Sydney University Athletic Club’s stellar season continued at the 2023 UniSport Australian National Championships, held at the Gold Coast Performance Centre last week, with the women’s team retaining their national title and the men’s team finishing runners-up.
SUAC’s women competitors claimed the title with 144 points, ahead of The Australian Catholic University (80) and Macquarie University (75), while the University of Queensland claimed the men’s title with 127 points, ahead of the University of Sydney (122) and Queensland University of Technology (97).
With 10 Championship records broken, the 2023 UniSport Nationals rank as one of the most successful university competitions in Australian history. Among the outstanding performances that resulted in new UniSport records were SUAC’s Alyssa Lowe in the women’s long jump, the women’s 4x100m relay team and Kailyn Johnson in the long jump ambulant.
SUAC had 55 competitors captained by Charlotte McGill and Oscar Pursey at the Championships, which attracted athletes from 40 universities around Australia.
As UniSport Australia CEO Mark Sinderberry said, the standard of competition continues to get stronger from year to year. “This event continues to grow in stature with the support of Athletics Australia and the top-class facility on the Gold Coast. UniSport Nationals has fast become an important event on the athletics calendar; this year was our largest event since 1996, with over 400 student-athletes representing their universities with pride.”
Mr Sinderberry said the standard on the event continues to improve, as evidenced by the number of records broken during the event. “I would like to particularly congratulate the efforts of those student-athletes who broke records in the 100m, 200m, long jump and relay that dated back to the 1960s and ’70s,” he said. “An outstanding achievement.”
“Ten para-athletes also took to the championships in both track and field events. With multiple entries in the women’s 100m multi-class, a separate race was conducted for the first time, with a women’s para combined-university team contesting the 4x100m relay on the third day of competition. I hope every athlete is proud of their performances, had the opportunity to make new connections and most importantly, enjoyed themselves throughout the experience,” he said.
