The Sydney University Athletics Club (SUAC) achieved its best ever results at the weekends NSW Track and Field Championships, winning an incredible 22 medals.
SUAC athletes, many of them SUSF Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holders, finished with 10 gold, nine silver and five bronze medals at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre (SOPAC) on Friday and Saturday.
The haul of 24 medals demolishes SUAC’s previous best haul of 17 (10 of which were bronze) at last year’s Championships.
Gold medal performances and course state Championship wins were achieved by Jarrod Geddes (200m), Ella Nelson (200m), Annie Rubie (400m), Justin Merlino (110m hurdles), James Nipperess (steeplechase), Shelly Jenneke (100m hurdles), Milly Clark (10,000m), Angie Ballard (800m wheelchair), Ian Dewhurst (400m hurdles) and Nicole Fagan (5,000m walk). Fagan also broke the club’s 5,000m walk record.
Annie Rubie (200m), Ella Nelson (100m), Angie Ballard (100m, 200m, 400m wheelchair), Peter Costello (10,000m), Jenny Blundell (1,500m) and Amy Pejkovic (high jump) all picked up silver medals. Pejkovic also equaled her own SUAC record and achieved her second Commonwealth Games B qualifier standard.
SUAC’s Kelly Young (800m), Jin Su Jung (100m), Joe Burgess (men’s steeplechase), Alix Kennedy (discus) and Chrissie Grun (javelin) all picked up bronze medals.
Other top eight performances also came from Josh Tassell (fourth in the 200m and 400m), Jenny Blundell ( fourth in the 800m), Nick Hough (fourth in the 100m), Jo Dawson (fourth in the 400m hurdles) Michael Holani (fifth in the hammer throw), Jo Cubis (fifth in the 800m), Miles Cole-Clark (fifth in the high jump), Ben Liddy (fourth in the 1,500m), Nick Bellemore (sixth in the 10,000m), Andrew Giltrap (seventh in the shot put and eight in the discus) and Matty Mountfort (eight in the shot put).
The outstanding performances over the weekend saw SUAC take out the NSW Summer Premiership in the open men and women’s divisions. The Summer Premiership is decided using a point score taken from NSW Relay Champs, NSW Club Championships and NSW State Championships.
The win in the Summer Premiership means SUAC has won every senior title in NSW in the 2013/14 season.
Over the next two weeks SUAC athletes will compete at the National Masters Championships in Hobart, the Australian Junior Championships in Sydney and the Sydney Track Classic also held in Sydney.
