The Sydney University Athletics Club (SUAC) has gone global this past week with no less than seven athletes either competing or scheduled to compete in a variety of international events.
At the prestigious Occidental High Performance Meet in Los Angeles Sydney University Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holder Lachlan Renshaw comfortably beat a world class field in his heat of the 800m but narrowly missed the Olympic A standard.
Renshaw (B. Commerce) will compete in Morocco this weekend where he will continue his quest for Olympic selection.
In other events at the’ Oxy Meet’ fellow EAP scholarship holder James Nipperess finished 4th in his heat of the 3000m steeplechase recording a personal best time of 8.37.
For Nipperess (B Health Science (Physiotherapy)) this caps off a remarkable debut season in this event, considering he ran his first steeplechase in November and has missed the Olympic qualifier by a very small margin.
Nipperess looks to have a big future in this event.
Milly-Jane Clark finished 5th in her heat of the 3000m steeplechase completing what has been an outstanding breakthrough year for her as well.
At the 101st running of the Bay to Breakers held in San Francisco on Sunday SUAC’s Bradley Croker took on a field of more than 50,000 athletes and finished a very respectable 9th.
The race was won by Sammy Kitwara of Kenya who is considered one of the very best on the road.
Croker will join former SUAC Club Captain Larissa Stanley when they run the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge Thursday night in Chicago.
Other international competitors include EAP scholarship holders Alix Kennedy (Commerce/Law) who will make her Australian Junior debut in the discus over the weekend and Lara Tamsett (Bachelor of Media & Communications) who will contest a series of road races in the USA finishing up in New York City on the 9th June.
Not to forget achievements back home, SUAC took out the Athletics NSW Team Walk Championships with a dominant display by the three person team of Derek Mulhearn (B. Applied Sci (Exss. Spt Sci. /B. Science (Nutr)) and Jordon Mulhearn (B. Civil Engineering and Commerce) – both EAP scholarship holders – and Vanessa Noble.
Significantly the victory moved SUAC well clear of second place Bankstown Sports in the race to defend the Men’s Winter Premiership.
The next leg of the Winter premiership will be held at Miranda on June 2nd where SUAC will look to challenge Randwick Botany Harriers for the win in the NSW Cross Country Relays.