hoping for some good results heading into the event after the results they had at the region titles.
“The under-17s took home three medals and the under-9s in their first time at the state titles won two silver medals,” she said.
“After the regions’ event we had been hoping to win some medals, but we weren’t expecting to have some teams break some state records.”
The under-9 team which won two silver medals was Chayse Johnson, Ari Brown, Vishrudh Aitham and Anaiyah Grenville.
Johnson said one of those sides qualified in fourth spot, so winning silver was a bit of a shock.
The under-17 mixed team of Chris Musa, Lady Elva Tachie-Menson, Saah Falla and Stella Whillance won the 4 x 100 metres and 4 x 200 metres events.
Johnson said they’d had a couple of runners join the club this year despite being near aging out of Little Aths having only done school athletics before which had strengthened that age group.
Lady Elva and Stella were part of the under-17 girls medley relay team that won silver along with Nyandeng Mayanm and Amelia Alford.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for that side
“We had someone get injury and pull out and we had to bring in a newbie,” Johnson said. “She was able to hold her own.”
The five medals comes after the centre won one 12 months ago. Johnson said it was one of their best championships in recent years.
She said one of the big changes for the centre had been coach Damien Wapshott taking over the training for the relays, which had proven successful.
“It is a boost for the rest of the club,” he said. “We’ve got regions coming up in February for the individual events.
“They’ll all be trying out to make the state championships Hopefully a few of the young talent start to come through.”
Johnson said they were hoping to have some success at the individual state titles with a number of good results already this season.
She said the centre was continuing to grow with 252 athletes this season . Once the regular season is finished, the club will head into cross country season.
