Sydney University Athletics Club closed out a memorable year with 14 medals at the recent three-day NSW Relay Championships held at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre.
The Relay Championships are the biggest club event in the country by number of teams and competitors and SUAC entered the greatest number of teams of any NSW club in Open divisions at the championships.
Club captain, Olympian Shelly Jenneke, competed in six events on the Saturday of competition, while SUAC also had World Championship representative Allanah Pitcher in the ranks along with many new members debuting in relays and a number of younger athletes competing in Open divisions.
SUAC’s gold medals came in:
Mixed 4x Distance Medley Relay -| Lachlan Townsend, Obssa Youssouf, Erin Blundell and Julia Baxter;
Men’s Long Jump – Andy Leung, Hunter Folkes, Angus Clark and Tom Galvin;
Women’s High Jump – Alexandra Harrison, Michelle Jenneke, Lily Tilt and Alicia MacMillan; and
Men’s 4x800m – Lachlan Townsend, Obssa Youssouf, Sebastian Havens and Marc Girard.
SUAC’s silver medalists included:
Women’s Long Jump – Kailyn Joseph, Alexandra Harrison, Ella Koster and Alicia MacMillan;
Women’s 4x400m – Sally Guthrie, Julia Baxter, Jess Quilter-Jones and Rebecca Bennett;
Women’s Javelin – Ella Koster, Tali Baltineshter, Lily Allport and Katrina Blackett;
Men’s 4x200m – Jack Lynch, Michael Jeffery, Tom Tucker and Aaron Jeffrey.
Men’s 4x1500m – Lachlan Townsend, Sebastian Havens, Obssa Youssouf and Ben Graham.
And the bronze medalists were:
Men’s 4x Sprint Medley Relay – Lachlan Townsend, Obssa Youssouf, Seb Havens and Michael Liu;
Men’s 4x400m – Damien Mizzi, Jack Lynch, Marc Girard and Aaron Jeffrey;
Women’s 4x800m – Aspen Lambert, Caitlin Roach, Audrey Amiya-Hall and Niamh McMahon;
Women’s 4x1500m – Aspen Lambert, Audrey Amiya-Hall, Emma Blanch and Abigail Gilbert; and
Women’s Shot Put – Michelle Jenneke, Ella Koster, Lily Tilt and Katrina Blackett.
SUAC also came 5th in the Women’s 1600m Sprint Medley, 5th in the Women’s B 4x200m, 5th in the Men’s Shot Put, 6th in the Men’s 4x100m, 6th in the Men’s B 1600m Sprint Medley, 6th in the Women’s A 4x200m, 6th in the Men’s High Jump, 7th in the Men’s Javelin, 8th in the Women’s Discus, 8th in the Men’s B 4x200m and 10th in the Mixed 4x100m.
UTS Northern Suburbs Athletics Club pipped SUAC in the gold medal and overall medal tally in the Open division 17 medals, while Sutherland Athletics Club finished with nine medals.